Chiller Technology of the Future – Water Vapor

During the past decade, Johnson Controls Denmark (JCD), Danish Technological Institute (DTI)

and Kobe Steel Ltd. (KS) have carried out an extensive research and development project. The

objective was, and still is, to create a competitive, sustainable and safe refrigeration system for

water cooling (chiller) based on water as refrigerant. This fits perfect into the demand for HFC

alternatives triggered by the revised EU F-gas directive. With the new water vapor technology, the

sustainability and safety problems are solved once forever.

The purpose of the project is to develop the technology from a laboratory level to a turnkey fieldtest

prototype and to demonstrate it in a real life application in order to obtain real operation

conditions. The heart of the technology is a unique axial multistage turbo compressor that is much

more compact and efficient than that of the upcoming competitors. In the refrigeration business

and for compressor manufacturers that result is regarded as a major achievement and a

technological breakthrough.

The commercial agreement between KS, JCD and DTI ensures that the majority of compressor as

well as chiller production will take place in Denmark with the option for KS to initiate a parallel

production in Japan. In the future the water vapor compressor technology can be used for other

applications than the chiller e.g. high temperature heat pumps, vacuum ice generation, for

recompression of steam from steam drying processes and in MVR applications. That is why JCD

has established a “Centre of Excellence” in Denmark, where the water vapor technology will be

based.