Implementation of a Floating Head Pressure Condensation Control to Reduce Electrical Energy Consumption in an Industrial Refrigeration System

Abstract

The growing global demand for energy and the costly taxes on electric energy demonstrate the importance of seeking new techniques to improve energy efficiency in industrial facilities. Refrigeration units demand a large amount of electricity due to the high power needs of the components of the system. One strategy to reduce the electric energy consumption in these facilities is pressure condensation control. The objective here was to develop a logical control model where the physical quantities in the thermodynamic process can be monitored and used to determine the optimum point of the condensation pressure and the mass flow rate of the air in the evaporative condenser. The algorithm developed was validated through experiments and was posteriorly implemented in an ammonia industrial system of refrigeration over a period of sixteen months (480 days). The results showed that the operation of the evaporative condenser with a controlled air mass flow rate by logical modeling achieved a reduction of 7.5% in the consumption of electric energy, leading to a significant reduction in the operational cost of the refrigeration plant.