Evaluation of Carbon Dioxide Emission of Plate Heat Exchanger for Chilled Water Distribution

The equivalent of carbon dioxide of the plate heat exchangers used for chilled water distribution contributed to Global Warming Potential (GWP). The effect of GWP is increasing of environment temperature due to high concentration of CO₂ in atmosphere. Since the energy inlet of the heat exchanger is not equal to the energy outlet, thus the evaluation of CO₂ released to environment can be estimated from the heat loss by the plate heat exchanger. The heat transfer between the primary and secondary lines of chilled water in the plate heat exchanger caused heat loss being generated and emitted to the environment. The chilled water distribution in Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS is the focus in this study. Two (2) months data of chilled water flowing through the two plate heat exchangers were acquired and analyzed in order to calculate the amount of heat loss to the environment. Two (2) time interval of 10:00 am to 4:00 pm and 8:00 am to 5:00 pm were used in evaluating the average emission of CO₂ equivalent by both plate of the heat exchangers in order to assess the difference. In addition, the total average emission of CO₂ equivalent for 10 years, 15 years and 20 years were also calculated. The energy balance principle was adopted in this evaluation. Results indicate that the amount of CO₂ emission released to environment in 20 years was about 2.84E+08 kg of CO₂.