INDUSTRIAL Purification Systems (IPS) has scored something of a coup with its supply of energy efficient filtration technology for the open loop heat pump system recently installed at the Kingston Heights development in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey.
The system will deliver under-floor heating and hot water throughout the development, which was officially switched on in Autumn 2013.
Kingston Heights is a £70 million mixed-use development owned by NHP Leisure Developments, comprising 56 affordable homes in addition to private apartments and a hotel.
Based on an open loop heat pump system from Mitsubishi based Heat Pump system installation is the first of its kind in the UK that harvests naturally stored energy from the River Thames to provide thermal energy for an entire development.
IPS director Andy Evans explains: “The Open Loop System works by using pumps in the plant building to extract water through intakes placed in the River Thames at a level where the water temperature remains constant. After passing this water through heat exchangers connected to heat pumps to extract the energy from the water, the water is then returned to the river with the minimum of heat gain. This minimises the impact on overall river temperatures and water dissolved oxygen levels.
“This process is traditionally done utilising bore holes similar to projects we have carried out for the Royal Festival Hall and the Tate further down river. However abstracting from a river source is the new concept in establishing levels of thermal energy efficiency for large scale developments which significantly produces zero on-site carbon emissions.
“In contrast to bore hole extraction, river water is a much more difficult process as the solids levels are much higher and also uncontrolled. The filtration plant therefore has to be considerably more robust and presents much more of a technical challenge.
“The particular filtration system we have developed at Kingston Heights comprises two-off in-river automatically backwashing filters which had to meet the exacting demands of the Environment Agency.
Visit www.industrial-purification.co.uk for more detail about this application.
