VATIS UPDATE Article

Bry-Air, India, organised a half day technical workshops on Adsorption Chillers at Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and Kolkata in December 2015. More workshops are planned in January at Dubai, Dhaka, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Manila and Jakarta. The workshop at Mumbai was held on December 15 at The Orchid Mumbai. It was conducted by Wes Livingston of Power Partners, USA – the licensees of Bry-Air (Asia) for manufacture of adsorption chillers in India.

Bry-Air adsorption chillers come in the range of 70 to 1180 kW. Adsorption refrigeration was commercialised in Japan in 1986, using the silica gel-water pair. Several pairs of materials can be used, depending on the application. The technology uses low grade waste heat (50°C-100°C) that is abundantly available in India from process industries, for process cooling or air-conditioning. Adsorption is a physical process that depends on surface bonding, and involves no chemical change unlike absorption. Regeneration of the adsorbent material involves desorption by heating, which releases the bond.

In brief, silica gel adsorbs water vapour, creating a vacuum that causes cooling. In addition to the technology and application, the Workshop covered the financials viz. life cycle cost (LCC), payback and equipment selection. It was attended by about 80 delegates, mainly from the industrial refrigeration industry.