Robur Gas-Fired Chillers - Advantages

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Why Robur chillers?
Robur chillers are ideal for any commercial or industrial cooling application, but show major benefits for organizations and companies where there are one or more of the following concerns :

Carbon Footprint
Despite their excellent local operating efficiencies, all electric chillers contribute to global warming on two fronts, directly through the gradual leakage of greenhouse gas refrigerants (HFCs) from the plant and indirectly through the CO2 emissions resulting from the use of fossil fuels burned to generate the electricity required to operate the device.

Estimates attribute 13% of ALL of the world’s Global Warming to released or leaked refrigerants in the atmosphere. This issue is completely eliminated by using a Robur Chiller as the natural ammonia/water “pair” has no environmental impact whatsoever.

As well has having an ozone depletion potential of zero, Ammonia has a global warming potential of zero with an atmospheric life cycle of less than a week. In addition, the factory sealed refrigerant system of the Robur Heat Pump means that the opportunities for refrigerant leakage are much less than those of a conventional electric HFC based system.

The direct use of gas at the point of source means that the CO2 emissions associated with the use of Robur Chillers will be lower than those of electric alternatives when operating, power generation and transmission efficiencies are taken into account.

Please contact Shorts for advice on and assistance with calculating Carbon Footprint, Total Equivalent Warming Impact (TEWI) and Life Cycle Climate Performance (LCCP) indicators.

Running Costs
Environmental benefits of any plant invariably go hand in hand with improved efficiency and reduced running costs. Robur Chillers are no different.

The amount of running cost savings from using Robur chillers over and above equivalent electrically powered machines depends very much on the individual installation’s utility tariffs and running hours. However, a quick rule of thumb is that if the average site electricity price per kWh (including standing charges etc) is more than three times the gas price… there should be considerable running cost savings to be had.

Electrical Supply Issues
Robur Chillers are ideal for sites where existing electricity supplies are at a saturation levels and additional or new cooling cannot be installed or sites where electrical power used for air conditioning needs to be “released” for other usage.
The basic Robur 17.7 kW cooling module only needs 820 Watts of single phase electricity to operate – compared with typically 6,000 Watts for an equivalent conventional air conditioner.

Equipment Reliability
As the Robur absorption cycle uses a factory sealed refrigerant circuit with no compressor, it’s general mechanical reliability is excellent and the scope for refrigerant loss is minimised.

In the rare event of a refrigerant leak, unlike the odourless HFC refrigerants, the very smallest escape of Ammonia (well below any safety levels) is detectable through its characteristic odour. This is complimented by the fact that most of the Robur units are installed outside and ammonia is 1.7 times lighter than air, so any small leak quickly disperses into the atmosphere. Ammonia is difficult to ignite and exhibits a very narrow range of flammability (under very high concentrations and limited conditions).

In addition, the modular system approach to meeting cooling loads means that the building is not solely dependent on one piece of plant and general wear and tear can be spread throughout the system by alternating “lead” units.

Robur’s integral control system monitors specific parameters and warns of factors that may lead to problems in the future, such as blocked air coil or reduced chilled water flow rates etc.