IIR document

Ice-making and ice storage, with water as refrigerant.

Number: pap. ID: 508

Author(s) : ALBRING P., HONKE M.

Summary

The quest for alternative and environmentally friendly refrigerants that started in the 1990s gave natural materials, and in particular the oldest refrigerant – water –, a new perspective. By the end of the 1990s, R718 turbo water chillers had already been developed and manufactured. Since 2008, a third generation, whose cooling capacity ranges between 200 and 1500 kW, has been prepared for its market introduction. Conditions for water chillers with water as refrigerant are especially beneficial when applied in the range of higher evaporation temperatures, also in the field of heat pumps. A principal requirement of applying water as refrigerant in compression chillers was to solve basic issues regarding the process and manufacture of suitable water-vapor turbo compression chillers. After the feasibility of water-vapor compression at low pressures has been proven, a further range of interesting applications opens up for such turbo compression chillers. Within the frame of a research project, a facility for making vacuum ice and its storage has been developed at and set up at ILK Dresden. Ice making by direct evaporation of the refrigerant water works without any energetic drawbacks as compared to previously known generation methods. Ice making at high evaporation temperatures provides good prerequisites for an energy-efficient procedure of storing cold. Vacuum ice making is energetically superior to all previously known ice-making processes. In order to keep the cost of vacuum ice making down, cascade refrigeration systems are applied, but with the refrigerant R718 only at the lower level. Vacuum ice-making combined with compact ice storages yields interesting approaches towards the design of refrigeration plants of unsteady cold demand. Existing plants can be retrofitted with vacuum ice storage systems, which will contribute to decreasing their peak loads.

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Pages: 13 p.

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Details

  • Original title: Ice-making and ice storage, with water as refrigerant.
  • Record ID : 30002010
  • Languages: English
  • Source: Proceedings of the 23rd IIR International Congress of Refrigeration: Prague, Czech Republic, August 21-26, 2011. Overarching theme: Refrigeration for Sustainable Development.
  • Publication date: 2011/08/21

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