Cooling with Compact Absorption Chillers

Roland Hellmer
Vattenfall Europe Wrme AG
Business Affairs, Berlin

Decentralize compact absorption and business opportunities

170 MW
in total

Overall technical concept for district heating based cooling

Compact absorption chiller and modular structure

Capacity range of the compact 50kW- absorption chiller

Innovative elements of the compact absorption chiller

Low temperature operation possible minimum 60C

High temperature spread in district heating (designed for 90/74C)

High pressure design PN10(16)

Compact unit, low-weight design

High efficiency (COP 0,8)

Dry re-cooling concept (up to 45C re-cooling temp.)

Cold water temperatures between 5C and 50C possible

Integrated vacuum system

Control design for total cooling asset (incl. re-cooler)

Minimum auxiliary energy demand

Cost characteristics of the compact absorption chiller

investment costs in comparison

specific price in per kW

traditional absorption chiller

prototype
chiller

compression chiller
cooling capacity / kW

source:

Indoor climate and customer perception

60 % of interviewed persons made already

bad experience on ordinary air conditioning

Inconvenient air conditioning with extreme difference of indoor temperature to ambient air temperature
Drafty / dry / bad air
Air conditioning causes health problems

Our approach

Cooling, but no air conditioning

Cold water supply ~16C

Fan coil technology for retrofit in existing buildings

Fan coil realization at Vattenfall

DC Compact: Compact absorption machines in pilot applications for warm District Cooling
Subject of the project

Pilots (examples):

European wide roll out of different technical concepts by using

compact absorption chillers (50 300 kW) for district heating
based cooling. Development of individual business concepts for
cooling.
Utilities show in pilot applications the benefits of the compact
absorption chiller and create their own business cases for cooling.
National technical consultants are coached on the finding in pilots
in Germany and Sweden to support the utilities in the technical
setup of the pilot installations during the roll out phase

Cooling in existing buildings (up to 300 kW)

Hybrid cooling in data centers
20C distr. heat return temperature in winter

Technical setup

Project setup

Coaches

Coaches

Knowledge
transfer

Knowledge
organized by AGFW
transfer

AGFW (project partner), supported

by
organized
by AGFW
BS Nova Apparatebau GmbH
Vattenfall Europe Wrme AG

AGFW, supported by
BS Nova Apparatebau GmbH
Vattenfall Europe Wrme AG

National
technical consultants

National*
technical consultants

Technical
implementation

support

Project partners:
AIT (AT)
*): minimum 1 per country with pilots
Hamreco (SWE)
district heating utilities
Midroc
AIT
(AT)(FIN,SWE)
coaches
Politecnico
(IT)
Hamreco
(SWE)
scientific bodies
RMN Ing. (GER, NL)

Midroc (SWE)
RMN Ing. (GER, NL)

up to 10 pilots

up to 15 utilities with
pilot installations

Technical
support

District heating customers in

AUT
FIN
GER
A2A (IT)
IT Gteborg Energi (SE)
NL
Halmstads Energi och Milj (SE)
SWE

Vattenfall (GER, SE)

Nuon (NL)

Co-financed by European Commission Network of Eco-Innovativion Financiers

DC Compact: Dissemination of information

beyond
DC compact
AUT
district heating
association

Selected investors

10 pilots

DHC+
DHC+

entrepreneurs
dissemination channels:
Performance assessment scheme
Project website
Networking conference
Funding opportunity workshop
Web matching platform

other
district heating
association

DK
district heating
association
FIN
district heating
association

EU-wide
investors & entrepreneurs
SWE
district heating
association
PL
district heating
association

GER
district heating
association
IT
district heating
association