GRE Ltd, a thermal engineering specialist based in Devon, have just completed the installation of a very prestigious ultra-pure water cooling system for the European Spallatial Source (ESS) in Lund, Sweden. The contract, awarded to GRE last year, includes the design, manufacture, testing, installation, commissioning and onsite training and handover and is worth approx £250,000 to the Devon-based company.

The GRE equipment provides cooling to the linear accelerator, that begins the flow of protons that is then accelerated  to approximately 96% of the speed of light, before hitting a target (usually tungsten) at which point neutrons are distributed to the target instrumentation.

This system delivers deionised water to the Linear Accelerator within the specified parameters including:

• Temperature of the fluid at the inlet to the Linear Accelerator (typical setpoint is 20°C)
• Pressure (normally around 6 Barg)
• Conductivity (usually < 0.2µS/cm)
• Oxygen content (target is < 50ppb)
• Flow rate (variable between 50-300 Lpm)

The user has the option to control the flow rate based on either (a) constant outlet pressure or (b) constant flow rate.

We are supplying the cooling to the Linear accelerator which is shown on the left-hand side of the poster under the title of “Protons Generated in an Ion Source”.

View the case study on the STFC website: https://stfc.ukri.org/about-us/our-impacts-achievements/case-studies/gre-ltd-case-study-ultra-pure-water-cooling-system/