5 of the Chillers had been replaced in 1993 following the ( 1st attempt ) EXPLOSION in the parking garage. Replacements were 2,000 Ton Each.

Here is whats going in the new building.

http://www.dnainfo.com/20100623/manhattan/giant-air-conditioner-arrives-at-world-trade-center-site

 

River water? pump n' dump?

 

I'm guessing it's river water for the condenser.

 

From http://www.crc-eng.com/project-experience/world-trade-center

"The chiller plant design includes five 2500 ton electric centrifugal chillers, five 300 hp chilled water pumps with variable frequency drives (VFDs) and two 1000 ton plate & frame heat exchangers to provide 2000 tons of “free-cooling” capacity in the winter and shoulder months."

"The chiller plant utilizes river water from the Hudson river for condenser water, and the project includes renovation/reactivation of the below-grade river water pump station. The pump station has not been active since the events of September 11, 2001, and the pump station equipment has been subjected to the corrosive effects of the brackish river water. All electrical equipment inside the pump station will be replaced. The existing river water pumps will be removed and replaced with four new 500 hp 15,000 gpm vertical turbine pumps with VFDs. The existing sluice gates and traveling screens will be refurbished."

This is a much downsized plant from the original plans, which called for almost 40,000 tons of chiller.

 

Thanks for the replies,

I also heard they added a few chillers following the '93 attacks. This increased the output of the plant. I believe the plant could put out about 60000 tons.

I do have a question regarding the new freedom tower. Does anyone know where they will get there heat? I heard about McQuay doing the A/C job; however no mention was made of where they will obtain their heat. Does anyone happen to know? Are they planning on using heat strips, as many other buildings do?

If anyone could go into more detail about how the old WTC Refrigeration plant actually worked, I'd greatly appreciate it!

Thanks

 

I do have a question regarding the new freedom tower. Does anyone know where they will get there heat? I heard about McQuay doing the A/C job; however no mention was made of where they will obtain their heat. Does anyone happen to know? Are they planning on using heat strips, as many other buildings do?

There will be so much hot air being blown from the residents, it won't need heating...

 

Heres a slide show showing some of the project http://www.slideshare.net/ctso/rebuildingthewtchmehtactso

 

I remember reading the plant as :

(7) 7,000 ton Carrier custom built up open drive centrifugals serving both buildings and several other area's.

Hudson river as condenser water medium. Pump and dump.

The original chillers were R-12 and later converted to R-134A.

They were medium speed , positive pressure machines.

It was not the largest refrigerated installation , but one of the largest.

A food processing plant in AR holds that title with NH3.

After the bombing all sorts of street side temp chillers were installed to get the bldg back online.

This could be a great thread.

 

I thought the WTC had York equipment?

Speaking of needing heat, I also heard somewhere that the Mall of America doesn't heat most areas either due to so much internal load.

 

The hospital I work for has a MASSIVE boiler plant, that goes virtually unused (was WAY over sized originally to support adsorption chillers that were never installed). The heat demands have drastically decreased over the last 5 years or so, as the numbers of computers/people in the building have increased, to the point that we only ever kept one boiler (of 4) running, another in hot standby, and the other two in layup, all winter long (granted - very mild winters here). In the past, there were times when they had 2 running pretty strong, and a third in hot standby, with fewer buildings.

The chiller plant, on the other hand, can easily hit about 4500 tons in the peak of summer.

 

Damn would that be a great project to work on.

 

Many of the worlds most noble buildings utilize York Titan centrifugals.

Almost positive WTC was Carrier.

Carrier made built up centrifugals rivaling the Turbomaster.

After all , Carrier invented the centrifugal chiller.

 

I was in a class at York a few years after the 9/11 attacks and somehow the subject came up. Our instructor had told us that there were 7-7000 ton York machines in the WTC plant, and that two York mechanics were onsite and lost there lives during the attack. God bless America.

 

Read a paper some time ago describing the plant from NYC port authority mechanical engineer stating carrier was the equipment provider.

I could be wrong.

It seems though it had 49,000 tons.

Whew that is some capacity.

Heck , 1,000 tons is a lot.

I am sure ace mechanics were on site every day keeping that plant spit and polish beautiful.

It may have been one of the finest in the world.

I'm sure all of our hearts go out to our fellow American's regarding the event and those bldgs. God Bless.

 

Another point to mention, is that the new plant will only be cooling the low level complexes (the hub, the museum/memorial, and a future performance hall). The towers themselves are going to have their own cooling systems, because the fish huggers whined about too much water being pumped from/too the river. This is the reason for the considerable drop in size of the plant from the original.

 

Does anyone have pictures of the former WTC Refrigeration Plant?? If so, please post them!

It would be great to see some of the inner workings of this mechanical wonder!

Thanks

 

According to this article there were 2 CHILLER plants for the original complex.

"This central chiller plant is brand new, replacingthe two original plants that once cooled the base buildings of the original WTC complex"

http://www.lowermanhattan.info/news/chilling_at_the_world_66250.aspx


Here is more INFO on the HVAC in the original complex , check pages 8 to 13

http://www.nistreview.org/WTCI-008-S.pdf

 

From what I previously read the 2nd Chiller plant was added after the '93 bombing renovations to provide the WTC with additional cooling, when needed.

Am I correct on this?

 

Not sure if anyone else noticed,
But it seems as though many new (such as Freedom Tower) buildings aren’t using central plants. Does anyone know of any new skyscrapers/ buildings that have decided to use a central plant??

Just curious!

 

My new hospital has one.. but it's only 8 stories... It would seem just the pumping itself would negate a lot of the potential gains that a central plant could provide, nevermind the amount of heat gain you'd have in even a very well insulated line travelling from the below ground plant to the upper floors of the freedom tower. Probably wouldn't be able to dehumidify much by the time it gets up there.

 

The new COMPLEX is using individual HVAC systems per tower , central plant to serve the common area. That way if a problem happens the entire complex is not affected.

 

I remember one person on another thread discussing the WTC Refrigeration Plant, had some pictures of the units installed after '93. However my computer could not pull them up. If anyone has any pictures of the plant, it would be great to see them!

Thanks

 

Does anyone have any information on the 2nd chiller plant in the former twin towers??

 

That reminds me, I seen pictures of a York truck parked outside of one of the buildings in 93'. After the explosion.