Lithium Bromide Double Effect HVAC Chiller Operations

[russmech]

I am involved in the planning of a new chiller plant where the Owner is interested in using waste heat (steam) to feed absorption type chillers in the summer. We are in the far north where our season is short (long periods of chiller downtime) and chillers are usually not required at night (relatively short run cycle times).

I've been told the above conditions are not ideal for absorption type chillers due to their sluggishness in starting, their inability to modulate well, and their general high maintenance (even during periods of downtimes). Does anyone out their have any practical experience (preferrably long term) with these types of machines? Can you lead me to a good (non-biased) web based source of information or even the name of a person who might have experience running a chiller plant with these types of machines in them? Thanks in advance.

 

[imok2]

Try this for unbiased information:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...ifornia+gas+absorption+type+chillers+&spell=1

 

[emanager]

Check this out...

http://www.newbuildings.org/downloads/guidelines/AbsorptionChillerGuideline.pdf

I used to work for Hitachi Ltd when we were selling waste heat and direct fired 2 stage steam absorption chillers. These machines have excellent part load performance but require a larger cooling tower than a comparably sized centrifugal chiller. You can definately purchase a steam powered machine if you have waste steam from an onsite process.

Steam machines were very popular in NYC in the early 90s since the utility was paying rebates of $400 per ton which nearly paid 100% of the cost of the machines. As the energy manager, I installed 2 500ton steam machines which only cost us the installation cost in a 5th Ave department store after we de-commissioned 1000 tons of electric chillers.

The major mfgrs are a good resource for performing an operating cost analysis.