Modernization of industrial refrigeration equipment at Zaporizhzhya Titanium and Magnesium Plant

Zaporizhzhia Titanium and Magnesium Plant, which produces high-quality titanium products, decided to modernize part of its production facilities in 2018, including the modernization of industrial refrigeration equipment.

Titanium is one of the most advanced materials that is widely demanded by modern industry. Its high anti-corrosion properties are combined with lightness and strength, making it an indispensable metal used in modern engineering, aerospace, shipbuilding, oil and gas, and many other industries.

The titanium production technology is based on the Kroll process, which produces titanium through the magnesium-thermal reduction of titanium tetrachloride followed by vacuum distillation. Part of the sponge titanium is used as a raw material for the production of ingots and slabs from titanium and titanium alloys, while the rest of the sponge titanium is sold to consumers as commercial products.

Several stages of cooling are used to condense titanium tetrachloride vapor. The final stage uses low temperatures (below minus 15°C).

The plant decided to modernize the refrigeration department and replace the outdated brine cooling machine with a modern unit and provide a two-circuit cooling scheme (propylene glycol/brine). The task was to cool 100 m3/h of 40% propylene glycol from -15°C to -20°C in the chiller, which will cool the cooling brine through a plate heat exchanger and ensure trouble-free and long-term operation of the chiller and, accordingly, the entire technological process. The capacity of the refrigeration unit with water-cooled condenser is 508 kW.

After winning the tender, Dalgakiran Compressor Ukraine has supplied a Dalgakiran chiller (manufactured at the ERBAY plant in Turkey), a complete pumping station, and two heat exchangers. The Dalgakiran Special EBSV-240Y.2 double-circuit chiller consists of two semi-hermetic Bitzer refrigeration compressors, shell-and-tube evaporators and condensers of ERBAY’s own production, as well as other components from leading global manufacturers.

The specialists of Dalgakiran Compressor Ukraine provided support to the plant’s PCV in developing the modernization project, which allowed the best technical solutions from the world’s best practices to be implemented.

Project manager: Andriy Ogar