Delivery Case

Equipment Type: Cooling Tower & Evaporative Condenser

Heat Exchange Medium: R717 / Ammonia Refrigerant

Quantity: 3 Units

Project Description

This project was an upgrade and renovation project for a An African countryn production system, delivering cooling towers and evaporative condensers. These units are primarily used for cooling, condensing, and liquefying high-pressure gases from the R717 ammonia process. The project took into account An African country's hot, dry climate, large diurnal temperature range, and locally high humidity. The design, manufacturing, and acceptance strictly adhered to the An African countryn Pressure Vessel Regulations (PER) and SANS 347 national standard, while also considering local environmental requirements and specific specifications for industrial equipment corrosion prevention, water conservation, and Legionella prevention. With its superior heat exchange performance, reliable airtightness, weather resistance, and water-saving and energy-efficient design, the equipment successfully ensured the safe, environmentally friendly, efficient, continuous, and stable operation of the entire ammonia production retrofit system, perfectly achieving the client's core objectives of capacity upgrade and energy consumption optimization.

Situation

An African country is vigorously promoting the development of green hydrogen and green ammonia industries. Relying on abundant renewable energy resources, it is developing ammonia production, fertilizer manufacturing, and other chemical industries. Several existing traditional ammonia production units are gradually entering the upgrade and retrofit cycle, leading to a continuous increase in demand for high-end industrial cooling equipment. R717 ammonia refrigerant, with its high refrigeration efficiency, ozone depletion potential (ODP) of 0, and global warming potential (GWP) of 0, is a prominent green and environmentally friendly material, making it the mainstream heat exchange medium in An African country's chemical and ammonia production sectors.

The partner in this project is a well-known An African countryn chemical company. This project involves a comprehensive upgrade of its existing ammonia production line, aiming to increase production capacity and reduce overall energy consumption. Due to the toxicity and flammability of ammonia, An African country enforces the SANS 347:2012 Pressure Vessel Standard and Pressure Vessel Regulation (PER) for pressure vessels and heat exchange/condensing equipment. These regulations impose extremely stringent requirements on equipment airtightness, pressure resistance, material safety, and third-party certification. All pressure-bearing equipment must pass inspection and acceptance by a local authorized inspection agency (AIA) before being put into operation.

Meanwhile, An African country has a complex climate: the inland plateau region can reach extreme high temperatures of 42°C in summer, and is generally dry with frequent sandstorms throughout the year; the eastern coastal region has high humidity and a large temperature difference between day and night, and long-term high-temperature conditions can easily lead to problems such as reduced heat exchange efficiency, scaling and corrosion, and excessive water consumption of traditional cooling equipment; in addition, local regulations have made explicit environmental requirements for cooling towers and evaporative condensers, such as Legionella prevention and wastewater management. Multiple environmental and regulatory requirements have brought multiple challenges to the equipment matching for this project.

Task

The project required an integrated cooling and condensing system for ammonia production, which needed to meet 5 core requirements including medium safety, high temperature resistance, weather resistance, water saving and environmental compliance:

• Zero leakage safety for hazardous medium: The pressure pipelines, welding structures and sealing parts must withstand high pressure and prevent ammonia leakage, fully complying with An African countryn pressure vessel standards.

• Adaptation to extreme high temperature: Maintain stable heat exchange efficiency under ambient temperature above 40℃ to support full-load continuous production.

• Wind-sand resistance, anti-corrosion and anti-scaling: Resist wind-sand abrasion and humid air corrosion, and reduce pipeline scaling caused by water impurities.

• Water saving and environmental compliance: Achieve excellent water-saving performance amid water shortage in An African country, and comply with local environmental regulations on legionella prevention and wastewater treatment.

• Stable parallel operation: Ensure balanced air volume, water pressure and condensing pressure among 3 parallel units to avoid abnormal operation of the whole production line.

Standardized Action

The cronx heat transfer expert team conducted in-depth research on An African countryn regulations, environmental standards and local climate, and customized a complete solution of 3 sets of cooling towers and evaporative condensers:

• Hazardous medium safety structure compliant with local standards: High-quality seamless steel tubes and fully automatic welding technology are adopted. All pressure components passed 3.2MPa air tightness test and non-destructive testing. All technical documents and nameplates comply with PER and SANS 347 standards and passed AIA inspection. Optimized pipeline layout with balance pipes and liquid-seal bends ensures stable operation of parallel units.

• Enhanced heat exchange for high temperature working condition: Enlarged heat exchange area and optimized spray system improve heat exchange efficiency under high temperature. IP55 explosion-proof motors and high-temperature resistant fan blades equipped with frequency converters adjust air volume dynamically to maintain stable condensing pressure.

• Integrated anti-corrosion and anti-scaling design: The overall hot-dip galvanizing process greatly improves wind-sand and corrosion resistance. High-precision filters and automatic drain valves are equipped to reduce scaling. Sealed tower structure prevents wind and sand from entering the equipment.

• Water-saving and epidemic prevention design for environmental compliance: High-efficiency water collectors control water drift rate within 0.010% to save water significantly. Water quality monitoring and bacteriostatic devices are installed to prevent legionella. Special drainage pipelines ensure wastewater disposal in line with local environmental rules.

• Intelligent joint control system: The integrated control system realizes synchronous start-stop, working condition synchronization and automatic fault alarm for 3 units, reducing operation and maintenance costs.

Key Achievements

Units have been installed, commissioned and officially put into operation at .’s site with all indicators meeting design requirements:

• Full compliance and zero safety accidents: The equipment passed SANS 347, special equipment and environmental acceptance. The ammonia leakage rate keeps 0% since commissioning.

• Excellent performance under high temperature: Stable heat exchange efficiency is maintained even at 42℃ extreme high temperature, supporting stable production capacity.

• Remarkable energy and water saving: The overall energy consumption of the cooling system is reduced by more than 13%, and water consumption is cut by 48%, effectively lowering long-term operating costs.

• Durable and low maintenance: No blockage or corrosion failure occurred during operation. The anti-corrosion service life is increased by 45%.

• Stable parallel operation: Three units run in balanced conditions with sensitive intelligent control system, supporting 24-hour continuous production of ammonia production line.

SMART Metrics

• Delivery: Cooling towers and evaporative condensers fully delivered and put into operation;

• Ammonia leakage rate: 0% (passed SANS 347 & PER air tightness inspection);

• Energy saving rate of cooling system: ＞13%;

• Water saving rate: 48%, water drift rate ≤0.010%;

• Extreme operating temperature: Stable long-term operation at 42℃ ambient temperature;

• Service life improvement of anti-corrosion: 45%;

• Compliance: Passed An African countryn AIA special equipment inspection, environmental and legionella prevention acceptance.

Reusability Takeaways

• Overseas compliance solution for R717 ammonia chemical equipment: The system complying with An African countryn and African pressure vessel standards can be promoted to ammonia chemical, chemical fertilizer and hydrogen energy supporting projects in African countries.

• Technical solution for cooling equipment in high temperature, drought and wind-sand areas: The integrated design of high temperature resistance, water saving, wind-sand resistance and anti-scaling is applicable to industrial refrigeration projects in high temperature and water-scarce areas such as Africa and the Middle East.

• Intelligent joint control technology for multiple parallel units: The pipeline optimization and linkage control scheme is suitable for large-scale chemical, coal chemical and ammonia production projects with multiple parallel equipment.

• Comprehensive solution of water saving and environmental protection for high temperature areas: The water circulation design integrating water saving, anti-scaling and legionella prevention conforms to increasingly strict environmental regulations in Africa, with great promotion value.