Targeting and design of chilled water network

• Published in: Applied energy 2014-12, Vol.134, p.589-599
• Main Authors: Foo, Dominic C.Y., Ng, Denny K.S., Leong, Malwynn K.Y., Chew, Irene M.L., Subramaniam, Mahendran, Aziz, Ramlan, Lee, Jui-Yuan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Air conditioning. Ventilation; Applied sciences; Chilled water systems; Energy; Energy. Thermal use of fuels; Exact sciences and technology; Heating, air conditioning and ventilation; HVAC; Pinch analysis; Process integration; Resource conservation; Techniques, equipment. Control. Metering
• ISSN: 0306-2619; 1872-9118
• DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2014.07.106

[Display omitted] •Minimum flowrate targeting for chilled water network.•Mixed series/parallel configuration of chilled water-using units.•Integrated cooling and chilled water networks. Chilled water is a common cooling agent used in various industrial, commercial and institutional facilities. In conventional practice, chilled water is distributed via chilled water networks (CHWNs) in parallel configuration to provide required air conditioning and/or equipment cooling in the heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) system. In this paper, process integration approach based on pinch analysis technique is used to address energy efficiency issues in the CHWN system for grassroots design problem. Graphical and algebraic targeting techniques are developed to identify the minimum chilled water flowrate needed to remove a given amount of heat load from the CHWN. Doing this leads to higher chilled water return temperature and enhanced energy efficiency of the HVAC system. A recent proposed network design technique is extended to synthesize the CHWN in a mixed series/parallel configuration. A novel concept of integrated cooling and chilled water networks (IWN) is also proposed in this work, with its targeting and design techniques presented. Hypothetical examples and an industrial case study are solved to elucidate the proposed approaches.