Reducing PUE by Making Power from Chiller Waste Heat

This 15-minute conference talk by Nate Turner, CEO of Hayzel LLC, explores an innovative approach to reducing Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) in data centers by generating power from chiller waste heat. Learn about Hayzel's Liquid Vapor Expander (LVE) technology, a novel two-phase turbine generator being tested through NREL's IN2 program at a leading California data center. The LVE accepts high-pressure refrigerant from a chiller's condenser and reduces it to lower pressure by rotating a turbine generator, effectively creating carbon-free electricity from what was previously wasted energy in the refrigerant expansion process. Discover how this technology not only generates electricity but also increases the cooling capacity of the chiller by extracting more energy from the refrigerant than traditional expansion valves. The presentation covers the integration of this prototype with an 800-ton water-cooled chiller running R134a refrigerant, the measurement and verification process for net energy benefits, and testing of system robustness across various operational modes. The anticipated benefit is a significant reduction of chiller energy consumption by approximately 10%, offering a new "low-hanging fruit" opportunity for data centers to improve efficiency.