Industrial chillers for the supply of chilled water, cold glycol or brine, are frequently used over a long time, and become even more attractive for several applications, to replace direct refrigeration systems. Greenhouse gas footprint and lifecycle costs of ownership of industrial chillers can be significantly reduced by using ammonia as refrigerant, instead of the traditionally used HFCs. Ammonia does not contribute to ozone depletion nor global warming, and ammonia chillers are generally more energy efficient than equivalent HFC chillers. Packaged chillers, using ammonia as refrigerant, are available from several suppliers. On the basis of supplier information, comparisons have been made between a typical packaged ammonia chiller and an equivalent HFC chiller. These comparisons include: functionality: performance; energy efficiency; global warming impact; economy; installation and housing requirements; safety requirements; required competence of operators and service personnel. From the comparative study can be concluded that the design COP of this typical ammonia chiller increases with 13 %; equipment costs increase with 34 %; annual energy consumption reduces with 11.8 %; simple pay-back of extra equipment costs is within 3.2 years; TEWI reduces with 13.3 %; Cumulative life cycle costs of ownership over 20 years reduce with ? 313,953 or 7.9 %. The study confirms that packaged ammonia chillers are an attractive and feasible alternative for conventional HFC chillers, particularly in industrial applications. As the chiller community is unfamiliar with ammonia as refrigerant, more standardisation in equipment and housing, simplified operation, maintenance and safety management, and lower equipment costs, may further help in accelerating the wider use of the natural refrigerant ammonia in this new application area.
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