QUANTUM Air models with optional heat recovery. Image courtesy ENGIE Refrigeration GmbH

LINDAU ON LAKE CONSTANCE, Germany, 17 September 2020: ENGIE Refrigeration said its QUANTUM Air chillers are now available with optional heat recovery. Making the announcement through a Press release, the company said customers can, thus, reuse up to 100% of the waste heat generated during the cold generation process – and use it for heating purposes, for example. This reduces resource use and improves energy efficiency, the company said.

The feature is especially interesting for industrial enterprises, data centres, hospitals and hotels, the company said. Saying that manufacturers and users of refrigeration systems around the world are currently grappling with the question, ‘How can waste heat be used effectively?’ the company said suitable approaches can make an important contribution towards a reduction in energy costs.

Water-cooled QUANTUM chillers have been available with optional heat recovery for many years, the company said, adding that customers are still running them successfully. As this feature has many advantages, ENGIE Refrigeration said it is now offering it for the QUANTUM Air, as well.

The basis of the option is an ingenious technical solution, the company claimed. The team at ENGIE integrated an additional heat exchanger in the QUANTUM Air chiller, the company said. The exchanger makes it possible to conduct the heat generated during the cold generation process to a defined heat process – such as production hall heating or warm water supply in offices, it said. Otherwise, the heat would be released into the environment, unused, via the air-cooled condensers, it further said. Users, thus, are able to utilise free heat energy that they would otherwise have to obtain from an additional heat generator, the company said. This heat energy can be used either completely or partially in what is referred to as combined operation, the company said. To this end, the waste heat is transferred to a heat circuit via a parallel flooded shell and tube condenser, the company said. The chiller fans, it added, now run at partial load, or not at all.

Saying that the heat recovery option bestows even more advantages, the company said that in addition to the carbon reduction in pure chiller mode, it is possible to achieve further carbon savings in combined mode. Giving an example, the company said that with heat recovery activated, the building can be heated using waste heat, which produces far less CO2 than heating the building with district heat, based on fossil fuels. Carbon emissions from natural gas are reduced by about 247 g/kWh, and carbon emissions from heating oil are reduced by approximately 318 g/kWh*, the company claimed. Furthermore, heat recovery allows the user to recover or save significant amounts of energy, the company said. This, it said, is illustrated by the following example calculation: A QUANTUM Air in version A0570-HR and with a refrigeration capacity of 500 kW requires 122.1 kW of electrical power to operate a chilled water set. This generates 622.1 kW of heat for recovery (EER 4.1/COP 5.1). The electricity costs for continuous operation and 100% load are, thus, €189,318.00**. If the deployed energy of 622.1 kW heat is converted to a fossil fuel, this results in huge savings of €386,921.00 per year for natural gas***. The annual savings for heating oil are €550,409.00, while the savings for electricity reach €964,578.00 per year***. In particular, the company said, integrated heat recovery for the QUANTUM Air pays off for all industries that are especially energy-intensive and/or have high demand for heat energy – from manufacturing companies and data centres to hospitals and hotels.

*Assumption: Average ambient temperature ≤15 degrees C; emissions generated during combustion; does not include any emissions generated during manufacture and transport

**Assumption: Electricity costs = 17.7 ct/kWh; continuous operation = 8760 h/a

***Assumption: Cost of natural gas = 7.1 ct/kWh; cost of heating oil = 10.1 ct/kWh; electricity cost = 17.7 ct/kWh

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