Air-cooled Condensers in NH3 Refrigerating Plants as as alternative to evaporative Condensers
by Dr.-Ing. Josef Riha and Dipl.-Ing. Heinz Jackmann
Güntner AG & Co. KG
Abstract
Ammonia plants are designed very often only with evaporative condensers; the designers of these plants frequently forget that the option of using air-cooled condensers exists. The reason for this is mostly that the designers only concentrate on the design point of the plant, on compressor energy consumption and on the operating costs in this point. Their thinking, however, is slowly starting to change and in the last years there was an increased use of air-cooled condensers in NH3 refrigerating plants.
Air-cooled condensers require less maintenance, no water for cooling or chemicals for water treatment are needed. We tried to find answers to the following questions:
- Are state-of-the-art air-cooled condensers the better option compared to evaporative condensers?
- Which influence do increasing water, wastewater and energy prices have on the operating costs of different systems?
- Which influence does the location of the plant (ambient temperature distribution during the whole year) have on the operating costs?
We have analysed these relationships and will give you an overview of the results we obtained. The conclusion is that air-cooled condensers are a real economical alternative to evaporative condensers.
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