As most in the maritime industry known, every ship needs to cool down its engines, where horsepower in the thousands are generating a huge amount of heat, which needs to be removed in an environmentally and efficient manner. Failure or inefficient cooling might lead to reduces engine capacity or in worst case costly breakdown of essential equipment or the engine itself.
Hydroniq Coolers’ ingenious Rack cooler differs from other cooling systems as it is integrated in the hull below the main engine room of the vessel. Here it safely reduces temperatures in the ship’s engines and other auxiliary systems through use of seawater – but without taking up valuable engine room space.
However, the Rack cooler is applicable for both maritime and industrial use. It is patented due to is uniqueness. It combines the benefits from box and plate coolers, without the disadvantages of either system.
For example, the Rack cooler combines the energy and space-saving features of a box cooler with the standardised steel structure and constant and efficient cooling of a plate heat exchanger – uniting all these qualities into one system. Additionally, the Rack offers a maintenance-friendliness that neither the box nor plate cooler can compete with. Allow us to elaborate:
The Rack provides constant and efficient cooling with close to zero downtime and with a K-value heat transfer that can be up to 3 x times better than what box coolers can deliver. Forced seawater flow ensures predictable cooling and cooling capacity that is independent of the ship’s service speed as opposed to box coolers. The forced seawater flow further prevents over/under cooling in cold seawater conditions, i.e. if the heat is needed for other services such as de-icing. Our seawater filters can be cleaned in-service, which again underlines the Rack’s maintenance friendly nature. The Rack can further be fitted with internal ICAF system to further ensure that marine growth is prevented if for example titanium tubes are used in the Rack.
The Rack is also packed with fuel and energy saving solutions such as frequency operated seawater pumps which due to low pressure drop requires lower power consumption. Chilled water element reduces running time at the chilled-water compressors while heat recovery element makes it possible to use the surplus heat, further underlining the system’s energy efficiency.
By integrating the system in the ship’s steel structure – normally between frames in double-bottom – the Rack cooler saves valuable space in the vessel’s engine room. This means that also the piping is situated below deck, which also means reduced piping arrangement for seawater.
In case of maritime installation the system itself is 100% insulated from the hull, preventing galvanic corrosion.
The fact that the Rack comes in a standardised steel structure and is installed close to the main engines means less piping and infrastructure. From a volume perspective it offers the same cooling effect as a box cooler that is significantly larger in size and space requirements, compared to the Rack. Combined with lower piping requirements, such weight advantage affects the vessel’s buoyancy positively. Furthermore, it is very easy for a shipyard to install the Rack cooling system.
The Rack seawater cooler is also packed with maintenance friendly features. Firstly, dry docking is not necessary as its design ensures easy access for inspection and maintenance – even while at sea – without the need for special technical qualifications. Tubes in CuNi prevents marine growth and in-service routing flushing is allowed, while few service gaskets ensure low lifecycle cost, as opposed to traditional plate coolers. ,
One of the recent changes to the Rack system typically offered to large seafaring vessels with large and multiple engines that require major cooling capacity, is to slightly increase the space between the piping in the seawater cooler. This offers multiple benefits as each pipe becomes more effective as a cooling unit because of improved water flow in the piping, and it becomes easier to clean the seawater cooler because of larger space between the piping, which allows easier removal of particles.
An improved construction method for the Rack has also reduced the amount of areas where foreign particles can accumulate, thereby significantly reducing the risk for scale build up and, over time, corrosion.
Interested in finding out more? Contact our sales team.
Curious to know which customers have so far installed our Rack seawater coolers? Check out or extensive reference list.
