The following article was published in ASHRAE Journal, August 2007.

Copyright 2007 American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and

Air-Conditioning Engineers, Inc. It is presented for educational purposes only. This article may not be copied and/or distributed electronically
or in paper form without permission of ASHRAE.

The search for recoverable heat from industrial refrigeration systems often begins in the engine room.

Heat Recovery
In Industrial
Refrigeration
By Douglas T. Reindl, Ph.D., P.E., Member ASHRAE; and Todd B. Jekel, Ph.D., P.E., Member ASHRAE

uring the past year, concepts of sustainability have received will benefit by improved competitiveness
a great deal of emphasis within ASHRAE. This article explores

one aspect of sustainability in the context of industrial ammonia

refrigeration systems. In this article, we explore approaches of
increasing the use of primary energy consumed during the course
of refrigeration system operation. Specifically, approaches of
gathering and using heat normally discarded from a refrigeration

today, but they will also be uniquely positioned to compete in a future with energy
prices that are certain to escalate. Because
refrigeration is often the single largest
energy consumer in food production and
storage facilities, it is a natural target for
efficiency improvements.
With the cost of energy continuing
to rise, now is the time to revisit opportunities and evaluate approaches
that can better use primary energy to

system are discussed and evaluated.

Many industrial refrigeration system
end-users are increasingly focusing on
identifying operating principles and technologies that can effectively improve the
22

ASHRAE Journal

efficiency and cost-effectiveness of their

utility infrastructure. Those end-users who
proactively seek opportunities to improve
the energy efficiency of their operations
ashrae.org

About the Authors

Douglas T. Reindl, Ph.D., P.E., is a professor and
director, and Todd B. Jekel, Ph.D., P.E., is assistant
director at the University of Wisconsin-Madisons Industrial Refrigeration Consortium in Madison, Wis.

August 2007

achieve a facilities operational objectives. Here we explore

the potential for recovering thermal energy (heat) from industrial refrigeration systems. Using recovered heat offers
the potential for reducing both the direct primary energy
consumption associated with refrigeration system operation,
as well the consumption of primary energy used to meet
heating demands directly. Potential applications for using
waste heat from an industrial refrigeration system include
underfloor heating (e.g., as required for freezers), cleanup
water pre-heating, domestic water heating, boiler makeup
water heating, and space heating (for both temperature and
humidity control).
As compelling as heat recovery sounds, it is possible to improperly apply and/or control heat recovery equipment; thereby,
increasing the overall energy consumption of a refrigeration
system relative to a base operation without heat recovery. Lets
begin by first understanding the fundamentals this opportunity
presents and then we will provide information to help you
determine whether or not heat recovery has application in a
given plant or facility.
Heat Recovery Overview

For the purposes of this article, we define heat recovery

as gathering and using thermal energy that normally would
be rejected from the system to the ambient environment. At
a fundamental level, refrigeration systems absorb heat from
spaces or products where it is unwanted and reject that heat at
a higher energy state to the outdoor ambient environment. Heat
recovery strategies attempt to find a home for a portion of
the heat that is normally rejected from the system. Some key
issues need to be considered in evaluating the potential for heat
recovery in a given application including:
Quantity of heat required, Btu (kJ);
Rate of heat required, Btu/h (kWT);
Quality of heat required, F (C); and
Time of day the heat is required (coincidence of heat availability and demand).
Theoretically, any quantity of heat that can be recovered
from an industrial refrigeration system offers the potential for
system efficiency improvement. Practically, the quantity of
recoverable heat must be large enough to warrant the investment in capital equipment, as well as any additional operational overhead (e.g., maintenance) or increased complexity
required to use the waste heat.
The quality of heat is another factor that may limit the extent to which thermal energy is recoverable from an industrial
refrigeration system, which is a detail that will be discussed
shortly. Finally, it is desirable to have the availability of the waste
heat stream be coincident with the demand. In cases where there
is a time mismatch between the supply of recovered heat and
demand, one or more storage tanks will be needed to accumulate
the recovery-heated fluid (e.g., hot water storage).
August 2007

Locating Recoverable Heat

For industrial refrigeration systems, the number of locations

within the system suitable for recovering heat is limited. It is
also important to recognize, evaluate, and reduce to the extent
possible, any penalty or operational risk associated with the
presence of heat recovery equipment (e.g., refrigerant-side
pressure drop). The following are potential locations within an
industrial refrigeration system that could supply thermal energy
suitable for recovery:
Oil cooling/heat rejection (fluid-cooled screw compressors)
Head cooling (reciprocating compressors)
High-stage discharge gas stream
Reciprocating compressors
Screw compressors
Booster discharge gas stream (minimal opportunity)
Todays screw compressors use oil for lubrication, control actuation, and rotor sealing to maintain the machines volumetric
efficiency during the compression process. A consequence of
using oil in these machines is that the oil absorbs a portion of the
heat of compression from the refrigerant as it moves through
the compressor. As such, the oil leaving a screw compressor will
be at or near the machines refrigerant discharge temperature.
Apart from the variants of liquid injection-type oil cooling
strategies, maintaining proper compressor operation requires
post-compression oil cooling to limit the oils temperature rise.
Thermosiphon and water-cooled (or glycol-cooled) oil cooling heat exchangers are used on screw compressor packages
to lower the oil from discharge temperature to an acceptable
supply temperature (e.g., 130F [54C]). Thus, oil cooling heat
rejection is one potential source for heat recovery.
Reciprocating compressors that operate at moderate to high
compression ratios require a supply of water, glycol, or refrigerant to the machines heads for cooling. This head cooling fluid
(water or glycol) is a second potential source of recoverable
heat recovery.
Recovering heat from refrigerant gas leaving the discharge
of a compressor is another readily identifiable opportunity for
industrial refrigeration systems. The quality of heat available for
recovery will depend on the compressor technology (reciprocating vs. screw), the compressors operating suction pressure,
discharge pressure, and load. For screw compressors, the quality
of heat will also vary depending on whether the machine uses
internal (i.e., liquid injection) or external oil cooling. By their
very nature, compressors equipped with liquid injection oil
cooling have lower discharge temperatures; therefore, a lower
quality or grade of thermal energy available for recovery. Liquid-injected machines have a higher discharge mass flow rate
of vapor so the quantity of heat recoverable is often greater than
thermosiphon or external oil cooled packages.
Lets look at how much heat we can recover and the quality
of heat we have available from these sources.
ASHRAE Journal

23

105
Ammonia
104
Desuperheating (~10%)
Pressure [psia]

1
1.

103

1.

1.3

220F
185F

1 .4

1.5

95F
95F

Btu

/ lb

m-

65F

102

11. 4F

101

100
100

100

0. 4

200

0. 6

0. 8

300 400 500 600

Enthalpy [Btu/lbm ]

700

800

900 1,000

Figure 1: Desuperheating and condensing energy split for a nonliquid-injected, high-stage twin screw compressor operating at 25
psig suction (11.4F [11.4C] saturated) and 181 psig discharge
(95F [35C] saturated).

Heat Recovery Potential

Since most industrial refrigeration systems today use screw

compressors, we will focus our attention on heat recovery
potential from this compression technology. We will explore
opportunities to recover heat from both screw compressor
discharge gas and oil cooling heat exchangers. We will not
consider heat recovery from reciprocating compressors (head
cooling or discharge gas) here due to the limited use of this
compression technology.
Screw Compressor Discharge Gas

In exploring the potential for heat recovery from the discharge

gas stream from a screw compressor, there are four permutations
of the basic options that could be considered:
High-stage compressor
Liquid injection oil cooled
External oil cooled
Booster compressor
Liquid injection oil cooled
External oil cooled
For compressors that use liquid injection (and its variants)
for oil cooling, the discharge gas temperature is suppressed to
cool the oil leaving the compressor. Normally, these machines
have discharge gas temperatures in the range of 130F (54C)
whereas external oil cooled machines operate with discharge
temperatures as high as 185F (85C). Because the discharge
gas temperature from liquid-injected screw compressors is
lower, this technology is less attractive for heat recovery meaning that the economic criteria for the majority of most end-users will not be met. Lets consider the more optimistic case of
external oil cooled screw compressors.
The discharge refrigerant gas from a compressor has ther24

ASHRAE Journal

1,400

Assumes:
11.4F (11.4C) Saturated Suction Temperature
95F (35C) Saturated Condensing Temperature
185F (85C) Discharge Temperature

1,200
1,000
800
600
400
200
Heat recovery rate is on a per ton of refrigeration basis.
0
90
110
150
170
130
Minimum Usable Temperature (F)

1
0. 2

Usable Heat (Btu/h per ton)

1,600
Condensing (~90%)

190

Figure 2: Recoverable sensible thermal energy based on minimum

usable temperature.

mal energy in the form of both sensible (superheat) and latent

(condensing) heat. Figure 1 illustrates the compression process
from suction (1) to discharge (2) for a typical fluid-cooled
screw compressor operating with ammonia at 25 psig suction
(11.4F [11.4C] saturated) and 181 psig condensing (95F
[35C] saturated). In this best case scenario, only 11.5% of the
total system heat rejection is available in the superheat range
(higher quality) while the remaining 88.5% of the heat is available in the phase change from vapor to liquid (lower quality).
Unfortunately, the highest quality of heat lies in the superheat
region where the lowest quantity of heat is available. For the
given operating conditions, the total heat rejection requirement to condense the discharge gas to a saturated liquid is
13.9 mBtu/h per ton of useful refrigeration (1.2 kWTHERMAL/
kWREFRIGERATION).
The natural question then becomes: How much thermal
energy can be recovered from the compressors discharge gas
stream? The answer depends on the minimum usable temperature by the process receiving the heat. For the purposes of
exploring the heat recovery potential, lets assume an ideal heat
exchanger (zero approach temperature). If heat at temperatures
as low as 95F (35C) can be utilized, the entire heat of rejection
(sensible and latent) can be recovered (i.e. 13.9 mBtu/hton).
If higher temperatures are required, the recoverable heat will
diminish as the minimum usable temperature rises as shown
in Figure 2. For example, the recoverable quantity of heat at a
minimum usable temperature of 110F (43C) is a paltry 1.3
mBtu/hton (0.11 kWTHERMAL/kWREFRIGERATION)a portion
of the sensible fraction of rejected heat from the system.
An issue that arises in considering heat recovery from the
discharge of external oil cooled screw compressors is the reduction in discharge temperature as the system head pressure
decreases. Expect the discharge gas temperature for this type of
screw compressor to decrease with lower head pressure at the
rate of approximately 0.6F/psig (4.8C/bar). In other words,
a machine that has a discharge temperature of 185F (85C)
at discharge pressure of 180 psig (12.4 bar) can be expected
ashrae.org

August 2007

104
Ammonia

1 .1

1 .2
1 .3

103

Recoverable (~5%)

1 .4

160F

Non-Recoverable (~95%)

Pressure [psia]

to drop to approximately 167F (75C) when the system head

pressure drops to 150 psig (10.3 bar). The advantage of lowering
system head pressure is improved efficiency of compression.
This advantage significantly outweighs the decrease in recoverable heat from compressor discharge gas.
A potential source for heat recovery is the discharge gas
stream from booster compressors. Although recovering heat
from booster discharge gas has the desirable effect of reducing high-stage compressor load, the usable heat is in a very
narrow range within the superheat region. Figure 3 shows that
the proportion of the total discharge superheat is higher but the
fraction that is useful for heat recovery is less than a high-stage
compressor. In the case being considered, discharge vapor leaves
the booster at approximately 160F (71C) and is desuperheated
to 95F (35C). Although there is still energy available in the
superheat from 95F (35C) to the +10F (12C) intermediate
temperature, the thermal energy is of low quality; therefore, it is
usually not considered recoverable. As a fraction of the total heat
rejected from the booster, only 5% is considered useful for heat
recovery. While the percentage does not sound impressive, the
impact of reduction of high-stage load can make this attractive
if the pressure drop on the vapor side of the heat exchanger is
kept below 1 psi (0.069 bar).
Beyond the thermal considerations, recovering heat from
the discharge gas stream of any compressor brings additional
concerns including:
Parasitic effects of refrigerant-side pressure drop due to
presence of heat transfer equipment, which translates to
increased booster horsepower; and
Potential risks to refrigeration system in the event of a heat
exchanger failure (e.g., water incursion directly into the
refrigeration system).
Recognizing that compressor discharge gas heat recovery
offers a relatively modest opportunity to cost-effectively use
this relatively low grade of energy, we now consider another
alternative.

95F

1.

5B

tu /

l bm

-R

102
10F
10
F
10F

101

- 40F
0.2

100
0

100

0.4

200

1
0.6

300

0.8

400

500

600

700

800

Enthalpy [Btu/lbm]

Figure 3: Recoverable heat in desuperheating to 95F (35C) with

remainder as heat rejected to high stage for a booster twin screw
compressor operating at 40F (40C) saturated suction and 10F
(12C) saturated discharge temperature.

Oil Cooler

Screw Compressor Oil Coolers

Most practitioners consider thermosiphon as the state-of-theart in oil cooling for screw compressor packages because of its
inherent efficiency. Thermosiphon oil cooling utilizes saturated
high-pressure liquid as the coolant in a refrigerant-to-oil
heat exchanger integrated into the compressor package. The
lower temperature refrigerant liquid within the heat exchanger
absorbs heat from the hot oil and evaporates. The high-pressure refrigerant vapor is then vented to the condenser(s) where
it is recondensed and made available to continue cooling oil
or meeting system loads. Thermosiphon oil cooling heat exchangers are a type of gravity flooded evaporator. Because of
its principle of operation, thermosiphon oil cooling requires
minimal energy for heat rejectiononly incremental condenser
fan and pump energy.
Thermosiphon oil cooling is particularly effective when
properly engineered; however, it is also a technology that has
August 2007

Photograph 1: Screw compressor package equipped with a glycolcooled oil cooler.

dissatisfied many plant personnel regarding operation. Improperly sized thermosiphon pilot receivers, vent lines, return lines
or supply lines have individually or collectively contributed to
a number of problem installations. In addition, thermosiphon
oil cooling systems are not particularly conducive to system
expansions. When problems arise in thermosiphon systems
(which happens quite frequently), those problems are difficult
and frustrating to troubleshoot and solve.
A less frequently applied oil cooling heat exchange technology alternative is the water-cooled (or glycol-cooled) oil
cooler. In this approach, water or glycol is used as a secondary
fluid to absorb heat from the oil. Photograph 1 shows a screw
compressor package (booster) equipped with a glycol-cooled
ASHRAE Journal

25

800

Fluid Cooled Oil Cooler

Twin Screw Compressor

700

40F (40C)

600

Oil Cooling Heat Rejection (mBh/ton)

Oil Cooling Heat Rejection (mBh)

900

0F (18C)

500
400
10F (12C)

300
200

Saturated Suction Temperature

30F (1C)

100
75

77

79

81

83

85

87

89

91

93

7.0
Fluid Cooled Oil Cooler
Twin Screw Compressor

6.0

40F (40C)

5.0
4.0
3.0
0F (18C)

2.0

10F (12C)

1.0

30F (1C)

0.0
75

95

Saturated Suction Temperature

77

79

81

83

85

87

89

93

91

95

Saturated Condensing Temperature (F)

Saturated Condensing Temperature (F)

Figure 4: Oil cooling heat available over a range of suction and

discharge conditions.

Figure 5: Normalized oil cooling heat available over a range of

suction and discharge conditions.

oil cooler. In this case, the glycol is pumped through the oil
cooler absorbing heat from the oil and then rejecting that heat
to a closed-circuit fluid cooler located outdoors. It is this heat
that could be recovered and used for meeting relative modest
heating demands in a plant.
Typically, an oil cooling heat exchanger receives hot oil from
the screw compressors oil separator at a temperature near the
compressors discharge gas temperature, which ranges between
160F to 185F (71C to 85C), and cool the oil to a supply
temperature of 130F (54C). With oil in this operating temperature range we clearly have a heat source with reasonable quality

(temperature). The question now becomes: What quantity of

heat is available from an oil cooling heat exchanger?
The quantity of heat available from an oil cooler will depend
on a number of factors including:
Size of the compressor (capacity);
Operating suction pressure;
Operating discharge pressure; and
Part-load ratio.
Figure 4 illustrates the trends in heat rejected through oil cooling heat exchangers over a range of suction and discharge/condensing conditions for a typical twin screw compressor package.

SST
F (C)

10 (23)

0 (18)

10 (12)

20 (7)

30 (1)

SDT
F (C)

Discharge Temp.
F (C)

Compressor Capacity
Tons (kW)

95 (35)

181 (83)

419 (1474)

85 (29)

176 (80)

75 (24)

OCHR
mBtu/h (kW)

Recovered Energy Flow (gpm [Lpm])

Desuperheater
Heat Exchanger

Oil Cooling
Heat Exchanger

1102 (323)

13.5 (51)

40.1 (152)

432 (1519)

881 (258)

11.8 (33)

32.0 (121)

171 (77)

446 (1569)

677 (198)

10.3 (39)

24.6 (93)

95 (35)

181 (83)

538 (1892)

1056 (310)

17.2 (65)

38.4 (145)

85 (29)

175 (79)

555 (1952)

815 (239)

14.7 (56)

29.6 (112)

75 (24)

168 (76)

571 (2008)

593 (174)

12.1 (46)

21.6 (82)

95 (35)

179 (82)

682 (2399)

976 (286)

20.8 (79)

35.5 (134)

85 (29)

172 (78)

702 (2468)

716 (210)

17.3 (66)

26.0 (99)

75 (24)

163 (73)

722 (2539)

479 (140)

13.2 (50)

17.4 (66)

95 (35)

176 (80)

854 (3003)

861 (252)

24.4 (92)

31.3 (118)

85 (29)

167 (75)

878 (3088)

584 (171)

19.0 (72)

21.2 (80)

75 (24)

156 (69)

902 (3172)

340 (100)

13.0 (49)

12.4 (47)

95 (35)

171 (77)

1,058 (3721)

709 (208)

26.9 (102)

25.8 (98)

85 (29)

161 (72)

1,087 (3823)

427 (125)

19.7 (74)

15.5 (59)

75 (24)

149 (65)

1,117 (3928)

198 (58)

11.8 (44)

7.2 (27)

Table 1: Comparative heat recovery potential for compressor discharge vapor versus oil cooling heat exchanger for a mid-sized high-stage
screw compressor.
26

ASHRAE Journal

ashrae.org

August 2007

The availability of heat from oil cooling

increases with increasing condensing
temperature (pressure) and/or decreasing
suction temperature (pressure). Figure 5
shows the normalized oil cooling load
(oil cooling heat rejected per ton of refrigeration capacity) for the same range
of discharge/condensing conditions with
the same typical twin screw compressor
package.
For the same high stage twin screw
compressor, Figure 6 shows the oil
cooling load expressed as a fraction of
the total heat of rejection as a function
of the saturated suction temperature
and saturated discharge (condensing)
temperature.
With fluid-cooled oil cooling heat
exchangers, it is feasible to achieve
recovered fluid temperatures from the
oil coolers in the range of 110F (43C)
based on a 55F (13C) supply. For such
temperatures, the recovery fluid flow
rate will depend on the fluid type (water,
ethylene glycol, propylene glycol) and
the oil cooling heat rejection. The recovered heat flow ranges from 3.6 gpm per
100 mBtu/h (0.465 L/min per kW) of
oil cooling heat rejection (water) to 3.8
gpm per 100 mBtu/h of oil cooling heat
rejection (25%wt solution of ethylene
glycol in water).
To place the above two heat recovery
opportunities into perspective, lets look at
the scale of recoverable heat using a midrange sized high-stage screw compressor
with external oil cooling. Performance
data for this machine over a range of
saturated suction temperatures (SST) and
saturated discharge temperatures (SDT)
is provided in Table 1. The compressor
performance data consisting of capacity,
oil cooling heat rejection (OCHR) and
discharge gas temperature is used to predict recovery hot water flow rates assuming an entering water temperature of 55F
(13C) and a leaving water temperature of
110F (43C). The approach on each heat
recovery heat exchanger is assumed to
be 20F (11C). The estimated hot water
heat recovered from both a desuperheater
(located in the compressor discharge gas
stream) and an oil cooling heat exchanger
are provided.
August 2007

At low suction temperatures, the

heat available for recovery from the
oil cooler yields two to three times that
available in the discharge gas stream.
As the head pressure decreases, the heat
available for recovery in both the discharge gas stream and oil cooling heat
exchanger decreases, as expected, with
the latter generally decreasing faster.
For higher suction temperature operation, the recoverable heat from the discharge gas stream begins to approach
that of the oil cooling heat exchanger
during higher head pressure operation.
At high suction temperatures and low
condensing pressures, oil cooling loads
decrease at a faster rate, which diminishes the heat available for recovery
while the discharge gas stream heat recovery remains relatively flat. It is also
worthwhile to note that the recoverable
heat as a fraction of the compressors
refrigeration capacity decreases as the
suction pressure rises.
For example, the heat recovery fluid
flow rate from oil cooling heat exchangers
at the 10F/95F (23C/35C) condition is 0.0957 gpm per ton (0.103 L/min
per kWT). When the suction temperature
rises to +20F (7C) with a saturated
condensing temperature of 95F (35C),
the fluid flow rate to recover heat from
the oil cooling heat exchanger drops
threefold to 0.0367 gpm per ton (0.0395
L/min per kWT). Finally, the results
shown here for heat recovery from the
discharge gas stream do not include any
effects of refrigerant-side pressure drop
on the performance of compressors
operating.
The majority of the operating cost
savings with the above heat recovery
options is attributable to a reduction in
primary energy (natural gas or propane)
that would normally be used for heating.
Figure 7 shows the displaced heating
energy cost (savings) due to heat recovery
for a range of primary fuel costs and flow
rates. The recovered heating energy is assumed to offset the operation of an 80%
efficient boiler that would normally be
used to provide the required heat.
Recovering heat from an industrial
refrigeration system has the added benefit

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ASHRAE Journal

27

Saturated Suction Temperature

0.30

160,000

40F (40C)

Fluid Cooled Oil Cooler

Twin Screw Compressor

0.25

28F (33C)

0.20
0.15
0F (18C)

0.10

10F (12C)

0.05

120,000

$0.75/therm

100,000
80,000

$0.50/therm

60,000
$0.25/therm

40,000

30F (1C)

20,000

0.00
75

$1.00/therm

140,000
Heat Cost Savings ($/yr)

Fraction of Total Heat Rejected []

0.35

77

79

81

83

85

87

89

91

93

95

0
10

15

Saturated Condensing Temperature (F)

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

Average Water Flow (gpm)

Figure 6: Fraction of total heat of rejection that appears as an oil

cooling load over a range of suction and discharge conditions.

Figure 7: Annual heating cost savings for a 55F (31C) range

assuming the offset operation of an 80% efficient boiler.

of reducing the heat rejection load on the evaporative condensers, which leverages the primary heating energy savings. It is
reasonable to assume that a plant will realize some incremental
savings in evaporative condenser fan energy with the load
reduction on the condensers. Conservatively, the added pump
energy for the heat recovery system offsets any reduction in
evaporative condenser water pump energy.

Conclusions

Other Considerations

In evaluating the potential for heat recovery in specific plant

applications, a number of other factors warrant careful consideration. As mentioned previously, the demand for recovered
heat needs to be compared with the available supply. In situations where there is a mismatch, some form of heat storage
will be needed. Related to this issue is providing redundancy
in heat rejection. If you are considering recovering heat from
oil cooling heat exchangers, it is important to provide some
form of heat rejection redundancy such as the installation of
one or more closed-circuit fluid coolers that can be used during periods when there is no plant demand for recovered heat.
With a secondary fluid such as glycol in the heat recovery loop,
another heat exchanger will be required if the application calls
for heating potable water.
Be sure to check the mechanical code in the applications
jurisdiction as the heat exchanger likely will need to be a
double-walled design. Finally, for retrofits, be sure to work
with your compressor manufacturer to evaluate any special
requirements for oil circulation, controls, interlocks, etc., on
the package.
For desuperheaters, it is important to evaluate the operational
risks associated with heat exchanger failure. Refrigerant-side
pressure drop needs to be minimized to make this option viable.
Finally, implementation of a refrigerant vapor bypass should be
considered for reliability.
28

ASHRAE Journal

As the cost of fuels used for heating increases, the opportunities to economically recover heat from a refrigeration system
grow. Traditional heat recovery approaches focus on recovering heat from the high stage compressor discharge gas stream
(desuperheater). An alternative that should not be overlooked
is recovering heat from oil cooling heat exchangers on screw
compressor packages.
Advantages of this option include:
Ability to recover heat from both high-stage and booster
compressor oil coolers;
Allows recovery of relatively high-quality waste heat;
Results in an oil cooling approach that is less prone to
problems compared to thermosiphon oil cooling;
Use of sensible heat transfer fluid and pump provides more
control of the oil cooling (taking Mother Nature out of
the traditional thermosiphon loop);
Accommodates addition of compressors during expansions
more easily than a thermosiphon oil cooling system;
Great retrofit opportunity for liquid injection oil cooled
compressors;
Makes compressor oil cooling independent of the system
pressures; therefore, facilitates easier startup; and
Allows the use of plate-frame heat exchangers without
worrying about refrigerant-side pressure drop.
Although the advantages are compelling, other factors need to
be considered in implementing this heat recovery approach. First,
each compressor package needs to be fitted (or retrofitted) with
an appropriate oil cooling heat exchanger. Second, the demand
for heat needs to be matched with the production of heat by the
oil coolers. If there is a mismatch between demand and supply,
extra infrastructure is needed to accommodate the mismatch.
Finally, the economics of recovering heat from oil cooling heat
exchangers need to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
ashrae.org

August 2007

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