CenTraVac Water-Cooled Centrifugal Chiller
Large-capacity water-cooled centrifugal chiller using ultra-low-GWP refrigerants, covering 200–6,000 tons across five model configurations.
The CenTraVac is Trane's flagship water-cooled centrifugal chiller, a direct-drive, multi-stage centrifugal design that has been continuously developed since 1938. It operates on ultra-low global-warming-potential refrigerants R-514A and R-1233zd — both low-pressure fluids that reduce leak risk and charge volume while keeping GWP near or at 1. Five model variants (CVHE, CVHF, CVHH, CDHF, CDHH) span 200–6,000 tons, covering everything from a mid-sized office chiller plant to a data-centre duplex installation delivering over 21 MW of cooling.
The compressor's low-speed, direct-drive architecture uses a flash economizer for enhanced part-load efficiency and maintains a wide operating map including free-cooling capability and heat-recovery modes up to condenser-water temperatures. Performance can be independently validated via Trane's myTest certification, which runs factory tests against customer-defined conditions. The Symbio 800 equipment controller provides BACnet/Modbus/LonTalk integration and remote connectivity.
In airport and aviation-facility contexts the CenTraVac is the workhorse for large-terminal chiller plants where water-cooled systems are practical — central energy plants serving passenger concourses, large baggage-hall environments, and major hub airport hotels. The Duplex (CDHH) variant is specified when a single footprint must deliver datacentre-grade cooling capacity with N+1 redundancy in a compact plant room. For GCC operators, the low-pressure refrigerants reduce compliance risk with evolving F-gas and HFC phase-down regulations while the multi-stage compressor sustains efficiency even at elevated condenser-water temperatures caused by high ambient conditions.
Technical specifications.
| Capacity range | 200–6,000 tons |
| Models | CVHE / CVHF / CVHH / CDHF / CDHH |
| Refrigerant | R-514A (GWP ~1) and R-1233zd(E) (GWP 1) |
| Compressor type | Direct-drive, multi-stage centrifugal |
| Voltage options | 460 V up to 12 kV |
| Equipment controller | Symbio 800 (BACnet / Modbus / LonTalk) |
| Free cooling option | Available on CVHE and CVHF |
| Heat recovery | Available on CVHE, CVHF, CVHH, CDHH |
Use cases.
- ›Central chiller plants in large hub airports and terminal expansions
- ›Data-centre cooling within airport operations centres
- ›High-temperature industrial process cooling requiring heat recovery
- ›Large hotel and mixed-use aviation campus developments requiring >1,000-ton capacity
- ›Duplex configurations providing N+1 redundancy in space-constrained plant rooms