Mountair have been designing and producing hybrid recoolers for over fifteen years now. Each project carried out is unique and was designed, manufactured and assembled exactly according to customer requirements. Be it an individual hybrid recooler with a capacity of 200 kW or a connected circuit plant of 6 MW, Mountair puts your individual needs into practice.

The know-how and service experience of Mountair enables us to react to events rapidly. Replacement of wear and tear parts, converting plants to meet changing circumstances in the operating parameters, repairs of plant components as a result of faults, or adaptations in the ICA (Instrumentation, Control and Automation) area of the controls – Mountair is your competent partner.

Operation area
In most cases, hybrid recoolers are installed in combination with refrigerating machines. Here the recooler provides the cooling source for the refrigerating machines to which the thermal energy can be delivered at a higher temperature level. In case of hybrid recoolers, the air required to cool the medium (water or water-glycol mixture) is loaded with significantly more thermal energy than in case of other recooling systems. Hybrid recoolers manage with less air volume than dry recoolers. This means fewer fans, which has a positive effect on noise levels and on the overall power consumption.

Benefits
Compared to dry recoolers and adiabatic recoolers, hybrid recoolers show some marked benefits. The main advantage is that significantly lower recooling temperatures can be achieved. This substantially improves the COP of the refrigerating machine. As a result, the power requirement drops and thus the operating cost of the whole refrigeration plant as well.
Furthermore, evaporation means that markedly more thermal energy can be transferred to the air flow than is possible in case of dry recoolers or adiabatic recoolers (see HX diagram). Hybrid recoolers are extremely compact, which means it is possible to provide higher performance in less space.

HYBACO® recoolers are equipped with their own control. All system parameters are monitored, and the system is regulated in accordance with the prescribed values. The operation mode is adjusted according to the exterior temperatures, return temperatures or other external signals. The automatic regulation is performed in stages, first through an increase of the air volume, then through the starting of the humidification. Standard day and night programs are included. There is the possibility of implementing a remote maintenance. The hybrid recooler control is equipped with a BUS interface.

Several factors are essential in designing customer-specific hybrid recoolers. The more information that can be given to the manufacturer, the more appropriately the initial designs and quotations can be prepared. Essential design factors are listed below.

Vital information required:
Height above sea level
Wet bulb temperature (outside air at maximal load/capacity, temperature and humidity)
Recooling capacity [kW]
Temperatures flow/return
Medium (glycol concentration)

Other essential characteristics:
Permissible noise output (sound pressure at 10 m distance)
Hydraulic pressure loss
Installation area desired/maximum
Plant height, maximum
Plant weight

The lower the wet bulb temperature, the more capacity can be dissipated by a structurally identical recooler. The mean logarithmic temperature difference between wet bulb and flow/return temperature is crucial. The lower the flow/ return temperatures, the higher the COP of the refrigerating machine. Larger recoolers are therefore required to achieve lower temperature levels; although this will generate higher investment costs, the operating costs over the whole life cycle of plant will be lower. An investment for the future.