Heat recovery on air-cooled Engie chillers
3rd September 2018
GERMANY: Engie Refrigeration’s air-cooled Quantum chillers can now be equipped with heat recovery, making it possible to reuse up to 100% of the generated waste heat.
While Engie Refrigeration has been offering heat recovery on its water-cooled Quantum chillers for many years, the company is now making this option available for air-cooled Quantum chillers as well. The first models using heat recovery are now being deployed by an international industrial group from France.
A heat exchanger integrated in the air-cooled Quantum chiller makes it possible to conduct the heat, which is generated during the cold generation process, to a defined heat process such as heating or the warm water supply. Engie says that, as a result, an air-cooled Quantum with a refrigeration capacity of 1,300kW can thereby create a heat capacity of 1,480kW.
The heat generated during the refrigeration process can be used either completely, or partially in mixed mode. To this end, the waste heat is transferred to a heat circuit via a parallel flooded shell and tube condenser. As the chiller fans are now running at partial load or not at all, Engie says this makes it possible to save power and money. “At the same time, users take advantage of the thermal energy that is generated anyway, and that would otherwise have to be generated by the heating,” the company says.
As is the case of all air-cooled Quantum models, the refrigerants R134a, R1234ze and R513A are also suitable for use in chillers with heat recovery.
