ExhaustFlow Technologies has commercially launched a patented “integrated base system” for air-cooled chillers and dry coolers intended to prevent hot exhaust air from recirculating into condenser intakes in data center mechanical yards. The company’s performance targets include up to a 25% increase in cooling capacity and up to a 30% improvement in plant efficiency (kW/ton), with zero water consumption.
The system is covered by U.S. Patent No. 12,372,268. ExhaustFlow describes it as a base that captures and routes clean ambient air from outside a recirculation zone while displacing hot discharge air before it can be re-entrained, with the goal of keeping condenser-coil entering air temperatures uniform across an array of chillers. In the company’s description, the result is operation “as if each chiller were operating as a standalone unit,” even in dense layouts.
Recirculation is a real engineering problem for air-cooled plants in constrained yards because elevated condenser entering air temperature directly hits both capacity and kW/ton. If a site can materially reduce condenser inlet temperature without adding water or expanding yard spacing, that can be a practical way to recover stranded capacity from an existing plant without resorting to adding more chiller frames.
ExhaustFlow points to “independent, third-party” CFD modeling across multiple chiller plant configurations and lists the following outcomes with the system installed: WUE (water usage effectiveness) of 0, up to 25% higher chiller cooling capacity, and up to 30% better plant efficiency (kW/ton). The company also ties the claimed efficiency and capacity improvements to “corresponding decreases in MCA and MOP,” along with reduced generator sizing requirements, smaller wire sizes and overcurrent protection devices, and a smaller overall plant footprint that enables denser chiller arrays “without performance penalty.” It also claims “minimal added maintenance.”
For deployment, ExhaustFlow says the base system is designed for both new construction and retrofit. Installation is described as requiring no modification to chiller internals or controls, with minimal disruption for retrofits and “no equipment downtime required.” The company also describes an optional integrated free-cooling package that can be built into the base, eliminating the need for chiller-mounted free-cooling coils and confining glycol to the free-cooling section while keeping a water-only primary chilled water loop. An optional controls platform is described as monitoring condenser inlet, plenum, and ambient temperatures to optimize fan speeds and airflow in real time, operating independently alongside existing chiller controls.
“We’re talking about up to 30% improvement in kW/ton,” said Ralph Breisch, SVP, Global Sales & Marketing at ExhaustFlow Technologies.
Source: ExhaustFlow Technologies
