Issue

Cancún, Mexico, is a thriving, global tourist destination. Cancún International Airport, a gateway to the Mexican Caribbean and the country’s second busiest airport, served nearly 17.5 million passengers in 2014 and continues to expand its infrastructure. With high volumes of tourist traffic and tropical conditions, the airport demands dependable cooling. “Air conditioning is huge here and the size of the cooling capacity needed for the airport is significant. While planning the expansion of Terminal 2 and 3, Cancún Airport also saw a need to upgrade some of its present systems,” says Eduardo Alvarez, applied sales engineer with Daikin Mexico.

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Terminal 2 relies on three new Daikin Pathfinders, in addition to an existing Daikin chiller that serves as backup.

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The HVAC upgrade is part of the airport’s five-year expansion plan. “The aim of changing our equipment is mainly due to two important issues for the airport: the equipment efficiency gains with reduced power consumption and achieving comfort in the shortest possible time while earning energy-efficient savings from the equipment. In other words, comfort and efficiency go hand in hand,” says Víctor S. Marino T., electrical and electromechanical engineer with Servicios Aeroportuarios del Sureste SA de CV (ASUR) in Cancún.

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Cancún Airport-ASUR sought the engineering services of Iberia Renovables, a unit of the Iberia Group, which performed a comprehensive analysis of single-compressor and dual-compressor chillers from three manufacturers, each in various operating scenarios. Importantly, the analysis showed that changing to a water-cooled system from the airport’s primary use of an air-cooled system would save considerable operating costs.

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Solution

Among the competition, Daikin demonstrated the most efficient, environmentally responsible solution with return on investment achieved in just over three years. “We selected Daikin which has proven to be good and reliable equipment that has provided excellent performance for more than 10 years,” Marino T. says.

“The airport had 14 existing air-cooled chillers in various tonnage capacities, but because of the efficiencies of the water-cooled Daikin Magnitude chillers, the airport decided to transition from air-cooled to water-cooled chillers,” Alvarez explains.

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The existing air-cooled chillers in Terminal 2 and Terminal 3 are being replaced. The cooling and energy efficiency needs of the expanded terminals will be served by three dual-compressor Magnitude chillers, three Pathfinder air-cooled chillers, and three existing water-cooled Daikin chillers that have been in service at the airport since 2006. The expansion includes a small, recently completed addition to Terminal 2, used for domestic travel, and a large addition of 13,000 sq. meters to Terminal 3, the hub of international travel.

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Six 1000-ton Magnitude chillers are among the new Daikin equipment serving the cooling needs for the airport’s expanded terminals.

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In addition, of the three existing Daikin dual-compressor chillers, one will remain at Terminal 3, and two will be relocated to Terminal 4. “These conventional centrifugal units are all in very good condition and required minimal retrofit,” Alvarez says.

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