air agitation of glycol?

[gitchegumee]

I'm commissioning a used German system with a 1000 liter glycol reservoir. The refrigerant flows through a set of large plates suspended vertically in the tank. there is a regenerative blower set up for air agitation in the tank to keep glycol mixed. Anyone see this setup before? What would the advantage of this over a recirculation pump be? And wouldn't it tend to warm the glycol with warm air and cool the room in which it's installed? I'd like to rip out the blower and install a recirculation pump, but someone knew better than me to design it this way. Comments?

[grassrootsvt]

I used to work on a Kaspar Schulz system in Denmark - and we had a similar reservoir. However, it was an ice bank (ie. water with frozen refrigerant coils...recirculated..) rather than a standard glycol chiller...
Is this similar to what you are looking at?

[Moonlight]

Insightful idea of swapping the blower for a recirc pump! It may have not been designed for the warmer climate you are in, but in reality I am curious how much heat the air would actually carry, might not be so much.

[jimvgjr]

It sounds like your system is an ice builder that they may be trying to operate at lower temperatures and have added glycol to accomplish.

Below is from a website on ice builders:

Air agitation of water in the unit provides:
1) even distribution of ice melting during consumption period and
2) uniform formation of higher density ice during the freezing recovery phase.

Perhaps since you are not trying to build ice, the air agitation isn't as critical. Anything to help encourage heat exchange; via air agitation or a circulation pump, will definitely help.

Good Luck,

Jim

[gitchegumee]

Thanks for the help! Definitely don't need to build ice, but glad to know what one looks like! Appreciate your help. I guess I've got a used blower for sale!