Ammonia will defend its market-leading position in Europe

According to shecco’s latest market survey among key industrial stakeholders, ammonia will maintain its market-leading position in the next 7 years, but solutions that combine CO₂ and NH₃ will become increasingly competitive. The strong market position of ammonia refrigeration technologies was demonstrated during the ATMOSphere Europe case studies dedicated to NH₃, which included an energy efficient CO₂/NH₃ plant for bakery products, one of the world’s largest natural heat pumps for district heating and ammonia plate freezers for fishing vessels.

Ammonia leading the market in industrial refrigeration

“Ammonia historically has been very strong in industrial refrigeration,” noted Eric Delforge from Mayekawa, who estimated that ammonia based systems account for about 95% market share of the sector in Europe.

The trend for the next years is definitely that ammonia is going to grow. So will R744 and hydrocarbons and it is to be expected that the synthetic refrigerants will diminish in years to come. It is very important because industrial refrigeration holds installations with very large refrigerant fill. So for the environment this will be very important change as we are not talking about kilos or grams but about tons,” highlighted Delforge.

Delforge believes that new industrial refrigeration plants in Europe will continue to have a high share of ammonia but will also increasingly focus on the use of CO₂.

NH₃ / CO₂ cascade installation for a bakery

As an example of this trend, a field study of a cascade system installation using NH₃ and CO₂ in a bakery plant was presented by Robert Sossi from Mayekawa. To deliver the necessary direct freezing capacity at -35°C, a decision was made to use CO₂/NH₃ cascade system, where the CO₂ cycle was used for direct cooling on the freezers applied in the system with limited NH₃ quantity as it was only used for the high temperature side. Combined, the cascade system has a total COP of 1.68. Sossi’s analysis showed that the condensing temperature of the system could be further reduced to 25.9°C, which would save 180kW energy on the high stage side, resulting in a coefficient of performance (COP) of 1.88, an increase of 12%. When calculated for one year of operation time, 870,000 kWh of energy could be saved per year. At 70 cents per kW, this would result in savings of more than €600,000 per year.

Ammonia heat pumps delivering district heating

An example of using river potential and ammonia based heat pump technology to meet the heating needs of Glasgow University was presented by Andy Pearson from Star Refrigeration. The Drammen Heat Pump at Glasgow University, one of the world’s largest natural heat pumps for district heating, was designed and manufactured by Star Refrigeration. It delivers 14MW of heat at over 90°C and saves 15% in terms of energy consumption. The system components are specifically designed for NH₃ and pressures up to 65bar.

There is strong evidence that heat pumps work, that they are low carbon, that they are economical, that the river provides a good source of heat and that the University heat demand is significant. But the key thing here is that ammonia is the key to the economics, we would not get this COP of 4 if we were using HFCs,” concluded Pearson.

In addition, Delforge from Mayekawa highlighted that ammonia is the refrigerant of choice for industrial heat pump sector. He explained that by using condensed waste heat or by having a stable thermal heat source, it has never been a problem to produce hot water up to 90°C while using ammonia as a refrigerant.

Ammonia providing maritime refrigeration

Ammonia is a trusted solution used in maritime refrigeration, emphasised Mads Sigsgaard from DSI, a Danish company specialised in the niche market of plate refrigeration, offering vertical and horizontal plate freezers for fishing vessels using CO₂ and ammonia. In 2002 DSI introduced a new NH₃/CO₂ cascade concept for large fishing vessels and, as Sigsgaard highlighted, today 80% of maritime plate freezers produced by DSI use ammonia and CO₂.