Utilise waste heat and increase energy efficiency: ENGIE Refrigeration offers the QUANTUM AIR with heat recovery as an option

How can waste heat be used effectively? Manufacturers and users of refrigeration systems around the world are currently grappling with this question. Suitable approaches can make an important contribution towards a reduction in energy costs. ENGIE Refrigeration now offers a forward-looking solution: the refrigeration and heating specialist from Lindau on Lake Constance, Germany, offers its QUANTUM Air chillers with heat recovery as an option. Water-cooled QUANTUM chillers have been available with optional heat recovery for many years – and customers are still running them successfully. As this feature has many advantages, ENGIE Refrigeration now offers it for the QUANTUM Air as well.

Sophisticated technology reduces costs
The basis is an ingenious technical solution: the experts at ENGIE Refrigeration integrate an additional heat exchanger in the QUANTUM Air chiller. This 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; otherwise, this heat would be released into the environment, unused, via the air-cooled condensers. Users thus utilise free heat energy that they would otherwise have to obtain from an additional heat generator. This heat energy can be used either completely or partially in what is referred to as combined operation. To this end, the waste heat is transferred to a heat circuit via a parallel flooded shell and tube condenser. The chiller fans now run at partial load or not at all.

Sustainable refrigeration solution from ENGIE
But the QUANTUM Air with heat recovery has even more advantages: in addition to the carbon reduction in pure chiller mode, it is possible to achieve further carbon savings in combined mode. To give an example: 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 approx. 318 g/kWh*. Furthermore, heat recovery allows the user to recover or save significant amounts of energy. This 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 per cent load are thus €189,318.00**. If you convert the deployed energy of 622.1 kW heat 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*** – a true added value for the user. In particular, 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 producing companies and data centres to hospitals and hotels.

*Assumption: average ambient temperature ≤15 degrees Celsius; 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

Photos: ENGIE Refrigeration GmbH; permission to reprint for free if source is acknowledged