Proscription friendly refrigeration?

Undercover Fat Kid wrote:I tried to look for it, but I didn’t see it already addressed anywhere, but what would stop the introduction of an ammonia cycle refrigerator? Ammonia refrigeration was the original, and it’s still in use today because it is cost and energy efficient.

Loren Pechtel wrote:

Undercover Fat Kid wrote:I tried to look for it, but I didn’t see it already addressed anywhere, but what would stop the introduction of an ammonia cycle refrigerator? Ammonia refrigeration was the original, and it’s still in use today because it is cost and energy efficient.

It's not energy efficient. It's just when your power source is heat the inefficiency of the ammonia cycle is less than the inefficiency of converting that heat to electricity.

I do agree it can be done within the proscriptions.

jlrice54 wrote:

Undercover Fat Kid wrote:I tried to look for it, but I didn’t see it already addressed anywhere, but what would stop the introduction of an ammonia cycle refrigerator? Ammonia refrigeration was the original, and it’s still in use today because it is cost and energy efficient.

Loren Pechtel wrote:It's not energy efficient. It's just when your power source is heat the inefficiency of the ammonia cycle is less than the inefficiency of converting that heat to electricity.

I do agree it can be done within the proscriptions.

Ammonia is still the refrigerant of choice in massive industrial plants like food processing, chemical factories, etc. It's cheap, plentiful and is not a threat to the ozone and while it's a greenhouse gas, it has a very short half life in the atmosphere. Of course those places don't use the absorption cycle opting instead for massive screw and turbine compressors. I worked for 30 years around ammonia refrigeration plants. You haven't lived until a large liquid ammonia line bursts where you are working. Dodging a flood of liquid ammonia across the floor while trying to get the emergency oxygen mask rig on is a trip.

In 1880 Davidson convinced the company to invest in refrigeration. Teaming up with James Galbraith of the Albion shipping company, they approached John Bell and Sons and Joseph James Coleman, who had been involved in American chilled beef shipments. As a result of negotiations, Albion agreed to refit the Dunedin with a Bell-Coleman compression refrigeration machine, cooling the entire hold. Using 3 tons of coal a day, this steam-powered machine could chill the hold to 40 °F (4 °C) below surrounding air temperature, freezing the cargo in the temperate climate of southern New Zealand, and then maintaining it beneath zero through the tropics. The Dunedin was refitted in May 1881, the most visible sign being a funnel for the refrigeration plant between her fore and main masts – sometimes leading her to be mistaken for a steamship. The refitted Dunedin arrived in Dunedin's Port Chalmers at the end of November 1881.

jlrice54 wrote:You haven't lived until a large liquid ammonia line bursts where you are working. Dodging a flood of liquid ammonia across the floor while trying to get the emergency oxygen mask rig on is a trip.

Undercover Fat Kid wrote:I tried to look for it, but I didn’t see it already addressed anywhere, but what would stop the introduction of an ammonia cycle refrigerator? Ammonia refrigeration was the original, and it’s still in use today because it is cost and energy efficient.