Some Points to Note About Chilling Plants

Chilling plants also known as a refrigeration chillers have a varied applications in industries. Even the air conditioners we use at home use small scale refrigeration chillers. In industries, they are used to keep certain materials at a particular low temperature. In a single sentence, chilling plants are used for controlled cooling of a place, materials, mechanism or/and machinery. In general refrigeration chillers work by removing heat from a liquid usually water. This liquid is then passed through a single heat exchanger or a series of heat exchangers to cool the air or an equipment. The most important component of a chiller is the refrigeration compressor. It is generally used as a pump for the refrigerant that is used to produce the required chilling effect. The capacity of this compressor decides the cooling capacity of the chiller.

Technology Used in Chillers:

Refrigeration chillers work using one of the two technologies mentioned below:

Vapour-Compression Technology:

Vapour-compression chiller technology works on a concept known as the reverse-Rankine cycle, which commonly called the vapour compression cycle. The cooling effect is produced with evaporative cooling heat rejection. In these type of vapour-compression chillers four types of compressors can be used. They are the centrifugal compressor, screw-driven compressor, scroll compressor, and reciprocating compressor. These compressors can be powered using electric motors, gas turbines, or steam turbines.

Absorption Technology:

The chillers using absorption technology work on a concept called absorption refrigeration cycle. This is a thermodynamic cycle, where the driving force is a heat source. The heat is usually produced by steam, hot water, or by combustion. This type of chillers usually have very low electric power requirements even though it uses two pumps – solution pump and refrigerant pump, but it usually requires a larger cooling tower when compared to vapour compression chillers.

Refrigerants:

Refrigerant are most important thing in chilling plants. Without the refrigerant the cooling effect will not be attained. With so many refrigerants available today, it is important to choose the right refrigerant for a chilling plant. The refrigerant used in each chiller varies depending on the type of technology and the specifications of the chiller. For example, in a vapour-compression chiller the refrigerant is used internally as the working fluid. Therefore it is important to ensure that the refrigerant’s cooling characteristics match the cooling temperature requirement of the chilling plant. There are a few important parameter, which should be considered while choosing a refrigerant. They are the operating temperatures, operating pressures, global warming potential (GWP), and ozone depletion potential (ODP).

Important Factors to Consider While Choosing a Chiller:

There are many important factors to keep in mind while choosing a chilling plant for industrial use. They are evaporator material, evaporator type, the total life cycle cost, chiller IP rating, chiller cooling capacity, evaporator capacity, the power source, condenser material, condenser capacity, ambient temperature, motor fan type, noise level, fluid discharge temperature, internal piping materials, type of compressor, number of compressors, coolant requirements, number of fridge circuits, and COP (co-efficient of performance).

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