An Assessment Approach for Evaluating Chilled Water Systems

With a growing environmental awareness the efficient use of resources as well as the reduction of harmful emissions have become fundamental issues of politics as well as economics. Companies with high energy demands face further pressure to cut cost, especially in the context of rising energy prices. Refrigeration industry is affected by both, legal constraints to reduce emissions as well as high energy cost due to a significant energy consumption. The investigation and improvement of industrial chilled water systems might contribute to master these challenges. Though, such an assessment requires well developed methods that are easy to apply in practical day-to-day business. Therefore, this work develops an assessment approach for evaluating chilled water systems that is in step with actual practice. It furthermore considers options for waste heat utilization as well as the setup of alternative designs including alternative technologies such as heat-driven water chillers or poly generation. Existing system as well as alternative design can be assessed in order to investigate the best design for the provision of cooling.