Classified as a natural refrigerant, ammonia is lauded for excellent thermodynamic properties, relatively low cost and minimal environmental. But, its toxicity also makes it a potentially deadly refrigerant.
Among the list of refrigerants used in modern refrigeration applications, ammonia (NH3 or as refrigerant R-717) is one of the few that has remained a viable option since first being introduced in the 1930s. Classified as a natural refrigerant, ammonia is lauded for excellent thermodynamic properties, relatively low cost and minimal environmental.
But, its toxicity also makes it a potentially deadly refrigerant, requiring operators to ensure safe application procedures and prompting authorities to regulate charge limits. The ramifications and costs could include loss of productivity during an outage, expense of the fire/emergency/hazmat response and subsequent cleanup, food and productivity loss caused by the contamination or interruption in cooling, potential harm to human health and safety and securing insurance to cover such losses.