There
are a number of Institutional
and similar application
cum cluster oriented
refrigeration and air-conditioning
applications in India.
These have been reasonably
well identified during
the formulation of National
CFC Consumption Phase-out
Plan (NCCoPP). The refrigeration
systems used in these
applications especially
pre 2003 are based on
CFC-12. Most of these
units use Open Type Compressors
(OTC). It is well experienced
that in such units the
leakage rate of refrigerant
is quite large. It is
basically due to the
nature of equipment design.
There are a number of
practical applications
of OTC based systems
i.e. ice candy plants,
cold storages, cold rooms,
menthol plants, railway
air-conditioning systems,
etc. The poor servicing
procedures used by the
service technicians like
topping-up of refrigerant
in leaking systems, venting
out the refrigerant,
using system compressor
or single stage vacuum
pump for evacuation,
flushing of system with
refrigerant and purging
of charging lines and
other connecting lines
results in the release
of a significant amount
of CFCs directly into
the environment.
A
significant amount
of CFC emissions could
be arrested by adopting
good practices during
operation, servicing
and decommissioning of
refrigeration and air-conditioning
plants. Good service
practices include preventive
maintenance, recovery
of refrigerant, flushing
and leak testing with
dry nitrogen, evacuation
and charging of refrigerant
in the system. It is
easy to follow such good
service practices.
Retrofitting of these
plants with either
low Ozone Depleting
Products (ODP) or zero
ODP solutions is also
an option, which will
reduce the recurring
demand of CFCs for
servicing of such units.Therefore, a training
on good service practices
and retrofitting of OTC
based CFC-12 refrigeration
systems would help in
reducing the CFC consumption
in this sub-sector.
Past
Events
Workshop on Good Service Practices
and Retrofitting of OTC Based Refrigeration
Systems
To
achieve the objectives, a two-fold
approach was followed. First, an
ice candy plant working on CFC-12
was retrofitted with HCFC-22. Only
a few system components were changed
during the conversion. The retrofitted
unit’s performance reported
was excellent. The unit is providing
20% more cooling than the system
operating on CFC-12. This has encouraged
the owner of the ice candy plant
as his production of ice candies
increased by 20% or so, which has
quite a significant impact especially
during the summer season. The other
system parameters were also similar
to CFC-12 unit.
| Participants
in a theory session |
A view
of Ice candy plant |
Replacement
of components while
retrofitting with
HCFC-22 |
 |
 |
 |
| A
view of retrofitted
Ice candy plant with
HCFC-22 |
Participants
learning the retrofitting
process |
Participants
at the ice candy
plant site |
 |
 |
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