Project Overview


In today’s rapidly growing world, the need for energy has skyrocketed in order to keep up with the demand for new and better technologies that help improve human lives. A large percentage of the energy consumption stems from heating and cooling solutions that have become a standard in the lives of many around the world in developed and developing country.  

Technology for mechanical chiller systems have been around since 1902 and in today’s modern society, chiller systems are widely utilized in air conditioning and industrial buildings. Through time and many iteration, the efficiency of chiller systems have reached a point where small improvements in efficiency will make little economic sense. One possible solution is to use an economizer system. An economizer’s purpose is to simply “economizer” on cooling cost of the chiller system by reducing the energy consumption. Many companies have turned to adding and improving upon the economizer to increase the efficiency of their chiller system.  

There are two main types of economizers available. Heat exchanger type and flash tank type. The flash tank type economizer has a couple fundamental benefits over heat exchanger type, the primary advantage is that it has the potential to have a higher net efficiency improvement. The sponsor company Turbocor have at the moment, only the heat exchange type of economizer available in the compressor test stand. They have presented a project to solve this issue by developing a flash tank economizer for compressor test stands.