Vacuum Chillers

Vacuum Chillers

Chemical-free refrigeration and flash cooling applications

About Vacuum Chillers

Croll Reynolds vacuum water chillers are a low cost-solution to cooling high volumes of water for the chemical, pharmaceutical, food and paper industries. These unique system uses our multi-nozzle ejector technology in multiple stages to draw vacuum on various chambers of a chiller tower and gradually cool down the required flow of water to 1.5° – 10° C depending on the starting temperature of supplied water. Croll Reynolds chiller systems incorporate two to five multi-nozzle ejectors a chill tank with internal weirs, downstream of which will always be a two-stage ejector (air pump), piping, controls, and instrumentation for easy and proper operation of the system.
. With over 300 vacuum chillers online worldwide, Croll Reynolds is acknowledged as the leading designer and industry supplier. Croll Reynolds has designed and constructed three of the world’s largest vacuum chillers for the chemical and petrochemical industries. This equipment has assorted applications; it can be used to chill sand and gravel during dam construction and support the careful processing and chilling of fresh produce, meat, and grain products.

Advantages

  • No chemicals or refrigerants
  • No absorption solutions or lubricants for operation
  • lower operating costs
  • Reliable, consistent service and output
  • No moving parts
  • Low initial cost (compared to mechanical pumps)
  • Minimal maintenance cost (compared to mechanical pump)
  • Easy to operate and maintain
  • Easy to retrofit or upgrade
  • Long lasting and durable equipment
  • Can be constructed from a wide variety of steel, alloy, or high alloy
Diagram of Croll Chill Vactor

Superheated steam enters the venturi desuperheater at certain velocity range. A small fraction of the flowing steam enters the venturi in the desuperheater, speeds up to create a reduced-pressure zone into which spray water is drawn and atomized by steam energy, and then exits in a short expanding throat which allows pressure recovery. Cooling water enters the nozzle at low velocity which forms a thin film.  The dynamic energy of the steam flow breaks the surface tension of the film since there is a very high differential velocity between steam and water which results in high shear and turbulence that are extremely effective in ensuring excellent desuperheating performance. The venturi water nozzle, generally made in stainless steel, is a converging-stabilizing-diverging nozzle which promotes the turbulent mixing of atomized water and steam thus maximizing efficiency in a wide range of process conditions. Pressure drop on steam side is negligible. Water pressure at the inlet of the desuperheater should be at least 2 bar higher than steam inlet pressure.