For plastic processors there’s a number of considerations when it comes to deciding on the best cooling technology for your plant. Whether you’re moulding, thermoforming, or extruding, you’ll be looking to run efficiently, minimise downtime and safeguard product quality. All of these variables will be impacted by the effectiveness of your cooling process.
Plastic processing is a cost-sensitive business and every second counts, quite literally. Poor cooling will increase production cycle times, affect quality of the end product and impact your business bottom line. To help gain a competitive advantage against your competitors, it’s important that quality, cost efficiency, and reliability are maintained. In addition, with more businesses pushing towards net zero and being aware of their carbon impact, sustainability is becoming an increasingly important consideration.
If you’re looking to determine the best cooling technology for your plant, you’ll need to answer this fundamental question first:
Can your plastic process operate with water temperatures of 25°C+?
If the answer is yes, then great news, you don’t need an energy intensive chilled water system to cool your process. Instead, you should be able to use ambient cooling.
If the answer is no, don’t worry, all is not lost! Firstly, for some clients who can work with temperatures close to 25°C, we’ve helped them get to 25°C by upgrading areas of their process, mainly their temperature control units (TCUs). By changing the TCUs, they can then run at the higher water temperature and benefit from ambient cooling.
Secondly, if you still can’t operate at 25°C but do operate at 8°C or above, you could still make significant improvements and savings by adding free cooling to your process.
Let’s look at each of these scenarios one by one in more detail.
Ambient cooling. Reduces cooling energy by up to 90%
Ambient cooling is a popular choice with clients working on slower cycle times or processing engineering plastics like polyamides and polycarbonates. In these scenarios higher water temperatures can be used, which means there’s no need for refrigeration which dramatically reduces energy consumption and operating costs. Here, adiabatic cooling is the best technology to deploy.
Adiabatic coolers are effectively a modern-day alternative to cooling towers, used where required water temperature is 25°C+. Available with cooling capacities from 50kW to 1500kW, they’re a cost-effective, sustainable, low maintenance option. Instead of mechanical cooling and refrigeration gases, air and water are powering your process cooling.
Units will achieve fluid temperature within 5°C of wet bulb and operate in “dry mode” unless it’s a hot summer day when the adiabatic mode will switch on. The water required to operate the spray system is less than 2% of a hybrid cooling tower and less than 0.5% of a traditional cooling tower. UV sterilisation of the adiabatic water is standard, and evaporative water isn’t collected, removing the need for costly ongoing chemical water treatment.
Aqua offer an optimised adiabatic system, where technology achieves the perfect balance between load, water usage, and fan speed. The control management system also only engages the water spray when absolutely necessary, ensuring maximum water evaporation but minimum water wastage. All spray pipework is stainless steel to prevent corrosion, and the coil is protected with a hydrophilic coating. EC fans and inverter driven spray pump maximise eco credentials even further.
Upgrade your TCUs and unlock the benefits of ambient cooling
We’ve help clients achieve higher water temperatures – and as a result move to ambient cooling – by upgrading their TCUs. New technology means TCUs are now much more efficient and can work with higher water temperatures than their predecessors. Equally, you might have modern TCU technology but just need support with configuring your process differently to work with a higher water temperature. Whilst replacing TCUs will require an element of investment, it’s not comparable to the savings you’ll make on energy and operating costs.
For example, if you look at the Single Easitemp, it is designed with a larger heat exchanger, making it more efficient. Other benefits include:
- Precise, powerful control, every time
- Stainless steel plate heat exchanger & solenoid valve
- Check valve & strainer on process & chilled water loop
- Analogue interface & quick, simple install
- Automatic switch off – unit cools down automatically and switches off, no need to manually lower temperature and wait before turning off
- PID controller
- All components very accessible for easy maintenance
- Small, portable, and easy to position
Operating at 8°C+ (but less than 25°C) – free cooling will reduce energy usage by 80%+
If, after considering the above, your process still requires a temperature less than 25°C, but no less than 8°C, you can upgrade to free cooling. You’ll still need a chiller but, for a lot of the year in the UK, you’ll be able to use the ambient air to cool rather than the chiller’s refrigeration circuit.
Free cooling can be added – or retro fitted – to an existing unit by the addition of a stand-alone free cooler. Or, depending on the age of your existing chiller, you could purchase a new chiller with fully integrated free cooling.
Whilst savings with partial free cooling are good, they become really significant when total free cooling is achieved. For example, a 300kW system operating with a 15°C fluid temperature could save over £100,000 a year (dependent on your energy tariff) and save 228,000kg of CO2.
If you’re operating within the plastics sector, why not speak to the team and arrange a free, no obligation site visit with one of our engineers? That way you can rest assured that you have the best cooling solution for your specific application.
For more information chat with the team today on 0333 004 4433 or email sales@aquacooling.co.uk
