Choosing the best natural refrigerant for your application
New eurammon guide: Choosing the Best Natural Refrigerant for Your Application
eurammon has published a new guide for the refrigeration, air-conditioning and heat pump (RACHP) sector on selecting the right natural refrigerant for each application. Choosing the Best Natural Refrigerant for Your Application is a quick reference for system builders, consultants, operators and end users. It was developed by the eurammon Steering Committee with experts from member companies.
Natural refrigerants cover the entire RACHP spectrum. The guide shows that ammonia (R717), carbon dioxide (R744), hydrocarbons, water (R718), air (R729) and helium (R704) together span a temperature range of about -130 °C to +200 °C without gaps. They also cover system capacities from below 1 kW for plug-in units to more than 20 MW for industrial plants. Across much of this range, several natural refrigerants are technically feasible. The final choice then depends on the site: efficiency, safety class, charge limits, plant room constraints, and component availability and cost.
Step by step to a refrigerant shortlist. At the core of the guide is a four-step sequence that narrows all natural refrigerants down to a shortlist of candidates for detailed system design:
Determine the temperature requirements: process, supply and return temperatures, and the temperature lift.
Evaluate the cooling and heating capacity: peak load, part load and future expansion.
Consider the system design: direct or indirect cooling, cascade, heat recovery and safety.
Assess the local context: site constraints, availability of components, service competence and lifecycle cost.
The guide then gives detailed decision trees for cold rooms, for process cooling with secondary fluids and for heat pumps up to process steam at 160 °C. Each option is linked to its safety class, the established technology and, where available, a eurammon case study.