District cooling
District cooling is ever increasing in importance worldwide. The basic principle of district cooling is similar to district heating. Production and consumption of cooling can be spatially separated. This makes sense when the cooling is produced efficiently through a centralized system rather than in an individual system. Accordingly, there are numerous factors to support this, including:
- Larger systems often have considerably better degrees of efficiency than small cooling units.
- Via trigeneration, waste heat from thermal electricity production and industrial process waste heat are used in the production of cooling. Additionally, other sources of heat, such as waste incineration or geothermal energy can be used in the production of cooling.
The term „trigeneration“ signals a completely new form of energy efficiency in the energy industry. There is generally waste heat from power stations or industrial companies all year round. Through trigeneration, and in line with current demand, it is possible to use this energy for heating or cooling purposes (conversion from heat to cooling).
There are two basic forms of centralized cooling systems:
- Heat is transported to consumers via existing heat supply networks and subsequently converted to cooling there.
- Cooling is centrally produced and transported to consumers via special cooling supply networks.
The primary temperature range of cooling supply networks is between 6°C and 12°C. However, fluids for cooling with extremely low temperatures in special solutions, as they are used in the chemicals industry, can also be transported.
isoplus supply both components for heat supply networks and special products for cooling supply networks. With flexible piping systems, installation costs can be reduced. For larger transmission pipelines, the use of rigid piping systems is mostly recommended. The outstanding insulation properties of PUR rigid foam combined with the corresponding technology are a guarantee for safe and reliable solutions.