LINDAU ON LAKE CONSTANCE, Germany, 30 March 2021: A German chemicals group has installed five QUANTUM Power chillers with a refrigeration capacity of 25 megawatts at its site in Singapore, ENGIE said through a Press release. The chillers now guarantee a reliable supply while simultaneously reducing carbon emissions by 1,650 tons per year, ENGIE claimed through the release.

ENGIE said the chemicals group approached it several months ago with the requirement that it wanted the greatest possible reliability of supply within refrigeration. Due to rising demand for a basic ingredient for animal feed, the group had plans to construct a second production site in Singapore, with an investment of more than half a million euros, and a planned production capacity of 300,000 tons per year.

The QUANTUM Power chillers from ENGIE Refrigeration
Picture courtesy ENGIE Refrigeration

ENGIE said refrigeration technology was essential in making the project a success. Daniel Keller, Head of Product and Application Management, ENGIE Refrigeration, said: “The exact temperature is crucial to the quality of the produced chemical products. That is why refrigeration for such a sensitive area is particularly challenging, as even minor deviations can have enormous effects. We at ENGIE meet the strict criteria of the chemicals industry. Furthermore, due to local conditions, sea water has to be used for the re-cooling of the QUANTUM Power. Here, we were able to fall back on our extensive experience in the field of maritime refrigeration and provide our customer with an extremely corrosion-resistant version of the condenser, which has inner tubes made from titanium.” In the case of the Singapore project, ENGIE said five QUANTUM Power chillers with a refrigeration capacity of 25 megawatts were the perfect solution for the customer. “Our modular chiller design with five chilled water sets ensures a fully reliable supply and compensates for any additional redundancy chiller; this is something none of our competitors can offer in this form,” Keller said. “That is why this was one of the main reasons for our customer to ultimately choose ENGIE Refrigeration.”

ENGIE said 10 compressors arranged in parallel on the chillers increase the reliability of supply. As each of them can be isolated from the refrigeration circuit with the help of shut-off devices, each can be replaced individually and while the other compressors are in operation, it said. Furthermore, the QUANTUM Power chillers are supplied via two feeds, which means that five compressors are assigned to one electrical feed, it said. If one feed fails, 50% of the refrigeration capacity of the entire unit still remain available, it said. In addition, both the critical components of the sensor system and the expansion valves of the individual pressure stages are doubled up, so that most of the performance can be covered by the redundant component in the event of failure, it added.

In addition, ENGIE said, the chemicals group attached great importance to the efficiency of the refrigeration system. “Our Cooling Manager ensures an energy-efficient refrigeration supply, because the chilled water sets form an intelligently connected network at every operating point,” Keller said. “This allows us to achieve very high energy efficiency levels, especially during operation under partial load.”

ENGIE said that thanks to the system, the chemicals group will also benefit from huge savings. Each operating year, it will save 400,000 euros in energy costs (electricity) and, thus, 1,650 tons of CO2 (basis of this calculation: 496g of CO2 per kWh of electricity generated in Singapore), it claimed. The system, ENGIE said, has been in operation on site for several weeks.