HVAC Design Considerations for Corrosive Environments - a PDH Online Course for Engineers

HVAC Design Considerations for Corrosive Environments

Course Outline

This 3-hour course discusses the HVAC design considerations for corrosive environments. Over time, even extremely low levels of Airborne Molecular Contamination (AMC) in the parts per billion can cause permanent damage to the sensitive electronic equipment. The corrosive contaminants can attack the metal surfaces, structural elements, switchgear equipment, machinery and even the HVAC equipment. Failure to protect your assets may have costly ramifications.

Remember whereas the equipment design issues rests with the manufacturers, ensuring a satisfactory environment is sole responsibility of the end user.

This paper is aimed at students, architects, air-conditioning engineers, controls engineers, contractors, environmentalists and loss prevention professionals. It is assumed that all the readers know the basic functioning of the air-conditioning system.

This course includes a multiple-choice quiz at the end, which is designed to enhance the understanding of the course materials.

Learning Objective

At the conclusion of this course, the student will:

Be aware of the potential aspects of corrosion
Be able to identify potential corrosive environments
Be aware of the HVAC design considerations that can limit and prevent corrosion

Course Introduction

The process control equipment / electronic hardware operating in harsh, industrial environment is exposed to various threats of air borne molecular contaminants (AMC).

Corrosive gases (AMC) and water vapor (as a result of high relative humidity) coming in contact with electronic chip metal surfaces result in the buildup of various chemical reaction products. At elevated temperatures the reactions are pronounced that eventually result in pitting and/or loss of metal due to corrosion.

To preclude any potential damage to electronic equipment and to avoid any acrimonious debates over warranty coverage, and, more importantly, to ensure there is no loss of system's integrity in the first place, the sensitive areas should be protected by effective air filtration systems.

Corrosion alone accounts for approximately 40% of all equipment failures in industrial facilities. The importance of knowing and preventing corrosion through careful HVAC design is thus paramount.

This paper is split into 4 sections:

PART I Overview of Corrosion Basics
PART II Identification of Potential Corrosive Environments
PART III Design Standards (ISA)
PART IV HVAC Design Considerations

Course Content

The the course content is in a PDF file HVAC Design Considerations for Corrosive Environments. You need to open or download this document to study this course.

Course Summary

Saline coastal environment, large processing facilities (like refinery, P&C plants, fertilizers, treatment facilities etc.), heavy industrial production areas (metal & mining, paper & pulp etc), auto emissions and power generation facilities release variety of by products and contaminants that cause corrosion. The control rooms, data centers, telecom areas and other sensitive facilities operating under such diverse and harsh industrial environments require special HVAC attention against corrosion.

To ensure that the services operate as they are intended, corrosion control is essential element of HVAC design. Controlling contaminants by reducing their concentration to acceptable levels and/or eliminating them from the air stream is key to corrosion control. Effective corrosion control also requires maintaining precise indoor temperature and humidity in narrow tolerances. Elevated humidity and temperature increases the intensity of corrosion. The indoor relative humidity (RH) shall not be allowed to exceed 50%.

Chemical filtration helps in removal of odorous, toxic, and corrosive gases through adsorption process.

Heavy industry plants, mills and refineries rely on dry scrubbing systems to protect process and motor control systems from the damaging effects of corrosion.

Inadequate environmental protection may result in manufacturer's limiting warranties on the equipments, the cost of which has to be borne by the end-user alone.

Corrosion control must be seen as a vital activity to enhance energy efficiency, productivity and equipment life.

Related Reading

HVAC design considerations for Clean Room Applications

Further to corrosive environments, a large number of critical facilities such as precision electronic & manufacturing industry, hospitals, laboratories, pharmaceutical plants, control rooms, computer environments, R &D facilities, defense establishments etc demand high level of cleanliness. A 4-hour course titled "HVAC design considerations for Clean Room Applications" provide an overview and basic understanding of the clean room design concepts, code issues, energy conservation practices and air filtration techniques. This course is a recommended reading for HVAC engineers and architects.

Once you finish studying the above course content, you need to take a quiz to obtain the PDH credits.

DISCLAIMER: The materials contained in the online course are not intended as a representation or warranty on the part of PDHonline.com or any other person/organization named herein. The materials are for general information only. They are not a substitute for competent professional advice. Application of this information to a specific project should be reviewed by a registered professional engineer. Anyone making use of the information set forth herein does so at their own risk and assumes any and all resulting liability arising therefrom.