Professional Documents
Culture Documents
10 Tips To Refrigerant Piping PDF
10 Tips To Refrigerant Piping PDF
By Daniel R. Kuespert, Ph.D., Member ASHRAE Temperature cycling makes hot gas defrost lines and liquid
transfer headers particularly susceptible to corrosion.1,2 Many
1. Paint and prime all pipe. 2. Consider life-cycle costs at the design stage.
Refrigeration pipe is usually insulated and inaccessible. A Too often, designers use rules-of-thumb such as limit pres-
good coating system prevents pipe loss due to corrosion. sure drop to 0.5 psi per 100 ft (3.5 kPa per 30 m) in refrigerant
I once encountered an auxiliary refrigeration machinery room piping, concentrating on lowest installed cost. In tough eco-
in a meat processing plant with severe corrosion on all ex- nomic times, low capital cost is the easier sell to the customer,
posed piping. The pressure vessels in the room were insulated but in the end, higher operating costs often swamp first cost.
with an open-cell material that was notorious for retaining Considering lifetime economic costs provides a more rational
moisture and contributing to under-insulation corrosion. There- basis for design.3,4
fore, I was concerned about the vessels integrity.
Later that year, the room was rehabilitated and repiped, and 3. Plan for expansion.
the vessels were removed for replacement. When the insula- In many industries, engineers are working on plant expan-
tion was stripped from the old vessels, they were completely sions even before the initial design is fully commissioned. In
corrosion-free, a condition likely due to the coating applied industrial refrigeration, public cold storage facilities, in par-
to the vessel surface before insulating. If the engineer had About the Author
specified coating on all of the exposed piping, the entire Daniel R. Kuespert, Ph.D., is a chemical engineer with Snowy Owl LLC,
($100,000 +) rehab project could have been avoided. a consulting firm in Columbia, Md., focusing on refrigeration safety.
L. Aleksandrich
also requires special coverings to meet food- been known to forget building systems
safety standards such as the U.S. Hazard when designing roof loads.
Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP)
regulation. References
1. Dunn, P. and R. Norsworthy. Control
Finally, each manufacturer has detailed of corrosion under insulation. ASHRAE Journal
recommendations on design and installa- 45(3):3239.
tion of its products. These differ greatly from 2. Posteraro, K. 1999. Combating corro-
product to product and even from applica- sion under insulation. Chemical Engineering
tion to application. Progress 10:43.
Metal loss shown in yellow box. 3. Richards, W.V. 1983. Refrigerant va-
por line sizing not dependent on length. Proceedings of Commission
10. Support all piping. B2, 16th International Congress of Refrigeration. International Insti-
Use proper supports for refrigerant piping. L-bracket or U- tute of Refrigeration/Institut Internationale du Froid, pp. 240244.
channel stands and hangers are typical. Do not use welded 4. International Institute of Ammonia Refrigeration.. Ammonia Re-
lengths of all-thread rod (or packing twine, as I observed at frigeration Piping Handbook. Chapter 1.