Freecooling in a production plant

Freecooling in cooling systems is a simple modernization with great potential. In a production plant, it reduced energy consumption by 1 GWh/year, cut CO₂ emissions by 800 tons, and generated savings of PLN 300,000.

The challenge

Technological processes in industrial plants often require a constant supply of cooling – an example is the cooling of injection molds. In the analyzed plant, the source of cooling was 7 chillers with a total cooling capacity of 1.6 MW. The system was additionally supported by a manually operated drycooler, activated when the temperature dropped below 5^oC. This solution did not fully utilize the potential of climatic conditions, and electricity consumption was high.

Our approach

DB Energy experts conducted an energy efficiency audit and carried out a techno-economic analysis of the cooling system. They examined:

possibilities of using cooling from outside air,
cost-effectiveness of system modernization,
potential energy and financial savings based on historical climate data.

The solution

We proposed expanding the freecooling system by installing a complete setup that automatically switches on when the outside temperature is less than or equal to 4^oC.

The new system can fully meet the plant’s cooling demand during periods of low temperatures without engaging energy-intensive chillers.

Effects

The applied solutions include:

reduction of electricity consumption: approx. 1 GWh/year,
financial savings: ~PLN 300,000/year,
investment cost: PLN 425,000,
estimated CO₂ emission reduction: approx. 800 tons/year (assuming 0.8 t CO₂/MWh in the Polish mix),
increased system reliability and simplified operation.

Conclusions

Freecooling is an effective technology for plants with high demand for technical cooling. Using natural cooling from the air makes it possible to significantly reduce energy consumption and operating costs. It is important to match system parameters to climatic conditions and process specifics. An additional advantage is the measurable impact on reducing CO₂ emissions, which supports the company’s sustainable development goals.

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