Cooling Applications
PHEs in cooling systems
The requirement for thermal efficiency – close temperatures – is very high particularly in cooling applications e.g. thermal storage
and free cooling. Thanks to Alfa Laval’s superior competence in plate pressing, temperature approaches of down to 0.5°C (0.9°F) between the two circuits can be achieved. In addition, this can be accomplished in a single pass connection with all four connections on the front plate, making installation and maintenance very easy.
Central Cooling
The main component of the central comfort cooling system is the cold source, commonly a chiller. While cold water or glycol solution is produced on the evaporator side, heat is generated and rejected on the condenser side of the chiller. There are several benefits using a plate heat exchanger in either the hot condenser circuit or the cold
evaporator circuit. The condenser can for example be cooled by an open cooling source like sea or river water. However, the often aggressive media in the open circuits can affect sensitive AC equipment such as the chiller. A plate heat exchanger, installed as a divider between the two systems, eliminates these problems. On the cold evaporator side the plate heat exchanger is used to separate two clean cold circuits, and to protect other equipment from high pressures.
District Cooling
District cooling is environment-friendly with better utilisation of cooling capacities and an environment-friendly cooling source. It gives the user convenience and comfort and a better level of equipment redundancy, less need for maintenance and space savings. It also gives the user economical benefits with lower investment costs and flexibility of operation. Using plate heat exchangers in indirect district cooling distribution creates a number of advantages, for example pressure interception between the different circuits. The wide range of Alfa Laval PHE models with different characteristics assures that optimum solutions can be found for virtually all comfort cooling duties.
