Large chillers in Department of War (DoW) data centers, hospitals, and administration buildings are essential for maintaining effective indoor air conditions, but they consume significant energy in their operations and place significant strain on the grid increasing the risk of blackouts. To address this issue, the project team aims to demonstrate a new solution that harnesses the energy wasted during the chiller’s refrigerant expansion phase to generate low cost, reliable electricity that can be added back into the chiller. To address this issue, the project team aims to demonstrate a Liquid-Vapor Expander (LVE) in a chiller system. 

Hayzel LVE is an innovative turbine that bypasses a chiller’s traditional expansion valve to recover energy from refrigerant expansion. The LVE utilizes a novel nozzle and impulse turbine design which mitigates the mechanical issues associated with two-phase systems. The turbine is directly coupled to an induction generator whose output is connected back to the motor control panel feeding the chiller’s compressor. Unlike conventional expansion devices, the LVE converts the expansion of the refrigerant into both carbon-free electricity and additional cooling capacity by increasing the liquid-fraction of the refrigerant during the expansion process. The net effect is the ability to reduce the energy needed to operate water and air-cooled chillers. The LVE can be deployed as a standalone retrofit onto existing chillers or integrated into new chillers at the factory level. For this demonstration, Hayzel will install the LVE in a 490-ton Vertiv chiller using R513a refrigerant, where it is expected to generate 41.6 kWe and offset 54.0 kWe of compressor power, with performance validated by utility-grade metering.

The demonstration will baseline existing chiller performance at a Defense Health Agency facility and compare it against a new Vertiv chiller integrated with LVE. Results will be based on measured and verified power and cooling output and will inform cost-effective resource efficiency pathways for hospitals and other mission-critical DoW facilities.

The LVE offers significant benefits to DoW facilities by increasing energy resilience, reducing operating costs, and lowering blackout risks. The LVE'S unique two-phase turbine may reduce a chiller’s energy consumption by up to 10% while also improving the cooling capacity of the chiller. (Anticipated Project Completion - 2028)