Construction and Working of Ship’s Refrigeration plant

The refrigeration plants on merchant vessels play a vital part in carrying refrigerated cargo and
provisions for the crew on board. In reefer ships, the temperature of the perishable or
temperature sensitive cargo such as food, chemical, or liquefied gas, is controlled by the
refrigeration plant of the ship. The same plant or a smaller unit can be used for maintaining the
temperature of different provision rooms carrying food stuffs for crew members.

The main purpose of ship’s refrigeration plant is to avoid any damage to the cargo or perishable
material so that it is transported in good and healthy condition. Refrigeration prevents growth of
micro-organisms, oxidation, fermentation and drying out of cargo etc.

Main Components of Refrigeration plants

Any refrigeration unit works with different components inline to each other in series. The main
components are:

1. Compressor: Reciprocating single or two stage compressor is commonly used for

compressing and supplying the refrigerant to the system.

2. Condenser: Shell and tube type condenser is used to cool down the refrigerant in the system.

3. Receiver: The cooled refrigerant is supplied to the receiver, which is also used to drain out the
refrigerant from the system for maintenance purpose.

4. Drier: The drier connected in the system consists of silica gel to remove any moisture from
the refrigerant

5. Solenoids: Different solenoid valves are used to control the flow of refrigerant into the hold or
room. Master solenoid is provided in the main line and other solenoid is present in all individual
cargo hold or rooms.

6. Expansion valve: An Expansion valve regulates the refrigerants to maintain the correct hold
or room temperature.

7. Evaporator unit: The evaporator unit act as a heat exchanger to cool down the hold or room
area by transferring heat to the refrigerant.

8. Control unit: The control unit consist of different safety and operating circuits for safe
operation of the refer plant.

Working of Ship’s Refrigeration Plant

The compressor acting as a circulation pump for refrigerant has two safety cut-outs- Low
pressure (LP) and High Pressure (HP) cut outs. When the pressure on the suction side drops
below the set valve, the control unit stops the compressor and when the pressure on the discharge
side shoots up, the compressor trips.

LP or low pressure cut out is controlled automatically i.e. when the suction pressure drops, the
compressor stops and when the suction pressure rises again, the control system starts the
compressor. HP or high pressure cut out is provided with manual re-set.

The hot compressed liquid is passed to a receiver through a condenser to cool it down. The
receiver can be used to collect the refrigerant when any major repair work has to be performed.

The master solenoid is fitted after the receiver, which is controlled by the control unit. In case of
sudden stoppage of compressor, the master solenoid also closes, avoiding the flooding of
evaporator with refrigerant liquid.

The room or hold solenoid and thermostatic valve regulate the flow of the refrigerant in to the
room to maintain the temperature of the room. For this, the expansion valve is controlled by a
diaphragm movement due to the pressure variation which is operated by the bulb sensor filled
with expandable fluid fitted at the evaporator outlet.

The thermostatic expansion valve supplies the correct amount of refrigerants to evaporators
where the refrigerants takes up the heat from the room and boils off into vapours resulting in
temperature drop for that room.

This is how temperature is maintained in the refrigeration plant of the ship.

The refrigerant starts as a gas and is compressed in the compressor, which

increases its temperature dramatically. Thereafter, the condenser cools the hot high
pressure refrigerant and this way the refrigerant turns into a liquid. Next, the
evaporator boils the refrigerant back to a gas, at a very low temperature.
Key Properties of Refrigerant Gases

 Physical Properties These gases have unique physical properties that allow them to
absorb and release heat efficiently. ...
 Chemical Properties : Chemical properties of these gases, like stability and reactivity, are
crucial too. ...
 Thermal Properties Thermal properties, including specific heat and heat of vaporization,
determine how much heat a refrigerant can absorb and release. ...

 Physical Properties:

 Boiling Point: The temperature at which a refrigerant changes from a liquid to a vapor
during the cooling cycle.
 Freezing Point: The temperature at which a refrigerant solidifies.
  Critical Point: The temperature and pressure at which a refrigerant transitions between
liquid and vapor phases without distinction.

 Chemical Properties:

 Stability: Ensures safe operation without decomposition or harmful reactions.

 Reactivity: Determines compatibility with system materials and other substances.
 Thermal Properties:
o Specific Heat: The amount of heat a refrigerant can absorb or release per unit
mass.
o Heat of Vaporization: The energy required to change a refrigerant from liquid to
vapor.

Remember that different refrigerants have varying properties, impacting their suitability

Refrigerant Used on Ship: Quality,

Properties & Guidelines
Leave a Comment / Auxiliaries, Marine, Ship Operation / By Amit Abhishek

Last Updated on September 28, 2022 by Amit Abhishek

Refrigerants like R11, R410A, R1234ze, R717 are used in various refrigeration system on board ship for
chilling, freezing, air conditioning, provisional cooling and to maintain temperature inside a
hold.

According to IMO 2014 report more than 90% of all merchant fleet use HCFC/HFC as their
primary refrigerant. About 1-2% still use CFC like R11 or R12 and the rest use neutral refrigerant
like CO2, Ammonia and propane.

Some of the major quality concerns regarding the refrigerant remains; moisture, stability of
refrigerant, its critical temperature, toxicity, damage to environment, cost and ease of use.

Refrigerant Used on Ship: Quality, Properties & Guidelines

[hide]

 Desirable Properties of Refrigerant

 Refrigerants Used on Ship
o Refrigerant For Provision Cooling
o Refrigerant For Air Conditioning
o For Refrigeration in Fishing Vessels
 Montreal Protocol & Phasing Out of CFC & HCFC.
o Need For Shift To More Clean Refrigerants
 Reasons for refrigerant leak on ships
  Quality Issue: Moisture & Oil Content

Desirable Properties of Refrigerant

 The refrigerant should have a low boiling point so they can easily evaporate in the
evaporator coil.
 It should be Non Corrosive.
 The refrigerant should have a low condensing pressure. So the effort put on compressor
should be low and simpler design less possible leaks can be used.
 It should not be toxic.
 The latent heat of refrigerant should be high minimizing quantity of refrigerant needed in
the system.
 Should be stable i.e non flammable and non explosive.
 Should have high critical temperature.
 Easy leak detection possible.
 The refrigerant must be compatible with crank case oil, metal, seals and gaskets i.e does
not react with metal or become inoperable with a small mix of oil or damage components.
 Should be environment friendly.
 Having low specific volume ( refrigerant vapor ) helps keep the system compact and easy
to operate.
 Should be cheap, easily available and safe for long term storage.

Refrigerants Used on Ship

According to MARPOL, Annex VI Regulation 12 – the use of ozone depletion substances
(ODS). The installation of CFC or Halon was prohibited on ship, new installation of HCFC is
also prohibited after January 1 2020.

So no more Chloro Fluoro carbons (CFCs) such as R11 & R12 on ship these days. Even you will
not see R22 in many ships as their use needs to be drastically reduced and then phased out.

To be honest they were much cheaper than their alternative used today and show great
performance. But since they damage our environment they were slowly phased out.

According to IMO report for total use of HCFC/HFC in merchant ships 2014, a large amount of
ship 70% use R22 ( HCFC ), 26% use R134a ( HFC ) and just 4% use R404A ( HFC ) at the time.

Today newer ships do not come with HCFC’s and there is a greater push for faster phase out of
R22 in recent time. Many Parts of the world now only allows for the use of HFC
refrigrant like R134a, R407C, R404A, R507.
Refrigerant For Provision Cooling

The refrigerants used for provision cooling on a cargo ship use primarily 3 refrigerant; R404A
( 62% ), R407C ( 33% ), R422A ( 5% ); based on report on “Refrigeration Units in Marine
Vessels” by Nordic Council of Ministers.

While tankers only use R404A as their primary refrigerant passenger ship use a variety of
refrigerant like R134a ( 3% ), R404A (78% ), R407C (17% ), R422A ( 1% ), R507A (1% ).

The share of R22 during 2007–2012 was almost 70% that has gone down to as much as 8% in
2016-2018 and nearly 0% for newer ships by 2021.

Further the amount of charged refrigerant has decreased on average per ship i.e from 121 kg on
average per passenger ship between 2007-2012 to 113 kg on average in 2013-2016.

For cargo ship it fall from 204 kg per ship to 30 kg per ship between 2007 to 2016. Similarly the
average charged refrigerant had fall from 18 kg on tankers to 7 kg in the time.

Image Credit: Nordic Council of Ministers ( [Link] )

Refrigerant For Air Conditioning

Based on UNEP Report 2016 about 70% of all fishing vessels still use R22. Further on large
merchant ships R407C and R404A is used primarily for air conditioning.

Further, the use of R134a and R407C has increase from 16% and 36% respectively to 45%
( R134a ) and 47% ( R407C ) between 2007-2016 for non-tanker merchant vessels.
Extra heat absorbed by freon
Superheat in refrigeration refers to the extra heat absorbed by freon, a type of refrigerant
gas, beyond its boiling point12. It is a temperature value measured of vapour (steam or
refrigerant) above boiling point3. Superheat plays a significant role in the refrigeration cycle by
indicating the amount of heat absorbed by the refrigerant in the evaporator coil2. In a chiller,
superheat is used to measure the amount of heat energy in the refrigerant gas4. Superheating is
the process of allowing vapour refrigerant to stay for some more time in evaporator, so that, it
absorbs more heat and come out of evaporator in superheated form5.