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REFRIGERATION & AC

Construction and Working of Ship’s

Refrigeration plant

 Credits: depositphotos.com

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.

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 temperature measurement

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.

Credits: depositphotos.com

Main Components of Refrigeration plants

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

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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.

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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.

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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.
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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.

You might also like to read – Guidelines on Quality of Refrigerant Used on Ships

References: Marine Aux Machinery by H.D.McGeorge

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Anish @Anish_MI
An ardent sailor and a techie, Anish Wankhede has voyaged on a number of ships as a marine engineer officer. He loves multitasking, networking, and
troubleshooting. He is the one behind the unique creativity and aesthetics at Marine Insight.

VIEW COMMENTS

anoop
February 15, 2012 at 9:40 pm

what are the reasons that will produce high discharge pressure of a refrigeration compressor which will lead to HP cut out.?

Anish
July 9, 2016 at 2:28 pm

@ Anoop: HP Cutout:
Occurs due to condenser coolant failure, low coolant pressure and malfunction of consider cooler valve operation.
Also can cause dirty or chocked condenser tubes.
The refrigerant can not liquefy rapidly .The discharge pressure will abnormally raise and high pressure cut out will take in action.

salvador
May 20, 2012 at 2:00 am

because 
if the compressors stops. 
the cycle also stops?? please
 answer...i' really bothered
  
 Anish
May 20, 2012 at 2:07 pm

Yes! if the compressor stops, the cycle will also stop. first the reason for stopping of the compressor has to be rectified before starting up again.

Sunny
May 22, 2012 at 1:27 am

What are pre-checks before starting Refrigeration System?

padmanaathan
September 25, 2013 at 10:59 am

can u please explain the difference between function of solenoid valve & thermostatic expansion valve, both sounds like having the same function ?

tatta seshu raghavacharyulu

July 7, 2014 at 3:26 pm

Greetings Mr.Anish and Mohit team in marine insight,

Your job is really good and appreciated.
When I look into the HVAC side, as I am looking more practical issue on board ship with Infrared thermography and Airborne ultra sound tools, one
important topic for practical applications is to be mentioned. about Degree of super heat and Sub cooling. how to measure and what will be the
problems if not maintained correctly. How the compressor break downs occurs etc.,
Kind regards
Chary

Amit bhange
March 19, 2015 at 7:28 pm

How thermostatic expansion valve fitted on refrigeration system

Anish
March 27, 2015 at 8:01 pm

@ Amit: I am assuming you want to know the selection procedure of the expansion valve. It will depend on the sepcifications of the refrigeration
plant. Following points to be considered-
- Pressure drop accross the valves
- Liquid temperature of the refrigerant entering the valve
- System capacity requirements
etc....

Russell
April 20, 2015 at 8:05 am

"The hot compressed liquid is passed to a receiver through a condenser to cool it down."
Hot compressed gas I believe?
The BASICS I seem to recall from school are:
-Compressor compresses the gas - high pressure / high temperature gas
-Condenser cools the high press/high temp gas to high press/cool temp liquid
-Expansion v/v converts high pressure/cool temperature liquid to low pressure/low temperature liquid
-Evaporator then delivers heat to the low temp/low pressure liquid, thus evaporating it to a low pressure/ (~intermediate/higher) temperature gas
Then the compressor compresses the gas again to continue the cycle.
We don't want liquid trying to be compressed.

Narender Fanda
August 12, 2016 at 7:31 pm

Sir I have already completed diploma in refrigeration and air conditions in govt college and my near have one years experience in merchant navy on
board ship sir I wana working on ship refrigeration plant if have any vacancy plz call me my name is Narender my contact number +919983288836
plz call me sir I wana working ship refrigeration

Andrew J Simmons
October 13, 2016 at 12:57 pm

this is good n all but do you know what temperatures these would run at? both outside and inside the evaporator.

Farnam
May 3, 2018 at 3:44 am

Hi.i want to know the procedure for change over the refrigeration system to use stand by refrigeration system.tanks
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 Rajesh.m
July 18, 2018 at 6:00 pm

Effect of dirty air compressor and high ambient temperature in refrigeration system

Amith Mahadevaiah
September 6, 2018 at 10:22 am

TEV cotrols and regulate the flow of refrigerant, so then why solenoid valve is required?

Rajesh
December 23, 2018 at 4:28 pm

My name is rajesh i am also working in aship based compnyas per the post of HVAc teachnician today i am going to one vessel there Hp is 22 bar,
there water coolent pressure ok inlet outlet flow also ok drier core also new compressor valvplate also new any other prblm for there happen?

Abhigyan Wardhan
January 31, 2019 at 9:25 am

How the evaporators drain works? The whole line , its fittings and diagram please

Gopal. N. Gadekar
February 22, 2019 at 12:46 am

How baffle type oil separator of refrigeration cycle works?

Anish
February 22, 2019 at 10:56 am

@Gopal: The oil and gas mixture slows down rapidly on the surface of the baffles. Very fine oil particles collide with one another and form
heavier particles. Finally, fine mesh screens separate the oil and refrigerant even farther, causing larger oil droplets to form and drop to the
bottom of the separator. We have a separate video course which shows the working of different refrigeration parts including baffle plates. -
https://learn.marineinsight.com/course/refrigeration-course/

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PUBLISHED BY

Anish @Anish_MI

2 YEARS AGO

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