Technicians gearing up to work with natural refrigerants R717, R744

Garden City Ammonia Program (GCAP), a privately owned technical school presented a case study in the recently published GUIDE to Natural Refrigerants in North America, State of the Industry 2015 highlighting training courses for ammonia and CO₂ based systems. The courses are specialised for operators, engineers, and process safety managers across the US, and reach over 700 different companies, with a focus on the industrial ammonia refrigeration/boiler operator.

The study showcases how GCAP trains technicians in order to meet the need for regulatory-compliant and safety-conscious technicians, and how, in turn, GCAP-trained technicians benefit each of their companies by providing environmentally friendly products to the consumer in the most efficient way possible. By properly training engineers, technicians and operators in specific areas, the industrial and commercial refrigeration industries can employ systems that are safe, efficient and environmentally secure for a stable future.

Course Information

Ammonia Courses

GCAP’s offering of Ammonia Operator courses follow the guidelines set forth by the Ammonia Refrigeration Task Force Guidelines (ARTG). The seven courses available focus on specific topics, including industrial refrigeration, natural refrigeration (ammonia and CO₂), high-pressure boilers and stationary engineering.

• Operator I Course demonstrates an overview of everything an operator/technician needs to know to the see the refrigeration world both inside and out.

• Operator II Course teaches troubleshooting industrial refrigeration systems, introducing operators to engineering diagrams as well as defrost systems, and cascade refrigeration focused on NH₃/CO₂ pumped and compression systems.

• Operator III Course focuses on the requirements an industrial facility must meet to maintain a safe facility, and on the design, safety, maintenance and installation of a closed-circuit ammonia refrigeration system.

• PSM/RMP Course emphasises PSM/RMP regulations and aims to create a unified program to satisfy government regulations from OSHA, EPA, and DHS.

CO₂ Course

• CO₂ Technician Course aims to prepare technicians for CO₂ transcritical systems as well as NH₃/CO₂ pumped cascade systems and NH₃/CO₂ compression cascade systems.

Boiler Courses

• Boiler Tech 1 Course enables technicians to gain a knowledge and understanding of boilers including steam cycle, fuel/energy source, utility boilers, industrial boilers, co-generation, design/application and heat transfer amongst several other operations.

• Boiler Tech 2 Course focuses on the combustion cycle. The seminar demonstrates how to monitor and test combustion for the reduction of emissions NOx, O₂ trimming from a computer monitoring-system or hand held-device, carbon dioxide formation and release, carbon monoxide generation, thermal heat transfer, and flame temperature.