R22 Replacement Project, North Wales
By the end of 2014, it became illegal to use R22 refrigerant to service refrigeration and air conditioning equipment. Due to this legislation our client, a pharmaceutical manufacturing company decided to take action.
ICE were tasked with surveying the site and coming up with a solution for replacing all the R22 equipment across the site in North wales.
The project started in July 2014 and was completed ontime before the enforcement deadline at the end of 2014.
The R22 Replacement Project, North Wales was split into to parts Comfort Cooling and Process Related Cooling.
Comfort Cooling
The work comprised of the supply, installation and commissioning of two VRF heat recovery air conditioning systems manufactured by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, serving the Top and Middle Floors areas, along with the supply and installation of two DX heat pump air conditioning systems manufactured by Daikin that serve a Ground Floor Production area.
For the Top Floor Office Areas, we replaced 4x R22 VRF systems with a single inverter driven, VRF system operating on the latest R410a. This system consisted of a single, air cooled condensing unit was installed on a mezzanine plant area. This was connected to 11 indoor fan coil cassette units, each connected to a branch controller box to allow simultaneous heating or cooling.
For the Middle Floor Office and Lab Areas, we replaced 3x R22 VRF systems with a single inverter driven, VRF system operating on the lasted R410a. This system consisted of a two part, air cooled condensing unit was installed on a Big Foot type mounting frame. This was connected to 15 indoor fan coil cassette units, each connected to a branch controller box to allow simultaneous heating or cooling.
The two systems were controlled by a full colour, touch screen central controller, which provides energy saving functions in addition to allowing each indoor unit to be controlled, interrogated and scheduled from a single interface point.
We also replaced the R22 DX system serving the Ground Floor Wet Room. We installed 2x air cooled condensing units in the plant area at the side of the building. These were connected to a new two stage cooling coil installed in the existing AHU, along with an expansion valve kit.
Run and fault signals are received via the clients Trends system and control is via two controllers installed in a near by Plant Room.
Process Related Cooling
The work comprised of the supply, installation and commissioning of refrigeration systems to serve an Outdoor Coldroom, replacement of a process chiller and retrofitting of existing refrigeration systems serving a coldstore to an alternative refrigerant.
For the Outdoor Coldroom, the work comprised of the supply, installation and commissioning of two refrigeration systems to maintain the chill store between 2 oC and 8 oC and removal of the existing R22 plant that served as back up.
To serve the chill store we selected two independent, direct expansion refrigeration systems operating on R404A refrigerant, utilising fully housed condensing units and ceiling mounted evaporator coolers.
The two systems run together continuously to maintain the specified room conditions, with the existing refrigeration systems that previously served the room set up to take over in the event of a failure, providing 100% standby.
The condensing units were purpose built with compressors manufactured by Copeland and contain condenser, condenser fans, fan speed control, filter drier, sight glass, pressure switches, liquid receiver and PRV. The condensing units were housed in a grey weather-proof housing, positioned in the external fenced plant area on a concrete base.
The evaporator coolers were of copper tube/aluminium fin construction and manufactured by Searle. Defrosting of the evaporators and drip trays is via electrical defrost heaters installed within the coolers.
Control was via a control panel designed by ICE, housing all circuit breakers, starters, overloads and controllers. The control panel provided various functions to integrate with our clients BMS system.
For the Coldroom Retofit our brief was to find a short term solution to the R22 ban, as our client was undecided about the future of the room. ICE advised to replace the refrigerant and provided a couple of options stating the pro and cons of each option along with performance charts for each refrigerant. Armed with this knowledge our client was in a position to make an informed decision on how to proceed. Both systems were retro fitted to R422D and the system was back up and running with minimal disruption to production.
ICE were also tasked with replacing an existing R22 Process Chiller with new. The replacement matched the same specification as the existing chiller but with improved efficiency and operating on R407C.
