Challenge
A large university hospital in Germany was seeking to radically expand cooling capacity across its entire site with the development of a new chiller plant.
The hospital faces huge demand for comfort cooling. The new plant is intended to have four separate units providing a combined 48MW of additional capacity. The initial requirement was for a single, large unit that could provide 12MW. Once installed, the hospital will be able to take stock and assess demand for future need.
As well as a chiller capable of providing very large cooling capacity, the hospital also required a unit that can run on a non-flammable refrigerant with very low GWP.
Solution
The hospital’s requirements limited its supplier options. The hospital is already using a Trane chiller as part of an eight-unit set-up in its existing chiller plant and is impressed by the product’s excellent performance and low energy consumption.
The hospital recognised that Trane is probably the only company in Europe able to fulfil its objectives without any compromise. The specification for the project was based on a new 12MW Centrifugal chiller CenTraVac™ CDHH unit from Trane. This centrifugal chiller with direct drive, multistage compressor utilises R-1233zd, a next-generation refrigerant with near-zero GWP and one of the few non-flammable olefin options available.
Results
The CenTraVac™ Centrifugal chiller is one of the largest unit that Trane has ever delivered to Germany, weighing more than 50 tonnes and requiring a special transportation arrangements.
Although few competitor bids were directly involved in the project, comparisons with similar products demonstrate that the Trane CenTraVac™ Centrifugal chiller CDHH has a much wider and more stable operating range even at high ambient conditions than rival units. The CDHH provides up to 12 MW of cooling capacity and is ideal for organisations facing substantial demands for comfort cooling such as hospitals and exhibition halls.
