Deep Lake Water Cooling

BillW@honeywell

does the same thing. They sunk an intake at the bottom of Cayuga Lake, and pump the 45-50 degree lake water thru a heat exchanger to cool several buildings in the warmer months. Haven't heard any numbers as to savings, but at today's energy costs, it's got to be less than running a chiller.

Uni R_2

Lake Ontario to cool Toronto's core in summer

An interesting energy reduction project is happening in Ontario. It will send the 40F water from the bottom of Lake Ontario to a huge HX which will in turn cool many of the office towers. It's supposed to be operational quite soon.

There are some interesting pictures and facts on the Enwave website. Enwave is a company that specializes in district heating (and cooling now as well).

jp_2

warm water go?

where does the warm water go?

I'm no biologist but i would think heating lakes past there normal temp would not be good for the inhabitants?

Uni R_2

Warm water...

Basically they are grabbing deep cold water, using it to absorb heat and then that water is used for the city's water supply.

More or less it's an HX on the city's water intake pipes. How big this lowest layer of water is, is beyond me. I'm not sure that they are pumping out any more than what consumption was.

Brad White_9

JP, worry not

Even if they did not use the water for the city water supply and returned it to the lake (as Cornell U. does), we are not talking excessive heat. This is not like a condenser water scenario where 95 degree water is dumped back.

Rather, the deep lake water comes up at 40-42 degrees and is returned to the shallower parts of the lake about ten degrees warmer.

If you have ever been up to your waist in 52 degree water you would not be concerned about any trout save your own

Brad White_9

Small World, my company's Canadian affilliate was involved.

Our Canadian affilliate, TMP Toronto, was involved in this. Here is a posting from our Toronto office:



Rich;

TMP Toronto was the engineer for concept, along with Greg Allen, for the original absorption plant that was converted to a bottoming chiller plant, and all stages for plant growth to and for stretching the capacity of the system to 115% of original design capacity. It has been going on from 1994 for the absorption plant, and from 1996 for the deep lake water enhancement. The civil component was done by Gryphon Engineering, the same engineers as on Cornell. Cornell started after us and finished before...less goverment involvement!

The deep lake intake is a shared utility with Toronto Water Supply (TWS). Enwave provided new intakes in exchange for the access to piping to downtown, and the water for cooling. The city water is heat exchanged to cool the Enwave chilled water, and then carries on to city water customers. The bottoming chillers subcool the water from about 40F in the summer to 38F for distribution. They also help with temperature transients that occur at turnover and under some weather conditions, where the intake water temperature increases for short periods.

The original design was for 52,000 TR. We have conceived modifications for about 60,000TR, and with diversity expect an ultimate connected load of about 66,000 TR. The project is selling out faster than expected. Next year the peak load will be about 35,000 TR, and peak capacity may be reached about 3 or 4 years later.

If interested I can provide a lot more detail.

Regards,
Bob

Mark Hunt

Also consider

the warm water discharges from the nuke plants on Lake Ontario.

In the spring, HUNDREDS of fishing boats collect off of Nine Mile to fish "The Bubble". Some days you can actually see the thermocline. Bait fish gather there and so do the big boize! Someday I hope to put some down-riggers on a torpedo boat so I can have the spot all to myself.

Edit: This is forbidden on most other lakes in NY for the precise reasons JP mentioned. (The warm water discharge, not the torpedo boats so stay out of my fishing spots!)

Mark H

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Uni R_2

Hey Brad...

Could you please translate TR for us non-engineers?

Brad White_155

Depending on whom you ask

TR is "Tons Reserve" or "Tons Ready" (Or "Tonnes" if you really want

The distinction is the net amount of chilled water tonnage available for distribution at a given time, versus the sum of all chillers, heat exchangers and pumps which may be held as back-up/standby when one of the prime pieces of equipment is out of service for any reason.