The chemicals industry requires a refrigeration supply that is completely reliable. A current project from ENGIE Refrigeration demonstrates how sustainable cooling can be provided, even in such highly sensitive environments. A German chemicals group has installed five QUANTUM Power chillers with a refrigeration capacity of 25 megawatts at its site in Singapore, where the chiller now guarantee a reliable supply while simultaneously reducing carbon emissions by 1,650 tons per year.
Several months ago, one of the global leaders in the specialist industry approached the specialists at ENGIE Refrigeration. Its main requirement: 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. Refrigeration technology is essential in making this project a success, as Daniel Keller, head of product and application management at ENGIE Refrigeration, explains: ‘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 this case, five QUANTUM Power from ENGIE Refrigeration with a refrigeration capacity of 25 megawatts was 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. That is why this was one of the main reasons for our customer to ultimately choose ENGIE Refrigeration,’ says Daniel Keller. Ten compressors arranged in parallel on the chiller 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. Furthermore, the QUANTUM Power is supplied via two feeds, which means that five compressors are assigned to one electrical feed. If one feed fails, 50 per cent of the refrigeration capacity of the entire unit still remain available. 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. In short, thanks to an innovative technological concept, ENGIE Refrigeration meets the strict requirements for refrigeration supply in an ideal manner.
In addition, the customer attaches 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. This allows us to achieve very high energy efficiency levels, especially during operation under partial load,’ says Daniel Keller. Thanks to the sophisticated system, the chemicals company 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: 496 g of CO2 per kWh of electricity generated in Singapore). The system has been in operation on site for several weeks – to the customer’s fullest satisfaction. That is why follow-on projects for ENGIE Refrigeration are already in the works.