When the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB), Washington, D.C., released a safety bulletin earlier this year informing companies that use anhydrous ammonia in bulk refrigeration operations how to avoid a hazard referred to as hydraulic shock, the cold food industry listened. In CSB’s investigation, it was determined that when designing ammonia refrigeration systems, each evaporator coil should be controlled by a separate set of valves. The CSB also discovered that an emergency shutdown should be activated in the event of an ammonia release if a leak cannot be promptly isolated and controlled.

That’s why organizations like the Ammonia Safety & Training Institute (ASTI), a non-profit organization based in Watsonville, Calif., works with the Refrigerating Engineers and Technicians Association (RETA), Albany, Ore.; International Institute of Ammonia Refrigeration (IIAR), Alexandria, Va.; and the International Association of Refrigerated Warehouses (IARW), an Alexandria, Va.-based partner of the Global Cold Chain Alliance (GCCA), to provide support and training on how to properly design, build and operate ammonia systems.