Ammonia, the main refrigerant in large industrial processes

Ammonia has excellent thermodynamic properties that make it special to be used in large installations, this mainly due to its greater calorific value; other refrigerants due to their low heat demand large loads or kilos or pounds of it, making the systems large, expensive and that wear more energy. For this reason and others, many industries, such as beverages, have migrated to the use of ammonia as a refrigerant; mainly in systems that used CFCs such as R-12 and R-502.

And it is that the lower cost of ammonia, compared to others, makes it the most demandable. "Ammonia can be used without any inconvenience in flooded and recirculated systems, since it is lighter than oil, which goes to the bottom of all containers and needs to be purged," explains Fernando Becerra, sales manager of Danfoss.

Large industries throughout Latin America have joined the development and advancement of industrial refrigeration with the use of ammonia as a refrigerant; the main driver towards the implementation of applications with this gas is the Chilean market; there systems with ammonia are used in the large export industries of fruits -with controlled atmosphere- and fish.

In second place are Brazil and Mexico. In Peru and Ecuador the fishing industry is in the lead and in Colombia the beverage, beer and dairy industry carry the flag in the use of ammonia as a refrigerant.