An ice bank is a package of Evaporator coils that is placed in a tank with water. The idea behind the Ice Bank is simple to deliver water at 0 – 1 °C constantly and if glycols are use along with water Constant Temperature around -20 °C can also be achieved.
These Ice Bank Tanks or IBTs are very good when sudden loads are added or loads are not uniform all through. A smaller capacity plant can suffice the requirement of a bigger refrigeration load as it keeps on storing refrigeration in the form of Ice during the Off Cycle.
In a 8 hour batch of any process where you need refrigeration cooling 1/3 rd capacity plant will be sufficient if the refrigeration plant runs for 24 hours thereby saving a lot of capital investment.
As we are aware that electricity is now supplied to consumers in four different Tariffs which is time based. The Cheapest being 10 pm to 6 am and costliest between 6 am to 10 pm. So it will be wiser to switch off the plant when the tariffs are the highest and switch the plant on when the tariff is the lowest. During the Off Period we use only the pumps to circulate the water from the IBT thereby minimizing the electricity cost.
At Night as ambient temperature drops and the condensing temperature also drops by around 10 °C increasing the refrigeration plant capacity by around 35%, which is a tremendous amount.
That is why thermal energy storage by our Ice Banks is a good investment.
Provides chilled water at 0-1 °C
No peak load
Chance of coil bursting due to water expansion is eliminated as compared to chillers
Lower Energy cost
Minimized maintenance costs
Compact design
Constant capacity available
Higher Capacity at Night due to lower condensing temperature.
Self Cleaning of Cooling coils during melting of ice.