History of Chiller (3)
In the beginning, compression refrigeration systems were driven by large power generating devices such as steam engines, so they were almost impossible to use as home refrigerators. However, the development of electricity and the invention of electric drive motors related to it made the driving method of compressors simpler and smaller, and made their application as home refrigerators possible. Accordingly, in order to prevent leakage of sulfur dioxide refrigerant, which was commonly used at the time, a sealed compressor was developed by General Electric Company in the United States in 1924, and the current home refrigerator was invented.
Ammonia, a refrigerant widely used at the time, was highly toxic and risked human casualties, so hydrocarbon refrigerants were developed in the United States in the 1920s.
In addition, Willis Carrier, who began to apply the theory of air conditioning to the industry, invented a large-capacity turbo chiller using dichloroethylene, a hydrocarbon refrigerant, for the first time in 1922, and used it to cool large buildings such as theaters. He also first applied Freon 11, a CFC refrigerant that had been used until very recently, to a turbo-cooler. The picture below shows the first turbo-cooler developed by Carrier and the entrance to the air-conditioned theater at that time.
In the field of absorption refrigeration, in 1922, a Swedish engineers Carl G. Munters and Baltzen Van Platen invented a hydrogen gas-filled ammonia absorption refrigerator (Single Pressure Ammonia / Water Hydrogen Cycle Absorption Refrigerator. The diagram below shows the refrigeration cycle) that could be driven solely by heating without a separate drive device. This was the most groundbreaking since Ferdinand Carre invented the ammonia absorption chiller.
At a time when electricity and its drive motors were not widespread, this invention enabled the refrigeration device to be driven solely by a simple heating source such as a gas flame, and was widely used as a small household refrigerator by Servel, an American company that bought the invention. Unlike the electric compression home refrigerators that are widely used today, this invention, which is driven by the heating heat of a gas flame or electricity, is a noiseless refrigerator without a compressor and is still widely used today.
The large-scale building absorption chiller that has been widely used domestically recently uses lithium bromide as an absorbent and water as a refrigerant. The US company Servel developed and introduced a 15 to 35-ton model in 1940, and Carrier also developed a large-capacity product in 1945 and introduced it to the market in the 100 to 700-ton class. The picture below is a lithium bromide absorption chiller that Carrier introduced in 1945.
