Reprinted by permission from ASHRAE Journal August 2001.

Copyright 2001 American

Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Inc.

The following article was published in ASHRAE Journal, August

2001. Copyright 2001 American Society of Heating, Refrigerating
and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Inc.

This posting is by permission of ASHRAE, and is presented for

educational purposes only. ASHRAE does not endorse or
recommend commercial products or services.

This article may not be copied and/or distributed electronically or in

paper form without permission of ASHRAE. Contact ASHRAE at
www.ashrae.org.
ASHRAE Journal Refrigeration

Automatic Purgers in
Refrigeration Systems
By Douglas T. Reindl, Ph.D., P.E., and James L. Denkmann pressure, any nitrogen present would have
Member ASHRAE Member ASHRAE to be cooled to –264°F (–164°C) in order

A
to liquefy. As a result, any nitrogen that
purger is an essential component for the proper and efficient opera- may accumulate in a refrigeration system
always will remain in a gaseous state. Let’s
tion of an industrial refrigeration system. A purger gathers, separates take a closer look to see how non-
and expels non-condensable gases from the system. Successfully condensables infiltrate into, or accumulate
within, ammonia refrigeration systems.
purging non-condensables from a refrigeration system leads to increased re- Air is the most abundant non-condens-
frigeration capacity, improved system efficiency, and enhanced system safety. able gas impacting industrial refrigeration
systems. Air can infiltrate into systems
In this article, we review the types of non- ness of a refrigeration system is dependent during continuous operation and as a re-
condensable gases (NCG) that can accu- on the ability for the phase-change pro- sult of system servicing. Most low-tem-
mulate in systems, consequences of NCG, cesses to proceed unimpeded. perature refrigeration systems (i.e., work-
purger operation, application consider- ing temperatures below –28°F [–33°C])
ations and factors that influence purger per- Non-Condensable Gases have a significant proportion of the sys-
formance. Our emphasis is on vapor com- In the context of vapor compression- tem piping, valves, and vessels operating
pression-based industrial refrigeration sys- based ammonia refrigeration systems, we with working pressures below atmospheric
tems that use anhydrous ammonia as the want only pure refrigerant (anhydrous am- pressure. Any pathways for leaks will re-
refrigerant because this choice covers the monia) present in our systems. Unfortu- sult in air infiltrating into the system rather
majority of industrial systems in use today. nately, refrigeration systems can and will than the refrigerant leaking out. Pathways
accumulate “foul substances.” Apart for air leakage during operation include:
Background from water, the foul substances, gaseous valve stem packings, bonnet gaskets,
Most industrial refrigeration systems in nature, are commonly referred to as compressor shaft seals, non-welded con-
currently in use are based on the vapor non-condensable gases (NCG). Foul gas nections, and control transducers.
compression cycle. Vapor compression re- is another term used to describe a gas- Another pathway for air entry into sys-
frigeration systems function through a con- eous refrigerant stream that contains NCG. tems occurs as a result of inadequate
tinuous closed cycle whereby a volatile Non-condensable gases eventually will evacuation after system servicing. For ex-
working fluid (refrigerant) undergoes a se- accumulate in all ammonia vapor-compres- ample, if a portion of the system is opened
ries of phase changes, which leads to the sion refrigeration systems if adequate to clean a strainer or replace a component,
ability for providing a useful refrigeration means are not provided for their removal. air will occupy that part of the system im-
effect. In the condenser, heat is rejected In some cases (i.e., newly built high-suc- mediately after reassembly. Ideally, the ser-
from the system converting hot gaseous tion temperature systems with screw com- vice technician will evacuate the air from
refrigerant at high pressure to pure liquid- pressors), it may be many years before that part of the system prior to bringing it
phase refrigerant also at high pressure. The abnormal operation becomes evident. back into service. Unfortunately, this is sel-
high-pressure liquid is subsequently Non-condensable gas constituents com- dom done. The net result is that the refrig-
throttled to lower pressures to be available monly include air, nitrogen, hydrogen, and eration system ingests a large gulp of air
for absorbing heat into the system through hydrocarbons. The nomenclature “non- when brought back into service and the
the evaporator as part of a refrigeration pro- condensable” means that these gases will
cess. In the evaporator, low-pressure liq- not liquefy at the temperatures and pres- About the Authors
uid refrigerant boils as a result of heat sures present in condensers consistent Douglas T. Reindl, Ph.D., P.E., is
added from a space or a process load. The with industrial refrigeration systems. For associate professor and director of the
low-pressure vapor refrigerant generated example, anhydrous ammonia will change Industrial Refrigeration Consortium at
is then raised in pressure by the compres- phase from gas to liquid if heat is removed the University of Wisconsin, Madison,
sor and directed to the condenser to reject while at a temperature of 95°F (35°C) and a Wis. James L. Denkmann is presi-
heat from the system again. The effective- pressure of 196 psia (1349 kPa). At the same dent of DTS, Chicago.
 Refrigeration
trapped air must be removed by purging. Gas Mol. Weight Density, lb/ft3 (kg/m3)
Hydrogen 2 0.057 (0.91)
Secondary types of NCG include hydrogen and nitrogen. Am m o n i a 17 0.52 (8.3)
Hydrogen and nitrogen gases accumulate as a result of the Nitrogen 28 0.79 (12.7)
refrigerant (NH3) dissociating (breaking-down) over time. The Ai r 29 0.82 (13.1)
two most important factors that influence the breakdown of Oil Decomposition 15–44 0.45–2.03 (7.1–32.6)
ammonia into its constituent parts are temperature and pres- R-22 86 2.75 (43.9)
sure. At higher temperatures, ammonia is more prone to irre- Table 1: Gas properties including common NCG and indus-
versibly breaking down into nitrogen and hydrogen. Older sys- trial refrigerants for reference.
tems (>25 years) and those with reciprocating compressors
appear to experience an accelerated rate of breakdown. How- side environment. The heat rejection capacity of any given
ever, the gross quantity of NCG generated by this mechanism is evaporative condenser is dependent upon:
relatively small. Even small dissociation rates lead to the accu- • Outside air wet-bulb temperature (lower wet-bulb tempera-
mulation of large quantities of hydrogen and nitrogen over time tures translate into greater heat-rejection capacity);
if they are not removed from the system on a regular basis. • Refrigerant saturated condensing temperature (higher satu-
Tertiary sources of NCG arise from the breakdown of lubri- ration temperatures translate into increased heat rejection ca-
cating oils. Most industrial refrigeration systems use mineral- pacity at the condenser);
based lubricating oils. As a result, the oil will breakdown and • Wet operation (water flow over the outside surface of the
liberate a complex series of hydrocarbon gases. Some of the condenser tubes greatly enhances heat-rejection capacity); and
gases will have lower molecular weights when compared with • Airflow rate (increased airflow rate will increase heat-rejec-
ammonia (e.g., CH4) while others will be heavier (e.g., C8H18). tion rates).
Table 1 lists each of the gases potentially present in a non- One of the places where NCG accumulate is in the lower
condensable gas mixture, along with their molecular weights portions of evaporative condenser heat exchange coils. This is
and densities at a design condensing pressure for many ammo- because the refrigerant has been liquefied at that point and the
nia refrigeration systems (196 psia [1349 kPa]). Refrigerant R-22 NCG are prevented from flowing further downstream (due to P-
is also shown for reference. traps located at the drop leg for each condenser outlet) or up-
stream (due to convective forces as a result of the continual
Consequences of Non-Condensable Gases flow of gas into the condenser).
The total heat rejection requirement for a vapor compression Since the NCG remain in their gaseous state, they will occupy a
system is the sum of the gross refrigeration effect plus the relatively large volume of the evaporative condenser’s heat ex-
aggregate work input to the system by the compressors. Indus- changer. Their presence interferes with the condenser’s ability to
trial refrigeration systems commonly use evaporative condens- change the phase of the gaseous refrigerant to a liquid. With the
ers as the means of rejecting heat from the system to the out- heat transfer capacity of the evaporative condenser diminished

purgers also cost more to operate (compressor energy) than

Automatic vs. Manual Purging? automatic purgers, because the only source of makeup liquid to
The need for purging exists in all refrigeration systems. A their flooded evaporators must come from a high-pressure source.
question often asked is: “Do I need an automatic purger?” On the other hand, the chief advantages of a manual purger are
This question has to be answered on a case-by-case basis. that they cost less to install, they can be arranged to quantify
Generally speaking, systems with reciprocating compressors foul gas entering the system and are normally less susceptible
or any systems operating under sub-atmospheric conditions to foreign substances in the piping system (dirt).
will directly benefit from an automatic purger. The following are advantages and disadvantages in an au-
Before the days of reliable automatic purgers, this process tomatic purger system:
was accomplished using manual purgers. Typically, individual Advantages Disadvantages
purge points were each provided with a manual globe valve. Safety: automatic purgers
Separate purge piping was run from each valve into the engine eliminate the need for Capital cost: for the purger
room, then this piping was combined into a single header that refrigeration staff to manually unit, purger piping, solenoid
connected to the purger. This consisted of a modified inverted “open the system” on a valves, and controls
frequent basis
bucket steam trap with an internal heat exchanger. To purge an Effectiveness: a properly
individual condenser, the operator would open individual globe Maintenance costs: for the
installed and operated
purger unit, accompanying
valves from condensers suspected of having non-condens- multipoint purger can
solenoid valves, and
able gases. A bucket of water and a rubber hose served in lieu of continually function to
transducers required for
today’s water bubblers integrated with automatic purgers. scavenge and remove NCG
purger control
from systems
This manual method continues to be viable and cost-effective Labor: eliminates the labor
today, especially on smaller systems. However, manual purgers associated with personnel
require direct operator interface during the purging process; typi- regularly removing NCG by
cally, more ammonia vapor is expelled along with foul gas. Manual manual operation
ASHRAE Journal
due to the presence of NCG, the tempera-
ture of the condensing refrigerant (and its
pressure) must increase to reject the nec-
essary heat from the system. The conse-
quences of increased condensing (or head)
pressure are undesirable and include:
• Decreased system refrigeration ca-
pacity;
• Increased system electrical demand
and energy consumption (attributed to
compressors and condenser fans);
• Decreased system efficiency;
• Increased compressor discharge su-
perheat (accelerating oil breakdown and
refrigerant dissociation);
• Increased head pressure leading to
increased compressor wear and tear and
greater likelihood of system shutdowns
due to high head pressure; and Figure 1: A simplified diagram of how an automatic purger functions.
• Increased condenser scaling, which
leads to increased maintenance costs and ammonia entrained with the gases drawn erant inside the air separation chamber is
decreased condenser life. at the purge point. Separated high-pres- returned back to the system.
sure liquid flows out of the bottom of the The high-pressure ammonia liquid sup-
How A Purger Works drain trap through a throttling device (a ply line is installed to make up any short-
Functionally, there are two types of metering valve or an orifice), is flashed, fall of needed liquid inside the evapora-
purgers—automatic and manual. The au- then passes into a flooded evaporator— tor. If little or no liquid enters a purge
tomatic purger is a mechanical device in- a vessel containing a vapor condenser and point, more makeup liquid from the high-
tegrated into a system that gathers, sepa- an air-separation chamber. Cold boiling liq- pressure receiver will be required in order
rates, and removes NCG from multiple uid completely surrounds the vapor con- to maintain an adequate liquid level in the
points in the refrigeration system with- denser and the air-separation chamber. evaporator. However, if the reverse oc-
out operator assistance. A manual purger The temperature of the cold liquid ammo- curs and excessive liquid is present in
can be as simple as an angle valve that nia corresponds to the saturation pres- the foul gas line, two events occur: head
requires a mechanic or technician to manu- sure at which it evaporates. This is equal pressures rise and the purger temporarily
ally open the valve and dispel any vapor to the suction-side pressure connecting stops condensing vapor until it is able to
(which will include mixture of ammonia the purger. The resulting vapor is returned push all the excess liquid out of the va-
and NCG) into a water bucket. to the system via the suction connection. por condenser. This takes time because
A diagram of how most automatic purg- Meanwhile, the gaseous mixture leaving the orifices in purgers are very small.
ers function is shown in Figure 1. A single the drain trap is comprised of a condens-
condenser purge solenoid valve has been able gas (ammonia), plus NCG (air, nitro- Do I Need a Purger?
shown for simplicity although all systems gen, etc.). After this mixture leaves the The need for purging exists in all am-
will have a multiplicity of purge points. A upper portion of the drain trap it enters monia refrigeration systems. However, the
mixture of NCG and ammonia vapor should the vapor condenser. need for automating this procedure is not
be drawn into a purge connection during Upon entering the vapor condenser, the so clear. Generally speaking, systems with
the time its respective solenoid valve is ammonia vapor is gradually liquefied out reciprocating compressors or any sys-
open. This gas mixture flows down the foul of the gaseous mixture by the surround- tems operating under sub-atmospheric
gas line to the purger unit piping connec- ing cold-boiling ammonia. At the end of conditions will directly benefit from an
tion. It is important that all gas purge lines the cool-down cycle, only NCG along automatic purger. Before the days of reli-
are free of any places where vapor can con- with some ammonia liquid will remain in able automatic purgers, this process had
dense and collect, blocking further NCG the vapor condenser. These proceed into to be done manually.
removal. Liquid traps cannot be tolerated a separation chamber where the heavier One indicator suggesting the presence
in this piping, particularly as it pertains to liquid falls by gravity to the bottom of of NCG is excessive operating compressor
some purger models. All purge piping the chamber and the lighter air and other head pressures. High head pressures are
should be pitched down to the purger as NCG are discharged out to a water bub- most pronounced on hot, humid days
recommended by purger manufacturers. bler, where any residual ammonia vapor when most compressors are working at
The foul gas line is connected to a drain is absorbed. The resulting weak aqua am- their maximum capacity and compression
trap at the purger. The function of the drain monia mixture is then discharged down ratio. However, winter head pressures are
trap is to separate and expel any liquid the sewer drain. Remaining liquid refrig- affected as well. During wintertime opera-
 Refrigeration
small concentration of NCG on the low-
pressure side of a system will be relatively
“benign” since it does not interfere with
the phase change process in the evapo-
rators and has no effect upon gas/liquid
separation in accumulators and knockout
vessels. Compressors quickly move any
NCG from the low-pressure side to the
high-pressure side of the system where it
can be removed by the purger.
Figure 2: Purge connection with their Figure 3: Twelve-pass evaporative con-
respective solenoid valves atop con- denser heat exchanger. Purging From High-Pressure Vessels
denser drain legs. Thermosiphon receivers are not cus-
ences) of the non-condensable gas in the tomarily provided with purge connec-
tion, operators are doing their best to keep ammonia stream. In idle systems, NCG con- tions. One reason is that any NCG that
head pressures up anyway, so few look for stituents will stratify only when the buoy- enters this vessel is pushed out the oil
NCG during cold weather. If a refrigeration ancy forces exceed the diffusive forces. cooler gas return line and back up to the
system has been designed for a maximum Assuming evaporative condensers are condensers. Since this vessel is not de-
head pressure of 196 psia (1349 kPa) (i.e., located at the highest physical elevation in signed with heat transfer in mind, a slight
95°F [35°C]) saturated condensing tempera- your refrigeration system, NCG will tend to accumulation of NCG can be tolerated.
ture) and the system operating head pres- migrate down through the high-pressure But this same rule could also apply to a
sure begins to exceed that maximum, you piping system driven by convective forces high-pressure receiver (HPR) as well. If
should suspect accumulation of NCG. If until it is trapped from falling further. one cubic foot (28 L) of liquid enters this
your system is controlled to some mini- One type of trap is formed by the pres- vessel, it will displace an equal volume of
mum head pressure during winter months, ence of liquid ammonia in the piping NCG. This will be pushed up the gas re-
detection of NCG becomes problematic. (highly undesirable in foul gas lines as turn line (commonly referred to as an
If any of the following apply to your mentioned previously). If liquid completely “equalizer line”) and into the evaporative
system, either invest in an automatic purger seals a section of pipe, then NCG are condenser gas inlets. If the gas return line
or perform frequent manual purging as part blocked from passing any further, so long is too small (which the authors have
of normal preventive maintenance. as the seal remains under all pressure fluc- found to be quite common), the pressure
• System operating temperatures be- tuations across it. The presence of a “liq- in the HPR increases. Even slight pres-
low –28°F (–33°C); uid trap” affords the most opportune place sure differences between the HPR and
• Presence and use of reciprocating for purging NCG in the vapor space above condenser drain outlets can pose diffi-
compressors; and the trap. Since all evaporative condenser culties with proper condenser drainage.
• Older refrigeration systems or sys- heat exchangers are provided with a liquid Many HPRs are installed outdoors, and
tems requiring frequent servicing. trap at the base of each drain leg, placing a with few exceptions are located on-grade.
purge connection at the uppermost por- Most HPR foul gas line installations form
Application Considerations tion of the drain leg affords the surest place liquid traps whenever the outside air am-
To maximize the benefit of a purger, it for gathering a NCG-rich gas mixture. bient dry-bulb temperature is below the
is important to understand where NCG Figure 2 shows recommended purge refrigerant saturation temperature. At-
tend to accumulate in systems and the connections with their respective sole- tempting to remove NCG from an HPR can
other factors that influence the perfor- noid valves at the top of each condenser be problematic if this situation is not rec-
mance of a purger. drain leg. If condenser drain leg traps have ognized.
been constructed of sufficient depth such
Where to Purge Non-Condensables that they do not “blow through” due to Factors Influencing Purger
It is commonly believed that any gas pressure imbalances (discussed later), the Performance
lighter than ammonia will be preferentially need for purging piping and vessels Several factors influence the ability of
purged from a high point in the high-pres- downstream of the trap(s) is eliminated. a purger to collect NCG from the system:
sure hot gas piping system. We were not NCG will also be found on the low-pres- • More than one purge solenoid valve
able to find any published papers, research, sure side of systems operating below at- is open simultaneously. This should never
or experimental data that corroborated this mospheric pressure due to leaks as pre- occur.
claim. In operating systems, it is unlikely viously discussed. NCG will also be found • Pressure imbalances exist between
that non-condensable gas constituents on the low-pressure side of systems us- adjacent evaporative condenser heat ex-
would accumulate at high points of the sys- ing hot gas for defrosting evaporators. changers, creating opportunities for liq-
tem since the convective forces of ammo- In this situation, the source of NCG is uid “hang-up.” In some cases, the liquid
nia gas flow would quickly dominate the from foul gas that accompanies the hot hang-up in the evaporative condenser is
buoyancy forces (driven by density differ- gas for defrosting the evaporators. A so severe that the purge solenoid opens
ASHRAE Journal
only to “see” liquid refrigerant.
• Foul gas piping that creates liquid traps
leads to difficulty in establishing an unim-
peded flow of foul gas to the purger.
• The purger is located above one or more
condenser purge points.
• The purger is malfunctioning, usually due
to dirt.
While purgers normally are equipped with
liquid drain traps, the liquid-handling capacity
of these traps is quite small. If a purge point
gathers liquid refrigerant instead of vapor, all
of this liquid cannot be completely passed by
the liquid drainer; excessive quantities then
back up into the purger’s vapor condenser. If
the vapor condenser fills with liquid, it becomes
subcooled as it passes through to the air sepa-
ration chamber. A control senses the higher liq-
Figure 4: Diagram of multiple evaporative condensers showing the effect of
uid level in the air separation chamber and ex-
unequal pressures between heat exchangers and pressure differences between
pels it to the flooded evaporator. If the evapo-
condensers and thermosiphon receiver.
rator is already full of liquid, then liquid will exit
the purger via the suction line. This is why purgers must be heat exchangers. In this
connected to a “protected” (wet) suction line and not piped di- configuration, ammonia is
rectly to the compressor suction. prevented from flowing
A fundamental requirement for purging NGC from a system is from one heat exchanger
to get NCG into the purger. Although this sounds trivial, com- directly into its neighbor.
plexities in system operation often prevent the purger from pro- However, any slight pres-
cessing foul gas. One of the most overlooked conditions pre- sure difference between
venting a purger from receiving foul gas is “liquid hang-up” in evaporative condensers
evaporative condensers. will force refrigerant liquid
It is not uncommon for a large evaporative condenser in an and/or vapor from one
ammonia refrigeration system to hold up >700 lb (318 kg) of liquid condenser into another
with only a 0.25 psi (1.7 kPa) pressure difference between adjacent via the outlet drain piping
Figure 5: Evaporative condenser
circuits in the condensers. A pressure difference on the order of whenever P-traps are shal-
with extra deep condenser drain
0.25 psi (1.7 kPa) is normally sufficient to flood the liquid drain low. This is mainly true of
traps.
header box and bottom two passes of most evaporative condenser ammonia, and to a lesser
heat exchangers as shown in Figure 1. Under this situation, the extent, the halocarbon refrigerants.
purge point becomes flooded with subcooled liquid. When the
purge solenoid opens to draw foul gas—it draws in liquid refriger- Condenser Drain Traps: How Deep Should They Be?
ant. If this continues over days or weeks, non-condensables will Figure 4 presents a typically accepted arrangement for drain-
continue to accumulate in the system and the condenser will slowly ing multiple evaporative condensers. This figure assumes that
lose heat-transfer effectiveness. In some severe cases, entire all drain connections are on a common elevation, but the heat
evaporative condensers have been rendered nearly useless by exchangers are of different sizes and the fans on condenser C-
the end of a season (usually during winter). It now appears that 3 have stopped. The condensers are shown draining to a com-
this may be more commonplace than originally thought. mon vessel. A thermosiphon receiver (TSR) is shown, although
Figure 3 shows a 12-pass evaporative condenser heat ex- an HPR also is common when thermosiphon oil coolers are not
changer. The single condenser heat exchanger shown in this used. In some cases, the HPR and TSR are combined into a
figure is comprised of one inlet connection (the header at the single vessel. The pressures at each node are numbered P1, P2,
top of the tube bundle) and one outlet connection (the header etc. This figure also assumes that the oil cooler gas return line
at the bottom of tube bundle) with many parallel tubes intercon- imposes an excessive pressure drop.
necting the upper and lower header boxes. Individual tube From this figure it is evident that purging NCG has been
lengths vary between condenser sizes, ranging from approxi- impaired in active condensers C-1 and C-2. Why does this oc-
mately 70 lineal feet (21 m) (six-pass models) up to >200 lineal cur? Three reasons explaining the phenomena are shown in
feet (61 m) (12 pass models). Evaporative condenser heat ex- Figure 4:
changers are typically fabricated from nominal 1 in. (25 mm) hot- • The pressure within the thermosiphon receiver is greater
dipped galvanized steel tubing. Evaporative condensers hav- than the pressure at any of the condenser drain outlet connec-
ing dual inlet and outlet connections are equipped with two tions, P1 > P5, P6, P7. This occurs as a result of an excessive Dr
 Refrigeration
in the oil cooler gas return line. Figure 5 shows an ammonia evaporative condenser with
• “Active” condensers C1 and C2 are built from different deeper drain traps than customarily installed. This particular
tubing lengths, therefore each imposes a different pressure drop, condenser does not experience any cool weather liquid hold-
(P2–P5) – (P3–P6) ¹ 0. back problems nor any difficulty in purging NCG. The traps
• The pressure at the bottom of condenser C3 is nearly equal shown in this photo are each 15 in. (381 mm) deep, which was
to the pressure at its inlet, P4–P7 » 0, whenever the condenser sufficient for the operating conditions at this particular facility.
fans stop. This condenser has a total of four heat exchangers and four
The aforementioned scenario is encountered frequently, rep- drain traps. Note that the condenser gas inlets have not been
resenting roughly half of all industrial refrigeration systems yoked as normally recommended. However, if the drain traps
that the authors have seen. This phenomenon can be felt by are deep enough (which they were here), this added cost is no
holding the evaporative condenser drain legs. Cool legs de- longer necessary. The only additional recommendation (not
note the presence of sub-cooled liquid; hot legs denote the shown) would be to move the drain leg pipe reducers down a
presence of vapor. Another sign is a nearly continuous frost point to immediately above the condenser outlet stop valves.
layer on the 0.25 in. (6 mm) stainless steel line (inside the purger) Another possible (but less desirable) solution is to add a
that runs between the bottom of the purger’s liquid drainer and statement to the condenser purge solenoid valve control algo-
the flooded evaporator. rithm that blocks gas purging from a particular point if the re-
In view of the these findings, drain trap depths should be sized spective fan is running and any other fans are stopped. This
to withstand the greater of these two pressure differences: solution is less desirable because liquid management difficul-
• Dr between individual heat exchangers under all operating ties have not been addressed, nor are the condensers able to
conditions, or operate under reduced compressor head pressures during win-
• Dr between each heat exchanger and the receptor vessel ter months. The inability of achieving “floating head pressures”
under all variances in mass flow. will have significant annual energy implications.
Nothing can be done about operating pressure differences be-
tween dissimilar sized evaporative condensers. However, increas- Conclusions
ing the condenser drain trap depths to overcome any operating Historically, purging non-condensable gases from systems
Dr can easily mitigate this impact. Doing so increases the ability was a manual operation. Today, reliable mechanical purgers can
of the purger to collect NCG instead of high-pressure liquid, which be installed and controlled to operate on a continuous basis.
it was not built to handle in any substantial quantities. However, the effectiveness of any purger to collect and remove
NCG is governed by the external influences discussed here.