Impact of advanced fluids on costs of district cooling systems
- Argonne National Lab., IL (United States)
Three alternate fluids, ice-water slurry, friction reduction additive and the combination of them, have been compared for use in District Cooling Systems (DCS). The effect of the fluids on cost and cooling capacities were considered for the two cases of new and existing DCS separately. Two criteria were used in comparisons among fluids in each case: constant pumping power which allows for the most benefit, and constant velocity which is more practical consideration. An economic assessment for a 500 ton system shows a potential cost difference in the total pipe cost for a new system of 70% when a 30% ice slurry is used in place of chilled water. The pipe diameter is reduced to 40% using the slurry. These results apply to the constant comparison and are independent of the use of additive. Friction reduction additives serve to reduce pumping power and pressure drop. The ice-water slurry also has a significant impact on existing district cooling systems. It can potentially expand the cooling capacity by 500% without new piping being installed while maintaining the same pumping power, velocity and pressure-drop as the chilled water system. Again, friction reduction additives serve to reduce pumping power and pressure-drop. They do not influence cooling capacity. The cost for expanding the piping to increase the cooling capacity by the same amount by the use of conventional district cooling technology has been shown to be extremely high compared to the ice-water slurry system.
- Research Organization:
- Argonne National Lab., IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-31109-ENG-38
- OSTI ID:
- 10149147
- Report Number(s):
- ANL/CP--74876; CONF-9206178--1; ON: DE92014856
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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