Reference

Royal Papworth Hospital Cambridge

Cooling generator

Planning

Execution

Leading center for heart and lung transplants

The Royal Papworth Hospital on the outskirts of Cambridge is the UK’s leading center for heart and lung transplants. The new building with more than 270 beds was occupied at the beginning of 2019. The building and medical equipment require a total of 2.4 megawatts of heating and 3 megawatts of cooling capacity.

Heat and cold optimally utilized

Thanks to four Zortström systems, heating and cooling are used optimally and are available to every consumer around the clock in the required quantity. And with minimal energy consumption. At the heart of the system are four Zortström units that efficiently combine the large number of heating and cooling sources and provide them according to the load profile of the consumers.

The brine Zortström controls the flow of energy from the geothermal probes to the heat pumps. Free cooling is also possible. In this way, the geothermal field is optimally utilized. Most of the excess heat is directed into the ground and stored there. Only the energy from absolute cooling load peaks is blown away via the roof by two recoolers.

11 temperature zones with minimum energy consumption

The cooling, one heating and one high-temperature Zortström enable efficient and reliable supply in a total of eleven temperature zones. The heat pumps combine cooling and heating Zortström. They can therefore provide both cooling and heating simultaneously and with a very high level of efficiency.

The heat pumps are controlled via the temperature in the zones. The sliding layer space in the Zortström acts as a buffer and optimizes their running times. The consumers are hydraulically decoupled. They collect the energy as required without influencing each other. Energy from the returns is used for the next temperature zone and increases overall efficiency. To ensure that the efficient heat pumps and the combined heat and power plant produce as much energy as possible, the Zortströms also ensure that the gas boilers are only switched on briefly during peak loads.

Benefit

Efficiency

Simultaneous generation of cooling and heat, thus achieving an overall COP of at least 8.
Efficient output control of the heat pumps depending on the temperatures in the Zortström.
Sliding layer space optimizes running times.
Brine distribution with profit: Excess heat is fed into the ground to charge the probe field for the winter from the cooling mode in late summer.
Natural energy from the air can be utilized highly efficiently in large quantities via the recoolers to heat the hospital down to freezing point. This includes an anti-global warming component.
Use of natural energy from the air to charge the probe field on warm winter days.
High-efficiency pumps run with minimal power consumption and don't rock each other.