NEWS | AIR CONDITIONING UN backs seawater cooling study for new Egyptian city Project for New Alamein City will start with single district cooling plant The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has designed a feasibility study for the implementation of a seawater air conditioning system in New Alamein City, Egypt. Situated on the Mediterranean coast, city temperatures can reach 40C in summer. In such extreme heat, an estimated 50% of electricity is used for air conditioning. The city is under construction, with phase II now beginning, which includes 10 coastal towers. The seawater project, which proposes using water from the Mediterranean, initially will consist of a single district cooling plant. Cold water will be pumped into the plant and passed through a heat exchanger, where it absorbs heat from the buildings. Cool air is generated from the cold water, while warm water is sent back into the sea. A capacity of 30,000 tonnes of refrigeration would be sufcient to cool entire neighbourhoods and would cost US$117m in building production facilities. CO2 refrigerant trial sees 20% cut in carbon emissions Trials on a new generation of CO2 refrigeration systems by Elta has shown a 20% fall in carbon emissions The three-year Life-C4R project, co-nanced by the European Union, carried out seven trials of the manufacturers full transcritical efciency (FTE) and extreme temperature efciency (ETE). The research found the CO2 systems tested achieved an annual reduction in energy of 1523% and a life-cycle analysis found overall emissions fell by up to 20%. Elta says the efciency of the FTE system derives from better use of evaporators for medium temperature users in ooded mode. ThermShield EIS classified fire dampers German data centre uses Bitzer screw compressors Bitzer screw compressors are being used by Italian air conditioning company HiRef to cool a German data centre adiabatically with air-to-air heat exchangers. The application has low-GWP refrigerant R513 and can be converted to use the HFO refrigerant R1234ze, which has a GWP of less than six. HiRef used 96 screw compressors with external frequency inverters in the 48 cooling systems at the German data centre instead of scroll compressors. Bitzer says that with screw compressors, certain temperature levels can be maintained precisely and constantly. If the preset maximum temperature set point is exceeded, the evaporative cooling system lowers the condensing temperature and therefore the energy intake. CIBSE offers air conditioning training CIBSE is organising a number of air conditioning training sessions in the coming months including: air conditioning inspections for buildings on 7 July and 15 September; design of heating and chilled water pipe systems on 8 September; and air conditioning and cooling systems on 20 October. All events will be held online and can be booked at https://cibse.org/training EIS classification for integrity, low smoke leakage and insulation in demanding projects. Fail-safe close For maintaining compartmentation Up to EI 120 (ve ho i <-> o) S classification, see the DoP for specific details ThermShields EIS classification plays a crucial part in fire compartmentation. Swegon offer the widest choice of dampers and damper controls to meet the envolving needs in the UK market. Visit swegon.com/uk to find out more 34 July 2020 www.cibsejournal.com CIBSE July 22 pp34 Specials News.indd 34 24/06/2022 15:20