Design and supply of turnkey trigeneration plants
On-site generation of electricity, heat and cooling for industry and commercial real estate.
gaselectricityexhausthot waterchilledcooling water
Typical plant, simplified scheme
Trigeneration and its main advantages
A trigeneration plant produces cooling in summer and heat in winter, which makes it attractive from an economic point of view.
More about trigenerationinstead of 35–40% for a gas engine without heat recovery.
according to the manufacturer's catalog.
in operation at factories, airports, data centers and shopping malls.
trigeneration projects in Russia and the CIS, and many other cooling projects.
What the site gets
One gas-fired plant covers three cost items. The grid stays as a backup, and the boiler house covers peak heat.
Your own power all year round, plus capacity the grid cannot provide or sells at a high price.
In winter, engine heat warms buildings, hot water and processes instead of the boiler house.
In summer, the same heat goes into an absorption chiller and becomes chilled water at 7/12 °C.
Gas enginesWe select the engine and generator for the site's heat demand and schedule, and supply them together with the cooling.
Thermax absorption chillersA chiller that runs on heat rather than electricity. Cold Energy is the only supplier of Thermax machines in Russia and the CIS.
NCT cooling equipmentCooling towers, chillers, dry coolers, pump skids, water treatment and controls designed for one scheme.Cold Energy: Thermax, NCT and gas engines in one company
We design, supply, supervise installation, commission and service the cooling circuit. Our company is the only supplier of Thermax machines in Russia and the CIS, and you can order the engine and the cooling together.
About usTrigeneration fails at the interfaces, not in the engine
The engine depends on the chiller: if the chiller stops, the heat has nowhere to go. The chiller depends on the engine: if the load drops, there is no cooling. International reviews name the same main causes of failure: the plant was sized on electricity rather than heat, and it runs too few hours. We look at the six interfaces where money is lost.
Types of trigeneration
All typesThe most common option. Hot water, exhaust, or both.
Gas turbine basedLots of high-temperature heat, plus cooling for the turbine inlet air.
Microturbine basedFor buildings and data centers in city centers.
Steam basedFor a plant that needs steam in its process.
Diesel basedWhere there is no gas, but cooling and power are needed.
Biogas basedFuel from a landfill or a digester.
Atlas of schemes
All 30 schemes
Where a megawatt of gas goes in a gas engine
Twice the cooling: exhaust straight into the chiller
Trigenie: exhaust and jacket water in one machine
Two heat sources: gas engine and boiler house
Absorption chiller carries the base, electric chiller takes the peak
Data center: what about redundancyWhat it costs and when it pays back
All calculationsSix model calculations made with one model: electricity at RUB 10/kWh, gas at RUB 9/m³. One of them deliberately shows a case where the scheme takes a long time to pay back.
payback of the extra investment in the model
Dairy plant, 2,000 kW of cooling2.2 yearscooling and heat are needed almost all year
Shopping mall, 4,400 kW of cooling2.9 yearscooling only in summer, heating in winter
Business center, 1,000 kW of cooling6.8 yearsshort season: the scheme pays back slowly
Trigeneration projects
View projects
Greenhouse complex in Sverdlovsk Region: two 400 kW Thermax LT 12 C absorption chillers on gas engine heat, 8.5/3.5 °C water…
Dairy plant in Vyselki: a 3,500 kW steam-fired Thermax absorption chiller gives water down to 2 °C. Four MTU gas engines. Our…
Pushkin, an API plant: 2 Jenbacher J320 gas engines and two 1,430 kW Thermax TAC L5 E3 absorption chillers, water 12/7 °C. In…
Tomsk, a radio electronics plant: a 1.7 MW gas engine and two Thermax 5G 4L C absorption chillers of 1,100 kW. Owner's letter…
Moscow, a historic building: 5 Capstone C200 microturbines and 2 Thermax LT-14 C chillers of 500 kW, assembled from parts in the…
A shopping mall in Kyzylorda: two 1,100 kW Thermax absorption chillers, one on gas engine heat, one with a gas burner, and two…
These are just a few examples. Many other projects of ours are in the Projects section.
Industries
All industries
Trigeneration gives a data center cooling from gas engine heat, but a gas engine failure knocks out both power and heat. Backup…
Dairy and food plants need cooling all year, and power and heat go to the lines. What trigeneration gives, its limitations, and…
A pharma plant needs cooling all year, and a cooling outage stops the line. How trigeneration covers this load, where its limit…
A mall needs cooling mainly in summer, so trigeneration pays back slower than in a data center. What gas engines and absorption…
In a greenhouse, gas engines give light, heat and CO2, and cooling is needed only for packing. The scheme, its downsides and a…
For factories, electronics plants and gas turbine stations, trigeneration turns exhaust heat into process cooling. What fits…
Gas engines, the cooling circuit and the interface between them under one contract
- Cold Energy is the only supplier of Thermax machines in Russia and the CIS. Factory selection, supply, installation supervision, commissioning and service of the machines go through us.
- Gas engines. We supply the engine together with the cooling, so heat and operating schedule are calculated for both machines at once.
- NCT equipment. Cooling towers, chillers, dry coolers, pump skids, water treatment and controls designed for one scheme.
- Experience on real sites. Around 15 trigeneration projects: greenhouses, factories, shopping malls, turbines and many others.
- An honest calculation. The feasibility study is free. If your site does not need trigeneration, we will say so and calculate a different scheme.
Frequently asked questions
Will trigeneration pay back if the site has enough electrical capacity for now?
It may not: the benefit comes from replacing grid kilowatt-hours and avoiding the fee for new capacity. If the connected capacity will not be enough in the future and you need the power anyway, the calculation changes. That is why we calculate both cases.
How does payback change if surplus electricity cannot be sold to the grid?
The plant is sized for your own consumption. If your own load is small and there is no large cooling demand, the project is not justified: one of our customers turned it down for exactly this reason.
Can we see your equipment on an operating site and talk to the operators?
Yes. We will show a reference list of similar projects, arrange a site visit and, on request, give you customer contacts for a phone conversation.
What our customers say
150 letters of thanks · 350+ major projects · 1,000+ customers · in business since 2011. These are real letters from customers; many others are on the references page.
Let us calculate trigeneration for your site
An engineer will put together the scheme and select the equipment, and you get a feasibility study. Free of charge, no obligation.