Renewable cold, a new European challenge

I – Increasingly significant cooling needs

The Climate change is a topic that is increasingly present in everyone's lives and is becoming a critical issue for territories around the world. Many consequences of this climate upheaval are being felt, rising temperatures being one of the most important and blatant. Indeed, as the global temperature rise reaches the threshold of 1.5°C warming by 2040; and with ever-increasing numbers of high-temperature days, cooling needs will become one of the priorities of Europe and the world.

Between 2015 and 2050, a study funded by the European Union announces a very strong increase in cooling needs that are expected to double by 2050 Heat Roadmap.

As these needs are constantly increasing, they also represent a Strong threat for the environment. Indeed, current cooling technologies are predominantly powered by hydrofluorocarbons, a family of important greenhouse gases with a relatively short lifespan compared to other GHGs, but whose global warming potential (GWP) can be up to 14,000 times higher than that of carbon CO2, making these gases a monumental danger to the climate.

According to The Kigali Amendment and F-gas regulations, the utilization rate of these high-GWP fluorinated fluids must imperatively reach 0% from here 2030, representing a new challenge for the different territories.   

 

But then, how can we ensure cooling for various sectors while reducing greenhouse gas emissions that are toxic to the environment, and comply with regulations related to fluorinated fluids?

II – Renewable cold production solutions

In Europe, renewable cooling solutions are only’tiny. However, even though these are very rare, some do exist. We present a few of them to you:

• The Free Cooling is a cooling technique based on the use of outside air, or seawater or river water, to cool buildings. This solution avoids the use of refrigerants and minimizes the electricity consumption of HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) systems. Although this solution has real potential, it also has limitations; for optimal functioning, it requires the use of thermal sources generally lower than the ambient temperature. However, this leads to challenges related to the solution's irregularity, as well as an architectural challenge during the building's construction. .

• The Direct Adiabatic Cooling is an air conditioning technique based on water evaporation. The thermal energy required for evaporation is directly drawn from the outside air, eliminating the need for an artificial heat source for the technology to operate. This solution also has its limitations, in the same way as Free Cooling, it mostly depends on the air temperature. Furthermore, systems using water spraying are dangerous to health and can affect the human respiratory system.

• The Absorption Heat Pumps are systems based on the same principle as a traditional heat pump. However, unlike a traditional heat pump, mechanical compression is replaced here by chemical compression. Although this solution can be identified as renewable since it is very often based on the absorption of industrial waste heat or solar heat, it uses refrigerants that are generally highly flammable and toxic to humans.

Although these solutions exist, their capacity to generate cold remains too insufficient to meet the needs of consumers with significant thermal energy demands, and they constitute only a small part of current cooling methods.

In Europe, the vast majority (90%) desk Cold production solutions st derived from systems based on the use of refrigerants and of’electricity. In France, for example, cold production requires more 30 TWh electricity, representing approximately 6% of total electricity consumption from the country! That is why it is becoming imperative for European territories, but also for those around the world, to develop renewable and sustainable cold production solutions.

III – Water Horizon and Renewable Cold

WH technology relies on the use of fluids non-flammable, non-explosive and non-gaseous which therefore do not represent a threat to humans and the environment. These fluids used in our processes do not generate no CO2 emissions or others greenhouse gases.

The functioning of Water Horizon technology is based on the principle of Thermochemistry and from the absorption of residual industrial heat, and allows the storage of this thermal energy generated by our process. WH has managed to develop its technology without using hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)  such as: R32, R134A, R410A, or fluoromethane, and is capable of harnessing stored thermal energy by transforming it into Hot, but also, and above all, in renewable cold.

 

Our system aims to surpass the performance of current cooling systems displaying an Electrical Coefficient of Performance (COP) of 3. The WH project's electricity consumption is minimal, with a COP of 20, which is nearly 7 times less than conventional systems. Thus, for each renewable heat and cold distribution project, Water Horizon makes it possible to avoid nearly 1300 tCO2eq/year pour a single 1MW unit.

Our goal is to enable large-scale users of refrigeration to substitute mechanical compression systems. energy-hungry in electricity, using Fluorinated gases harmful to the environment, with its renewable solution.

Water Horizon radically transforms the exploitation of lost heat, converting it into a source of lasting cold. By establishing a Circular economy thermal energy, Watt unleashed a true industrial revolution in the greenhouse gas emission reduction the greenhouse.