What to Know About Ammonia Compressors

In places like cold food storage, dairy processing, beverage production, ice rinks, and heavy industries, industrial refrigeration applications are frequently used. These entail the use of substantial cooling systems. These systems also frequently use ammonia as their main coolant. Ammonia is a gas that is present in nature and occurs spontaneously. It needs to be cooled and compressed before it can be used. An ammonia compressor is used to do this.

Ammonia compressors are used in a variety of cooling systems; therefore, they need to have unique features to meet each situation and operate as efficiently as possible. Here are some of the ammonia compressor types that are covered:

Vertical single acting enclosed compressor:

Such a compressor has a lot in common with an automobile engine’s cylinder block. The movement of the piston is made possible by the fluid motion, in this example the ammonia. In addition, the opposing downward movement of the piston, which develops the oscillating motion of the piston, is made possible by the springs, gravity, and load. But many details need to be taken into account because an ammonia compressor is so complicated. The following gas’s pulsation or ambient vibration must be considered. The effectiveness of this kind of ammonia compressor is greatly influenced by the type of piston that is utilised and, subsequently, by its windage coefficient.

Reciprocal Ammonia Compressors:

These ammonia compressors use rotors to enable the flow of ammonia gas through their channels, as opposed to the first one’s piston’s oscillatory action. These compressors can be classified as either one- or two-rotor compressors. When ammonia gas is pushed through a network of grooves in a single rotor compressor, compression and a cooling effect are created. In the second type, the identical task is carried out by two rotors. Such a configuration yields a significant reduction in pulsation or the ambient vibrations that cause unwelcome stress on the refrigeration system.

Portable Ammonia Compressors:

These compressors can be considered the most modern because they make use of microchips and other sensors to measure and regulate the flow of ammonia through them, which in turn regulates the cooling effect as a whole. Naturally, they are suitable for both household and small-scale industrial use with such a control. In terms of structure, these compressors are a hybrid of the first two, with sensors added on top of the presence of cylinder blocks and rotors, which are used for the majority of control.

As was already noted, ammonia gas is a plentiful natural resource. Due to its characteristics, it makes for the ideal coolant in modern cooling systems. However, ammonia’s toxicity and flammability at certain doses are by far its worst drawbacks. Thus, a leak-detecting mechanism is present in both ancient and modern ammonia compressors. For this, the earlier manufacturers used horns, whistles, and even litmus paper. The same result is achieved by more recent ammonia compressors using leak-detecting tools.