Claims cost savings and operational improvements across the spectrum

Trane recently launched its new TVR (Trane Variable Refrigerant) air conditioning system, with the claim that it is ideal for most medium-sized hotels, hospitals, schools, offices and luxury villas and apartments.

Touting the centralised nature of the cooling system as a great space-saver, Trane pointed out that the ability to have adjacent rooms at different temperatures or even switched off was ideal for personalised comfort and energy savings.

According to Trane, the modular design allows for a phased approach to installation. Citing an example Trane explained: if floors of an apartment block are to be leased or occupied at different times, the installation schedule may be tailored to accommodate this. The easy-to-handle modules also make the systems equally suitable for both new construction and retrofit projects, added Trane.

The manufacturer listed the following product features and advantages:

• The system comes with digital scroll compressors with wide capacity modulation, which enables the system to deliver precise temperature control.

• This implies that the entire installation is able to closely match the total load of the building at any given time.

• The system capability ensures that only the required amount of cooling is delivered to the occupied rooms and nowhere else, which translates into reduced energy consumption and run-hours.

Enumerating other benefits, Mohammed Khaja, product leader for unitary systems for Trane in Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa, said: “The TVR system offers advantages throughout the project lifecycle, from design, installation and commissioning, through to operation and maintenance.”

TVR is available through select Trane distributors in the Middle East, India and Africa region, the manufacturer said.

Partnership to tap potential for evaporative air conditioning systems

Forming a new alliance: Sabu C Abraham, Managing Director, ClimaGulf (right) and Kym Garrick, Export Manager, Asia, Middle East and South America of Seeley International

Breezair, the air cooling technology brand from Seeley International, Australia, has announced its partnership with ClimaGulf Trading, to launch a range of evaporative air conditioning systems in the UAE. The announcement added that as a result of the tie-up, ClimaGulf has become the exclusive distributor of Breezair in the UAE.

As part of the joint statement, ClimaGulf said that with the size of the Middle East market for air cooling systems reportedly estimated at 100,000 units per annum, it planned to tap the UAE market in the initial phase, before expanding across the region.

Breezair claims that it foresees numerous growth opportunities its cooling systems in the Middle East.

Commenting on the partnership, Sabu C Abraham, Managing Director, ClimaGulf, said: “We are pleased to forge this alliance with a prestigious brand like Breezair, the innovator of natural air cooling technology. Breezair will become a trend-setter for natural air cooling in the UAE, which supports environmentally friendly and energy-efficient sources of air conditioning. Breezair systems use only a fraction of the energy compared to conventional, refrigerative air conditioning.”

Kym Garrick, Export Manager, Asia, Middle East and South America, Seeley International, added: “Sales of the high-quality, high-efficiency Breezair machines are expanding in the Middle East region, where evaporative cooling can be successfully used. Even on the coastal areas of the Gulf countries, Breezair machines can provide cooling solutions to many commercial and industrial applications.”

Durgesh Verma, General Manager, ClimaGulf, claimed that Breezair was suitable for places where the normal air conditioning system cannot work or be installed, and added that the technology developed by Breezair was an affordable alternative cooling system.

Claims that its actuation technology and Torento’s product portfolio is the perfect match for strong growth market in district cooling

SIPOS Aktorik actuator technology installed at a site in the UAE

In an announcement, SIPOS Aktorik, supplier of specialist variable speed and standard actuator solutions, has reported the success of its Middle East agent, Torento Energy Systems, a member of the Al Dhafra group. It was reportedly appointed as the exclusive representative for SIPOS, for the region in 2008. Its brief was to incorporate SIPOS’ actuation products into its turnkey solutions across a range of sectors, including major utilities, district cooling and construction in the UAE.

Commenting on the synergies of SIPOS’ actuation technology with Torento’s product portfolio, Ahmed Sobhi, a Director of Torento Energy Systems, said: “SIPOS, with its focus on high level service and bespoke solutions, is a perfect match for our business and our customers’ requirements. The extreme heat of the UAE makes the centralised production of cooling energy a highly attractive solution, and this has made district cooling, a technology that is supported by SIPOS’ actuators, a particularly strong growth market.”

According to the announcement, SIPOS claims that its actuation technology plays a key role in controlling valves that manage the cooling water flow and protect hydraulics from water hammer.

Regions supported by Torento Energy Systems include, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Bahrain, Kuwait and Pakistan.

Event also trains the spotlight on ‘performance contracting’ to achieve capital and operational cost reduction in buildings

A wide range of innovative solutions in the clean tech sector can help augment energy supply, especially during the peak season, according to energy and environmental experts at a seminar hosted by the Energy and Environment Park (Enpark), a sustainable community model for commercial and residential use, and a member of Tecom Investments’ Sciences Cluster.

According to a news release on the event, key industry leaders, including Enpark business partners, as well as representatives from the government, financial institutions and legal firms, also demonstrated through a sequence of regional case studies, how regional organisations are successfully addressing environmental and energy concerns by deploying clean tech solutions, particularly during the summer season.

Themed ‘Energy Efficiency’, the seminar, said Enpark, was its first in the ‘Green Brunch’ series of four events that aim to focus on different aspects of the energy and environment industry.

Topics covered during the seminar included green retrofitting for private and commercial space, water and waste water management as well as solid waste and recycling management.

Commenting on the Green Brunch series, Ali bin Towaih, Executive Director of Enpark, said: “Worldwide, there is an increasing call for organisations to operate in ways that are less power intensive and less impactful on the environment. The Green Brunch series of seminars organised by Enpark serves as a platform to zoom into what regional organisations have already done in this sphere, which could be upheld as examples worthy of emulation.”

Sougata Nandi, Director of Sustainable Energy and Environment Division (SEED), Tecom Investments, made a presentation, titled ‘Performance Contracting at Tecom’.

As part of his presentation he reportedly said: “This innovative financing technique is ideal in this economic climate, as it allows building users to achieve energy savings without up-front capital expenses. The costs of the energy improvements are borne by the performance contractor, and later, paid back out of the energy savings. The scientific approach to energy-efficiency initiatives, depending on several factors, can often reduce operational costs in a salutary range of 10 to 25%.”

Tecom claimed that the Green Brunch series featured presentations and open debates to help raise awareness of new energy and environment-related technologies and solutions available today. The series, said Enpark, follows the success of its Green Building series in 2009, which was said to highlight its initiative to promote sustainability across the region.

The news release further added that, as part of Tecom’s initiatives to inform and educate on green issues and contribute to reducing the region’s carbon footprint, it has also compiled the ‘Sustainable Development Report’. Tecom claims that it is the first of its kind to be released by a company based in the Middle East.

Will provide district cooling to 59 buildings with a capacity of 320 TR

Ahmad Bin Shafar, CEO of Empower

Empower has announced that it has bagged the Mirdif Gate Buildings project for providing district cooling services.

According to Empower, the Mirdif project will be in addition to other areas it provides district cooling to in Dubai, such as Dubai International Financial Center, Dubai Healthcare City, Jumeirah Beach Residence, Business Bay and City Of Arabia.

In a statement, Ahmad Bin Shafar, CEO of Empower, confirmed that the project was preceded by extensive studies before investing into central stations and networks to enhance ROI in the long and short run. In his opinion, Dubai was moving rapidly towards increased use of district cooling as an alternative to conventional district cooling, because of its efficiency in rationalising electricity consumption and conserving natural resources and reducing operating and maintenance costs. He also confirmed that Empower’s plant in Mirdif would provide services to 59 buildings with a capacity of 320 TR.

He added: “Mirdif is one of the dynamic destinations of Dubai, and it is becoming a very busy area. This area has developed remarkably and it offers customers a wide array of options. We have managed to create a large demand on our services from landlords and tenants at the same time.”

B Surendar

Of the two approaches to using treated sewage effluent (TSE), the direct use of raw TSE comes with a lower capital cost, higher water usage, higher chemical usage and, always worryingly, a higher microbiological risk. The TSE polishing method, on the other hand, comes with a higher capital cost, lower use of chemicals and water and a lower microbiological risk.

Typically, re-circulation of raw TSE in a cooling tower in a district cooling scheme involves such parameter as salinity, TDS, chloride and sulphate for consideration. Potable water is, of course, king, because largely speaking, these parameters are not factors. Thus, it is the case that while potable water allows five to six cycles of concentration, raw TSE allows 2.5 to three cycles.

Government regulation in Abu Dhabi and Dubai having taken potable out of the picture – and not to forget, the high costs involved, in the first place, anyway – the toss-up is between raw and polished (with seawater cooling as a possible option in coastal developments). In the new paradigm, recent technological developments in wastewater treatment plants allow for an improvement in quality of raw TSE. Polishing takes the water several notches higher. Though polished TSE comes at a cost higher than raw TSE, the fact of the matter is that it allows for higher cycles of concentration – sometimes, higher than even potable water.

Cost is too important a factor to ignore, though. It always has been and is more so in this period of economic uncertainty, in a world that is increasingly talking of a double-dip recession. At such times – and other times, as well – thinking beyond the conventional helps. Condensate water recovery is unconventional. Though it has been used for many, many years, it has never been viewed as a significant factor in district cooling plants. That view surely has to change in these times. At Reem Island, they are collecting condensate water with the intention of making their district cooling plants more water efficient. Nearly 20% of the make-up water will come from condensate water that is collected from buildings in the development. And for this, they say, considerable investment has gone into installing buffer tanks, pumps and pipes throughout the reticulation network.

Considering the fact that condensate water is very high quality water, when blended with TSE, it will improve the quality of TSE. The folks at Reem Island say that when they consider condensate water recovery and the use of polished water as benchmarks, the overall water efficiency of their district cooling plants is high.

Indeed, why let it drip and drain away, then?

B Surendar

IDEA once again spotlights energy efficiency at annual conference

IDEA, once again, thrust energy efficiency, as the key area of discussion at its Annual Conference & Trade Show, from June 13 to 16, in Indianapolis, USA. Citizens Thermal Energy of Indianapolis, which owns and operates one of the largest district heating and cooling systems in North America, was the conference host. According to IDEA, over 450 industry professionals attended the event and participated in technical sessions and visited the exhibition area, consisting of nearly 100 exhibitors. Saying that energy efficiency is what keeps the district energy industry competitive and reliable, IDEA President Rob Thornton, led the opening plenary session, titled, ‘Creating an efficient energy future, one community at a time’. In the session, delegates listened to speakers from the University of North Carolina (UNC), Chapel Hill; the University of Texas (UT), Austin; Seattle Steam and District Energy St Paul on what they had achieved in their campuses and facilities. Juan Ontiveros of UT Austin said that in a span of 12 years, the university had added eight million square feet of area, in effect doubling the size of the campus but was using the same amount of energy. A key area of concentration, Ontiveros said, was plant room efficiency. In January, he added, his team and he had achieved 0.329kW/TR. Owing to its practices, the university had been able to return to 1977 carbon emission level and fuel levels.

Rob Thornton

Besides energy efficiency, a recurrent theme was the use of renewable energy, with most of the speakers expressing a commitment to convert from coal to biogas and solar. Raymond DuBose of UNC said that the university had instituted an Energy Task Force, which has recommended to end the use of coal by 2010, seek to accelerate conversion to a cleaner fuel or fuel mix and to optimise the use of natural gas, as supplies and cost warrant. In his presentation, DuBose went as far as to call clean coal an oxymoron.

Ken Smith of District Energy St Paul said that the Minnesota-based company was also moving away from coal and that it was working to integrate a solar thermal project. Smith said that the company was, in fact, working to put the largest solar project in the American Midwest.

In a plenary panel discussion that followed, Fayad Al Khatib of Qatar Cool, David Bump of Thermal Chicago, Dennis Fotinos of Enwave (Toronto), Jamie Dillard of Citizens Thermal and Anders Rydaker of Ever-green Energy (Honolulu) spoke on what they had achieved in terms of offsetting the cooling (heating) demand. The discussion revealed that Thermal Chicago had managed 30MW of peak demand shift in the city and that Enwave had displaced 61MW of power from the Toronto power grid.

The iconic Lucas Oil Stadium, which receives chilled water from Citizens Thermal Energy

Al Khatib (see interview) said that Qatar Cool was able to achieve below 0.9kW/TR when compared to the 1.7kW/ TR of conventional systems. This, he said, translated to a savings of one million barrels of oil and four million Btu of natural gas a year.

The assertions prompted Thornton to ask whether or not the companies were getting credit for their accomplishments. “The question is, are we getting credit for that?” Thornton said. “Can we do something to raise our profile in this era of smart grid?”

From a Middle Eastern perspective, Al Khatib’s presence at the conference was a noteworthy one. The General Manager of Qatar Cool not only participated in the panel discussion but also, along with Thornton, signed an agreement, which formalised Qatar Cool as the host of the fifth International District Cooling Conference & Trade Show, to be held on November 8 and 9 at The Grand Hyatt Doha, under the theme, ‘District cooling: greener buildings, smarter grid’. Conducted by IDEA, the event will get its first airing in the peninsula; the previous four events were held in the UAE.

Eric Moe and Tim Nugent

On the second day of the conference in Indianapolis, Al Khatib, on behalf of Qatar Cool, also received two awards. The district cooling provider won gold for the number of buildings committed to district energy in 2009 and silver for the total building area committed to district energy. Qatar Cool contracted 44 new buildings in 2009, serving 11,060,237 square feet.

In November, Qatar Cool will have the largest district cooling plant in the world, when its newest plant on The Pearl-Qatar is inaugurated (see same interview with Fayad Al Khatib).

Palm District Cooling (PDC) and Empower also bagged awards in Indianapolis. PDC won gold for the total building area committed and Empower bronze in the same category. The two companies were not present to collect the awards.

The Chem-Aqua team

28-30 November 2010, Doha, Qatar

Fleming Gulf Conferences will be conducting the Summit under the theme, ‘Innovating energy efficiency in a dynamic region’. Key topics include ‘Is solar district cooling viable?’, ‘Is cogeneration gaining favour?’ ‘Bank’s perspective on the challenges perceived in financing district cooling projects in Qatar’, ‘Why is district cooling crucial to Qatar’s export revenues and its future ability for continuous growth?’, ‘Opportunities for district cooling in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’, ‘BOO/BOT model for district cooling’ and ‘TSE: challenges and opportunities’.

The Summit is expected to attract senior officials and key decision makers from district cooling companies, master developers, EMP/MEP contractors, design consultants, power and energy management companies, wastewater and desalination utility companies and regional regulatory officials, the organisers said. According to the organisers, speakers include Abdulhamid Al Mansour, the CEO of Saudi Tabreed; R Seetharaman, the CEO of Doha Bank Group; George Berbari, the CEO of DC Pro Engineering, Mohamed Hamra-Krouha, Partner at Clifford Chance; Jaap Kalkman, the Head of Arcapita (MENASA region); Albert Haykal, the Vertical Market Leaders (district cooling), Trane; Per Jonasson, the CEO of Capital Cooling MENA and Henrik Enstrom, President of Termoekonomi.

Contact: Samir Ahmed
Marketing Manager
E: samir.ahmed@fleminggulf.com
T: +91 988 63 54 321

22-25 November 2010 – Dubai International Exhibition Centre, UAE

The Big 5 is widely regarded as an influential building and construction show in the Middle East. It has a dedicated HVCAR section that draws the HVACR fraternity from the region.

Contact Sarah Palmer
Marketing Executive
dmg world media Dubai Ltd
PO Box 33817, Dubai, UAE
T: +971 4 438 0355
F: +971 4 438 0356
E: SarahPalmer@dmgworldmedia.com

11-14 November 2010 – SMX Convention Center, Manila, Philippines

The 13th HVAC/R Philippines 2010 will focus on all the sectors related to heating, ventilating, airconditioning, refrigerating, pumps, valves & pipes, filtration and purification technology. The show will bring together major suppliers of HVAC, refrigeration and pumps & valves industries from all over the world. The expo will serve as the best forum for all the visitors and exhibitors to network face to face, and to build up fresh business partners as well as renovate existing associations. HVAC/R Philippines 2010 will be a magnificent platform for all the attendees, as it will enable them to discover and attain the information of most up to date technologies and trends of the associated market. The targeted visitors in the event include manufacturers, fabricators, importers, exporters, service providers, director of projects, department heads, buyers and related professionals.

The profile for exhibits includes air-conditioning, air compressors, air filtration & purification equipment, blowers, chillers, cleaning equipment, compressors, cooling towers, automation components, chemical processing equipment, circuit breakers, engines & motors, environment protection equipment, filtration systems, hydraulic & pneumatic equipment, production facilities, check valves and cold storage facilities. The event is being organised by the Philippine Society of Ventilating, Air-Conditioning and Refrigerating Engineers.