In the last few years, due to global warming and ozone depletion threats, research and studies have been going on to find new alternative refrigerants which could be used by food and processing industries and industrial refrigeration is undergoing a lot of change. With the phase out of chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) and hydro chlorofluorocarbons (HCFC), other alternatives are explored for refrigeration. In reality, use of ammonia in industrial refrigeration has been on the rise for the past few years. Ammonia refrigeration is an alternative since it fits most of the requirements but handling of ammonia is very crucial otherwise the results could be hazardous. Any ammonia spill and contact either liquid or in vapor form can be life threatening.
Ammonia is an internationally recommended production refrigerant with many advantages. It was seen as a big breakthrough in refrigeration engineering. Most of the industries like cold storages, wineries, freezing plants, ice plants processing plants and dairy plants use ammonia refrigeration system. Higher concentration of ammonia is hazardous for health otherwise it is safe. Ammonia leaks and spills can be easily detected because of its pungent odor. By taking some precautions, ammonia refrigeration systems can be made safer like using seal caps for all valves, welding all the connections.