En jämförande studie om köldmedieläckage ombord på fartyg och landbaserade anläggningar

Abstract

A refrigerant is the fluid which circulates inside a refrigerant facility and it is essential for the function and efficiency of the refrigerant plant. When a leakage of the refrigerant for some reason occurs in the atmosphere, this contributes to negative effects on the environment and leads to expensive costs due to the fact that new refrigerant has to be refilled in the plant. Previous studies and the results of this thesis indicate that the refrigerant leakage is larger on board ships than in land-based refrigeration plants. The causes for this, the difference in leakage between ships and land-based plants and also how the leakage can be reduced are investigated in this study. To produce a refrigerant with the desirable refrigerant properties, the industry has produced many refrigerants over the years. The majority of refrigerants have also been phased out when it was discovered that they contributed negatively to the greenhouse effect and the depletion of the ozone layer. The discoveries of these negative environmental aspects resulted in that owners of refrigerant plans on board ships and in land-based facilities are obliged to report their leakage to their supervisory authority. In addition, individuals and companies working in the field must possess certificates and the right knowledge. Through interviews and questionnaire surveys, people within the refrigeration sector and engineer officers on board ships have contributed to the result of this thesis. Why the leakage is greater on board ships than in land-based plants were found to not have any clear answer, instead it rather depends on a variety of factors. For example: vibrations, low-priority systems and in many cases inadequate equipment. Results, in the form of summarized leakage reports, also confirm that leakage is substantially greater on board ships. The reports show that refrigerant leakage from land-based plants is on average 5,11 % while the leakage from facilities on board vessels is 12,86 %.