Star’s alternative to R22 flooded system

UK: Petrochemical company SABIC has installed ammonia chillers to replace an R22 flooded system at its plant in Wilton, Cleveland.

Faced with the R22 phase out, SABIC UK Petrochemicals commissioned Star Refrigeration to secure its RBS butadiene plant in Wilton against future environmental legislation.

Although an initial plan to install a bespoke system to replace the existing 35-year-old refrigeration R22 plant was evaluated, a fully bespoke scheme proved expensive.

Jon Hetherington, SABIC project group manager said, “After reviewing the initial total replacement plan, we decided that the costs were simply too high. We started to look for alternative solutions and Star’s modular package project looked attractive.”

As part of the upgrade, Star installed three 193KW Azanechillers, actively cooling the glycol supplied to the butadiene process heat exchangers from -9ºC to -14ºC. The air-cooled Azanechillers are configured to operate in series for maximum efficiency,

“One of the major benefits to SABIC UK is the significantly lower cost compared to initial quotes for a fully customised system,” commented Star’s process industries sales manager.

“The use of natural refrigerant ammonia has also future proofed the Wilton RBS butadiene plant and brought it into line with governmental law.”

This is not the first time that Star Refrigeration worked with SABIC. Star had previously supplied a propylene refrigeration system for SABIC’s ethylene liquefaction plant at North Tees.