Heat exchanger for cold reservoir at the Ben Gurion University

Background

The design and installation of the largest heat exchanger in Israel

The Ben Gurion University in the Negev has a central HVAC system based on a cold reservoir in the form of a huge water tank. Over the years, many problems have been reported in the campus’ hydraulic system that have been evolving over the years and preventing the efficient and satisfactory operation of air conditioning in halls, rooms and buildings across the campus.

A heat exchanger with the largest heat transfer area ever installed in Israel.

The objective

To upgrade the HVAC system, for solving existing hydraulic problems and change the water temperatures provided to the user's end units, i.e., rooms in the campus buildings, at the bare minimum, so as to not require the replacements of the end units at all. Therefore, the HVAC consultant determined that increasing the water temperature for the end units, should be within a maximum of 0.75 degree centigrade.

The challenge

Our challenge was to prevent all end units from being replaced.

Therefore, the HVAC consultant determined that the increase in water temperature for the end units should be within a maximum of 0.75 degree centigrade. Plate heat exchangers. on such a scale were confronted in Israel with such a requirement only once in the past. The first time was for heat exchangers under the Marganit Tower in the Kirya in Tel Aviv. Krashin-Shalev had supplied them in 1985 - and to this day (over 30 years now!) Our equipment provides the required temperature without any repair, overhaul, or replacement of gaskets, even for once only.

The Project’s Solution

We designed and supplied a heat exchanger for the Ben-Gurion University project with the largest heat transfer area ever installed in Israel. The height of the heat exchanger is almost 4 m. and weighs about 17 tons. Other challenges in the project were: - A height constraint. In order to solve it, we have designed a special frame for the heat exchanger. – The placement in a site located in the basement. For doing this, we have hired a skilled porter team to perform this complex transport mission.

The outcome

After the system has been turned on, the heat exchanger's performance measurements were within a tenth of one degree centigrade and the end user confirmed that the heat exchanger met the stringent requirements. We have proudly invited in the managers of TRANTER (which we represent since 1985) to the site. Senior engineers from Sweden and Italy have visited the University's energy control center. They said it reminded them of NASA's control rooms as shown in movies and they were very impressed with the capabilities of the Israeli engineers.