COOLING FROM HEAT - WITHOUT COMPRESSORS, WITHOUT ELECTRICITY!
Fahrenheit adsorption cooling systems generate cooling by harnessing heat from various sources such as combined heat and power plants, industrial processes, compressors, steam systems, solar installations, or local boiler rooms. This approach provides efficient and environmentally friendly cooling while significantly reducing operating costs, making it an energy-efficient and effective cooling solution.
The adsorption chiller operates on the principle of solid sorption. During the adsorption process, vapor from the sorbent material (silica gel or zeolite) is "sucked in" (adsorbed), causing water to evaporate and generate cooling. When the material is saturated, adding heat to the gel regenerates it, and the process starts anew.
Adsorption is the attachment of atoms or molecules to the surface of solids. In the cold generator of Fahrenheit water chillers, water molecules are attached to one of two adsorbers, which come from the adjacent evaporator. There, water with the refrigerant is evaporated at a few degrees Celsius to provide cooling. The adsorber ensures the required very low vapor pressure.
Cooling is delivered in the form of cold water and can be used for process cooling or room air conditioning. The chiller is versatile and analogous to a conventional electrically driven chiller. Fahrenheit cooling systems operate on the principle of adsorption. In the device, two sub-processes alternate, achieving quasi-continuous cooling performance.
In addition to cooling applications, chillers can also be used as heat pumps to support building heating in winter. The system can be automatically switched between cooling and heating by higher-level control, allowing automatic operation in both modes.
The second of the two adsorbers is heated simultaneously with the supplied heat from compressors or steam installations. To enable quasi-continuous cooling, both adsorbers operate alternately in two phases.
From the perspective of cooling applications, the machine behaves like a chiller. Cold water temperatures range from 9°C to 21°C depending on specifications. Inside the chiller (the chilled water supply area), no actively moving parts are required. It does not need to be opened for inspection or maintenance purposes, so it is welded tightly.
Thanks to Fahrenheit technology, the chiller requires no maintenance. Service work is only needed in the peripheral areas of the chiller and other system components.
Adsorption chillers - how they work
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Adsorption cooling with silica gel
The generation of chillers named eCoo produces cold by accumulating water vapor in porous solids. We use silica gel as the adsorbent for this process. Silica gel is a porous sand, completely non-toxic and environmentally harmless, consisting of SiO2. Pure water acts as the refrigerant. Unlike other refrigerants, water is a safe component.
The adsorption process itself is 100 percent reversible and operates without any mechanical support. This means that the transport of refrigerants does not require any pumps, compressors, or valves, and therefore there is no wear on components inside the vacuum module. The vacuum modules are hermetically sealed and maintenance-free. Unlike conventional technologies, this system does not experience any refrigerant losses during operation.
SorTech chillers operate reliably at an initial supply temperature of 50°C. The vacuum module housing is made of thin stainless steel material, based on the 'sandwich' or 'coffee packaging' principle, directing the driving force - atmospheric pressure - onto the internal shell of the module structure.
FAHRENHEIT adsorption cooling systems
FAHRENHEIT cooling systems can be combined modularly - thus individually tailored to the desired cooling requirements. Our standard systems can be cascaded to increase their cooling capacity.
- High-efficiency pumps with speed control for all three circuits
- Integrated free cooling mode: requires no additional hydraulics or software
- Robust and reliable SIEMENS controller
- Visualization and control in the cloud from anywhere
- Integrated communication protocols: BACnet IP, BACnet MS/TP, M-Bus, LON, Modbus RTU, OPC
- Internal modules can be connected in parallel or series to optimize power and temperature drop
eCoo 20 ST
eCoo 20X
eCoo 30
eCoo 30X
eCoo 40X
Adsorption cooling with Zeolite
To expand the range of applications in specific climatic zones with higher temperatures, engineers have developed a new zeolite technology (PST-Process - partial transformation). In this revolutionary coating process, zeolite – like silica gel, an environmentally friendly, non-toxic material - can crystallize directly on the surface of a conventional heat exchanger (Gill type), foam, shaped sponge, or form on fibrous material.
Compared to traditionally coated adsorbers, this SorTech innovation achieves particularly high power density due to its exceptional water capabilities and optimized heat exchange conditions. Additionally, the crystallized zeolite coating exhibits strong adhesion to the substrate and a solid bond, providing excellent corrosion protection. The fact that the coating process eliminates the use of any binding or adhesive layers is one of the secrets of the system's optimized heat exchange.
Finally, thanks to this innovative technology, the size, weight, capacity, and cost of the integrated heat exchanger could be significantly reduced - while maintaining the same cooling power.
Self-cooling Supercomputer - Data Center Cooling
Fahrenheit's adsorption cooling system supports sustainable energy efficiency at the Leibniz Supercomputer Centre
Data centers consume enormous amounts of electricity. Globally, they consume over two percent of generated electricity and make a corresponding contribution to CO2 emissions. Forecasts predict that the number of data centers, and thus electricity consumption, will continue to grow in the coming years. For this reason, alternative solutions are being sought to significantly reduce electricity consumption and CO2 emissions. The SuperMUC-NG supercomputer shows that these reductions can already be achieved today. The Intel-Lenovo supercomputer, installed at the Leibniz Supercomputer Centre (LRZ) at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Garching, uses complex models and simulations to better understand issues such as the universe, climate change, and drug action. For this purpose, it needs up to four megawatts of electrical power. As a result of the enormous, heat-generating computing power, it requires efficient and, if possible, energy-saving cooling.
The adsorption cooling system makes a significant contribution to this effect. It converts heat generated in the processors into cooling energy for the cooling system. As a result of heat recovery, the computer's cooling infrastructure optimizes efficiency, which saves energy and significantly reduces CO2 emissions. In the field of high-performance computing (HPC), SuperMUC-NG has become a model in terms of sustainability. The 600 kW Fahrenheit adsorption cooling system is currently one of the largest in Europe.
Climate protection and energy prices put pressure on increasing the energy efficiency of all modern IT applications. Large data centers can be pioneers of "green IT" by cooling themselves cost-effectively while saving resources. According to the Energy-Efficient Data Centers Network (NeRZ), in German data centers, more than 13 billion kWh of energy is converted into heat each year and then released into the environment without utilization. At the same time, the growing high power density in data centers increases the demands on cooling systems. According to a study by the Borderstep Institute, energy consumption by German data centers increased by more than 40 percent compared to 2010. Modern technical solutions, such as the adsorption cooling system, can pave the way for greater resource efficiency.
Andreas Thomasch, Director of HPC & AI at Lenovo, confirms: "The warm water cooling solution, implemented in cooperation with Fahrenheit and the Leibniz Supercomputer Centre, shows how even very energy-intensive supercomputers, consuming several megawatts, can be operated using waste heat to generate cooling power. This joint innovation combines Fahrenheit's adsorption technology with Lenovo Neptune technology. It improves the climate balance and at the same time reduces operating costs. For me, this is an excellent example of joint innovation with our customers, fully in line with Lenovo's 'From Exascale to Everyscale™' strategy. It also expresses the conviction that this combination of technologies can also be implemented for customers consuming less than one megawatt, to design high-performance computing in a permanently more sustainable way.
Cooling Saves Electricity
The warm water cooling system with a cooling capacity of up to four megawatts of heat cools approximately 311,000 cores and memories of SuperMUC-NG. The temperature of the warm water cooling system rises to 55°C. This waste heat from the IT system can in turn be used to heat buildings in cooler months. Additionally, the adsorption system uses heat from the warm water to generate cooling energy. In this way, it cools the heated air from the remaining air-cooled components using water-cooled rear doors, which act as air-water heat exchangers. For this purpose, water with a temperature of about 20°C and a maximum cooling capacity of about 600kW is needed. This heat recovery system saves up to 80 percent of electrical energy during cooling compared to conventional cooling systems. In this way, the computer cools itself, as the heat available from the processes enables the production of cold water.
Prof. Dr. Dieter Kranzlmüller, head of the Leibniz Supercomputer Centre, emphasizes the advantages of the cooling concept: "Computers do not consume electrical energy. They simply convert electrical energy into thermal energy and do so very efficiently. At LRZ, we have long been working with warm water cooling for our supercomputer and are interested in the subsequent use of the heat that is generated in this process. In this way, we can operate our supercomputer center as efficiently as possible. The use of adsorption chillers is a very promising approach in this respect."
Significantly Reduced CO2 Emissions
All this has an extremely positive impact on energy efficiency: only a very small part of the electrical energy is used to cool the computer. SuperMUC-NG achieved a very low PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) value of 1.08. Only eight percent of the total computing infrastructure's energy consumption requires peripheral systems; the rest simply uses energy from the computer. The special cooling infrastructure of the supercomputer also drastically reduces the CO2 emissions associated with the computer. For comparison, SuperMUC-NG performs very well: the industry average PUE value is 1.67.
Hybrid System for Re-cooling
Re-cooling of the adsorption system is done using two separate hybrid coolers that can operate in both wet and dry modes. Wet cooling ensures that the re-cooling temperature is lower than the external temperature through evaporative cooling. This hybrid system saves energy and, in the case of higher external temperatures, enables the use of a smaller cooling system. In dry mode, the coolers do not require water, which reduces water consumption by the system.
Fahrenheit's technology is award-winning: in 2018, its adsorption cooling concept won the German Data Center Award in the air conditioning and cooling category. Adsorption cooling works as follows:
Fahrenheit adsorption chillers operate on the principle of solid-body sorption, known as adsorption (from Latin "to absorb"). Adsorption describes the enrichment of materials (gases or liquids) on the surface of a solid, the adsorbent. In the adsorption process, water vapor from the sorption material (silica gel or zeolite) is "absorbed" and adsorbed, which causes water to evaporate and generate cooling energy. When the material is saturated, it is regenerated by supplying heat. As a refrigerant, Fahrenheit uses pure water without synthetic refrigerants. The units enable achieving a GWP (Global Warming Potential) of zero. The EU regulations on fluorinated greenhouse gases (F-Gas Regulation) are met without any problems.
