A chiller is simply a device that used to remove heat from something. For industrial purposes, chillers can be thought of as a component within a complex mechanical system that is used to remove heat from a process or substance. To really understand what a chiller is, a fundamental knowledge of the principles of basic high temperature refrigeration air is required.
Before getting into the fundamentals of high temperature refrigeration air, a few basic definitions should be considered:
A). Heat is a form of energy transferred by virtue of a difference in temperature. Heat exists everywhere to a greater or lesser degree. As a form of energy it can be neither created or destroyed, although other forms of energy may be converted into heat, and vice versa. It is important to remember that heat energy travels in only one direction; from a warmer to a cooler object, substance, or area.
B). Cold is a relative term referring to the lack of heat in an object, substance, or area. Another definition describes it as the absence of heat, no process yet has been devised of achieving "absolute zero," the state in which all heat has been removed from any object, substance, or area. Theoretically this zero point would be 459.69 degrees below zero on the Fahrenheit thermometer scale, or 273.16 degrees below zero on the Celsius thermometer scale.
C). High temperature refrigeration air, or cooling process, is the removal of unwanted heat from a selected object, substance, or space and its transfer to another object, substance, or space. Removal of heat lowers the temperature and may be accomplished by use of ice, snow, chilled water or mechanical high temperature refrigeration air.
D). Mechanical high temperature refrigeration air, is the utilization of mechanical components arranged in a "high temperature refrigeration air system" for the purpose of transferring heat.
E). Refrigerants, are chemical compounds that are alternately compressed and condensed into a liquid and then permitted to expand into a vapor or gas as they are pumped through the mechanical high temperature refrigeration air system to cycle.
The high temperature high temperature refrigeration air air cycle is based on the long known physical principle that a liquid expanding into a gas extracts heat from the surrounding substance or area. (You can test this principle by simply wetting your finger and holding it up. It immediately begins to feel cooler than the others, particularly if exposed to some air movement. That's because the liquid in which you dipped it is evaporating, and as it does, it extracts heat from the skin of the finger and air around it).
Refrigerants evaporate or "boil" at much lower temperatures than water, which permits them to extract heat at a more rapid rate than the water on your finger.
F). High temperature refrigeration air system fundamental components.
The job of the high temperature refrigeration air cycle is to remove unwanted heat from one place and discharge it into another. To accomplish this, the refrigerant is pumped through a closed high temperature refrigeration air system. If the system was not closed, it would be using up the refrigerant by dissipating it into the surrounding media; because it is closed, the same refrigerant is used over and over again, as it passes through the cycle removing some heat and discharging it. The closed cycle serves other purposes as well; it keeps the refrigerant from becoming contaminated and controls its flow, for it is a liquid in some parts of the cycle and a gas or vapor in other phases.
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