Advanced refrigeration and heat recovery system uses F-gases for UK world class ice centre

The refrigeration system for the new ice centre in London uses an advanced heat recovery system to harness waste heat to provide supplementary heating for the building as the energy source for the snow melt pit and permafrost protection loop beneath the ice pads, and to produce domestic hot water for the centre’s visitor facilities. The chillers deliver cooling to the twin Olympic-sized ice rinks using a secondary glycol circuit and are future-proofed with built-in retrofitability to R-1234yf (GWP 0.5 AR6 value) by including plant room ventilation and integrated leak detection systems.

The ice rinks are cooled by four high-efficiency inverter-driven screw compressors with a combined cooling capacity of 800 kW. The heat recovery system uses a two-stage heat recovery process to increase water temperatures from 45°C leaving the first stage, to 85°C after the second stage and makes a big difference to overall efficiency, capturing between 200 to 500 kWh of energy.

Sources ACR Journal and Refrigeration Industry