Nanofluid additive boosts chiller efficiency
5th December 2023
IRELAND: A nanofluid added to the chillers supplying chilled water to a district cooling plant in Abu Dhabi is said to have increased the plant’s efficiency by 13.6%.
HT Materials Science (HTMS), a sustainable materials technology company based in Ireland and Italy, carried out the trial of its heat transfer fluid, Maxwell, with district cooling company Tabreed.
Claimed to be the world’s leading district cooling company, Tabreed operates 89 district cooling plants and 1.3 miilion tonnes of cooling across the GCC.
Maxwell is a drop-in, nanofluid additive comprised of submicron aluminium oxide particles suspended in water or water/glycol. According to HTMS, it can increase energy efficiency by up to 15% in most commercial and industrial HVAC systems.
The trial was carried out this summer at a Tabreed district cooling plant in Khalifah City, Abu Dhabi. The plant supplies chilled water to a 55,742m2 educational campus.
Evaluated under Energy Efficiency Analysis (EEA), the Maxwell nanoparticle fluid demonstrated that its addition increased efficiency of the plant’s chillers by 13.6%, leading to an overall plant efficiency improvement of 9.0%, compared with the same period in 2022.
Applied across Tabreed’s current portfolio of district cooling plants, the nanofluid could prevent approximately 200,000Mt of greenhouse gas emissions annually and save 335 million kWh of electricity.
Following the promising pilot study results, Tabreed and HTMS are in discussions to introduce the Maxwell technology to other district cooling facilities in the company’s portfolio.
