A semi-hermetic ammonia heat pump for heating and cooling an office complex

An innovative semi-hermetic ammonia heat pump for heating and cooling 40,000 m² of apartments and business premises was recently installed in Eindhoven, the Netherlands.

 

 

The remodelled office complex, a former Philips factory in Eindhoven, which opened in September 2018, will use a 800 kW ammonia heat pump system fitted with two twin screw compressors for space heating during the winter and air conditioning during the summer. One of the compressors is redundant in case the system fails.

“This is a very unique unit. I don’t think there is another one like it in Europe, as this unit has two semi-hermetic twin screw compressors running on ammonia,” Udo van der Meer, managing director of ECR, designer of the system, told. “The semi-hermetic compressor that we have made is very unusual, as you usually have open-type compressors due to the inclusion of the shaft ceiling, which a semi-hermetic compressor does not contain. The advantage of the new compressor is that it is smaller and contains electronic motors.” he explained.

The ammonia charge of the system is only 180kg. Aluminium windings are used to protect any leakage of ammonia and the system contains no shaft seal. EC fans are used to reduce any noise from the ammonia system (with a night mode for extra energy savings) and the evaporator and condenser were optimised for the HVAC system.

Van der Meer argues that the packaged units can help open up ammonia to new areas of application, including HVAC and supermarkets.

In addition to the heat pump, the building also uses biomass and solar energy to fulfil other heating needs and to produce electricity.

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