Nowadays, oil and gas has become very important and essential to our lives. However, how does the workers to work at the drilling platform with comfortable air conditioning system ? It’s very important for HVAC engineers to make sure how to design an intelligent high efficiency air cooled chiller especially for Offshore Drilling Platform. Today H.Stars Group will give you an actual real case to discuss how they have designed the system as below.

I. The drilling platforms require anti-corrosion due its salty air above the sea. So the air cooled chiller system has to adopt anti-corrosion design.
The installation space is always limited and it has to consider the chiller compact design convenient for installation at site to save space not only with corrosion resistance, but also it has to be designed with high safety and stability, together with low energy consumption. Below is one of H.Stars drilling platform chiller production requirement details.
1. Special design and customized compact size for easy loading to the drilling platform by aircraft and installation
2. It’s adopted self-developed high-efficiency flooded evaporator with Danfoss electronic expansion valve to reduce the energy consumption by 10% to 15% compared with dry evaporator.
3. R134a refrigerant, the ozone depletion potential ODP is 0, is the international mainstream environmentally friendly refrigerant.
4. Adopted high-efficiency air-cooled fin heat exchangers (using copper foil fins, copper fins are more effective in preventing corrosion than aluminum fins), and there is no potential corrosion (aluminum fins and copper tubes are potential corrosion. There is no problem in normal environment use), copper fins have a higher heat transfer rate than aluminum fins, and the unit volume can be made smaller.
5. Designed with IP55 fan anti-corrosion and waterproof motor to reduce failure rate.
6. The electric box made of 316 stainless steel is used to protect the electric components more effectively, so that the unit can operate safely and stably.
7. The Siemens PLC controller can be connected to the customer's central control to realize automatic energy-saving control.
8. Use galvanized channel steel under frame, spray special anti-corrosion paint (3 layers, epoxy paint, reinforced general wear-resistant epoxy paint, acrylic polysiloxane top coat, 3000 hours salt spray test, adjust The salt spray test PDF), stainless steel screws, and the compressor can also be built-in, which can increase the service life of the compressor and avoid corrosion of the compressor and the welded joint of the copper pipe.

All copper pipes are sprayed with high temperature and anticorrosive materials to prevent copper pipe corrosion.
Different anti-corrosion grades, different anti-corrosion processes, copper fins, hydrophilic aluminum foil aluminum fins, and electrophoretic anti-corrosion fins, are customized according to project requirements to prevent corrosion of the two vessels and improve the efficiency of the exchanger.

II. How to satisfy your customer needs and offer surprised products?

Client needs: Air-cooled chiller with chilled water 7℃ ~ 12℃ to provide constant confortable air to the room for the workers.

When you design a system or a product, you will always need to consider it from different aspects. According the installation area and project location. Here are some tips as below:
1. It’s designed with a "H.Stars" heat recover unit to generate free hot water all year around, one machine with multiple functions, compact size, and a more highly integrated unit. The chiller adds a heat recovery device to provide free hot water.

2. Operating costs consideration ： In summer, domestic hot water is provided when air-conditioning is used for refrigeration, and domestic hot water can be obtained at zero cost.

3. Energy saving: The addition of this function will not only increase energy consumption, but also increase the efficiency of the unit by 5%.

4. One unit designed with multiple functions: free domestic hot water with heat recovery device. Heat pump unit, heating and cooling air-conditioning, heating in winter and cooling in summer.

5. Water cooling unit:The use of a dedicated self-developed shell-and-tube seawater heat exchanger can achieve anti-corrosion performance, and it can also achieve a smaller volume host.

6. All-in-one unit: Integrated water tank and water pump, customers only need to connect water and electricity to run, saving trouble, fast and saving installation costs.

7. Designed with non-standard customization: the main engine for different anti-corrosion grades, non-standard power supply, other environmentally friendly refrigerants, unit color, and integrated unit design.


III. Above design can also be applied to other industries where anti-corrosion chiller is in demand. Below are the detailed industries which can also be applied with this type of design chiller system.

1. Pulp and paper industry
The pulping and paper making workshop is a high-humidity and highly corrosive working environment. A large amount of corrosive gases such as water vapor, chloride, sulfur dioxide, chlorine dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, etc. are generated during the pulping and paper making process, which causes corrosion of the air-conditioning system. , The damage of accessories and the leakage of refrigerant directly cause the environmental temperature of the electrical room to rise, the damage of electrical components, and the shutdown of production equipment, which bring huge economic losses to the enterprise.

2. Energy and chemical industry
Corrosive gases such as dust, sulfur dioxide, ammonia and hydrogen sulfide are generated during the processing and utilization of fossil fuels, the deep processing of coal, and the deep processing of crude oil. Sulfide and inorganic salt, naphthenic acid, nitride, water and other corrosive media work together to form a complex corrosive environment. It will cause different corrosion to various system parts such as copper pipes, fins and fans of the air-conditioning equipment shell.

3. Power and power generation industry
The water, steam and flue gas that come into contact with thermal equipment in power plants during operation can also cause serious corrosion to the equipment. The main corrosion sources are oxygen corrosion, acid corrosion, coal flue gas corrosion and so on. In a corrosive environment, impurities and gases will corrode the casing, copper tubes and aluminum fins of the air conditioner particularly severely.

4. Metallurgical industry
The metallurgical industry is mostly used in high temperature, heavy load, high wear and specific corrosive environments. The production environment is harsh and corrosion problems are prominent. For example, in the steel making industry, chemical corrosion in high temperature environments such as slag, molten iron, and blast furnace gas. In the electrolytic aluminum and electrolytic copper industries, the hydrogen fluoride, sulfur dioxide and other gases in the workshop encounter water to produce acidic corrosion such as hydrofluoric acid and sulfuric acid. The hydrometallurgy in the lead and zinc industry requires acid leaching, alkali leaching, salt leaching and other processes, and various acid and alkali corrosion. Corrosion is quite serious in the metallurgical industry system.

5. Food storage and deep processing industry
Food storage and deep processing industries, including grain storage, cooked food products, condiment manufacturing, corn deep processing, bean deep processing, sweet potato deep processing and other industries. Products include: soy sauce, seasoning sauce, edible oil, starch, protein powder, starch sugar, edible alcohol, fuel ethanol, glutamic acid, lysine, xylitol, chemical alcohol, cellulose, vitamins and other thousands of varieties. During production and storage, corrosive gases such as sodium chloride, sulfurous acid, and phosphine are generated, which corrode copper, aluminum, and iron in air-conditioning equipment to varying degrees, seriously affecting the service life.

6. Sewage treatment industry
Sewage corrosion is mainly: acid radical ion corrosion, microbial corrosion, and polluted gas corrosion. Acid radical ions and chloride ions are one of the strongest activators for steel. Chloride ions and water produce hydrochloric acid, which is volatile. The sewage treatment process is accompanied by a large number of pungent gases, including ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, methane, humic acid, volatile phenols, benzene series and so on.

7. Coastal salt spray corrosion industry
High humidity and high salt are the characteristics of the ocean atmosphere. Under the influence of adsorption and chemical condensation, the water vapor in the ocean atmosphere is easy to adhere to the air conditioner shell, copper pipe, and heat exchanger surface to form a layer of water that is invisible to the naked eye. There are dissolved oxygen, chloride ions, sulfate ions and some other salts in the membrane and the water membrane, which will cause the corrosion of the air conditioner and affect the service life of the air conditioner.

H.Stars Group has specialized in customization HVAC equipment for 30+ years. Welcome to contact us for more sales@hstars.com.cn