Energy Concepts Company - Providing Practical Solutions to Pressing World Energy Problems

Final Report Issued
ECC has issued a Final Report on the California Energy Commission project demonstrating ThermoSorber. ThermoSorber™, a thermally driven heat pump that delivers hot water and chilling simultaneously, was developed and demonstrated at a California food processing plant. It is driven by heat at ~300oF , delivers hot water at ~140oF, and provides chilling at ~35oF. It provides 160 units of heating and 60 units of chilling per 100 units of thermal energy input. Electrical energy use is minimal ( ~5% of the thermal energy input). Rejection of the heat extracted from the chilling load at a temperature high enough to be useful in industrial application is the concept behind this highly energy efficient device.

The heat pump is a unique ammonia-water cycle, developed by Energy Concepts Company (ECC). The heat pump also uses proprietary heat and mass exchangers, which allow the delivery of the two useful energy products (hot water and chilling), at very high efficiency. The heat pump was designed, fabricated, and tested at ECC; shipped to the food processor; installed and commissioned; and has now operated for over 20 months. Other food and beverage processors have been offered a ThermoSorber, but for reasons not related technical or economic considerations, have not yet accepted the offer. Specifications, operating results, lessons learned, and commercialization plans are detailed.

This report describes the first field demonstration of the ThermoSorber™ -- a thermally driven combination chiller / heat pump . The ThermoSorber produces hot water plus chilling using only one half the energy of any other available technology. The savings in both utility cost and energy are large, and the installed cost is low. This results in attractive paybacks of less than two years in most applications (DOWNLOAD PDF).

ThermoChiller for Ice Hotel in Alaska
Energy Concepts announces that Chena Hot Springs, owner and operator of the only Ice Hotel in the United States, has purchased a ThermoChiller to keep the hotel frozen. The Aurora Ice Hotel intends to operate year round, including the warm summer months when there is 24 hour sunlight. Due to the remote location, conventional chilling is very expensive because electricity is generated on site with diesel generators. The ThermoChiller will use the 160oF hot spring water available at Chena to drive an absorption refrigeration cycle. It will produce 15 tons of refrigeration at –28oF, sufficient to keep the hotel frozen on even the warmest days. The ThermoChiller is unique in its ability to produce very cold refrigeration from low temperature sources of heat. ThermoChiller is a heat activated absorption cycle, with essentially no electric requirement. The ThermoChiller has been operating at Chena since March 2005.