Read on to know more about the first 3 technology case studies selected for ATMOsphere America 2014's HVAC session...

• Moving from Freon to Natural Refrigerant after a catastrophic fire by Benoit Rodier, Cimco

This project focuses on a meat packing plant in Viande Paquette in Quebec, Canada, which burned down in 2009. When rebuilding in 2011, the family chose a central thermal plan including ammonia with glycol recirculation by Cimco Refrigeration. The central ammonia plan uses a booster ammonia compressor at -45°C which serves low temperature spiral freezers, blast freezer cells and a cold storage freezer. The second stage ammonia compressor cools a propylene glycol loop to maintain the medium temperature storage room between 4-10°C. In the mechanical room, 3 storage tanks were installed as ice batteries to store low temperature energy at night and supply all the air condition during the day. The heat rejection of the entire system is reclaimed in a secondary hot glycol loop at 35°C, providing heat for the entire building. The new system, for which the owner received a half million dollar grant, significantly reduced electricity consumption.

• Industrial Ammonia Systems used for cooling in commercial/office buildings by Luke Facemyer, Stellar and Chuck Taylor, CRT Design

This case study includes three recent, distinct projects utilizing an industrial ammonia system to provide cooling to office/commercial spaces. The first project is a large greenfield food processing plant in which the ammonia system was expanded in order to also serve 20,000 sq ft of office space. The second project utilizes both ammonia and CO₂ systems to cool a mixed-use building. The third project is a retrofit project where several conventional HVAC units were removed from a commercial building and replaced with an ammonia system. Energy and cost analysis will be presented for each of the three projects.

• Natural Refrigerant, Enhanced Geothermal Heating & Cooling Solutions by Lalit Chordia and Marc Portnoff, Thar Geothermal LLC

Thar Geothermal, LLC has developed commercial heating and cooling systems that are rooted in nature’s design, and that meet the triple bottom line of enhanced energy efficiency, reduced operating costs, and reduced environmental footprint. The presentation will cover the design and implementation of an R744 direct exchange, ground source heat pump (DX-GSHP) system. This includes examples of 1) how versatile the technology can be with regards to interfacing with a range of standard HVAC & R systems and 2) real world system performance.