Sintesis RTAF Air-Cooled Screw Chiller
Air-cooled helical-rotary screw chiller rated 115–500 tons with low-GWP R-513A, surpassing ASHRAE 90.1-2016 efficiency standards.
The Sintesis RTAF is Trane's mid-to-large air-cooled chiller, using a helical rotary screw compressor and a modular V-shaped aluminium alloy condenser coil arrangement. It operates on R-513A, a low-GWP medium-pressure refrigerant, across a capacity band of 115–500 tons. The modular coil architecture simplifies field cleaning and coil section replacement without removing the entire condenser assembly — relevant in dusty or sandy environments where coil fouling is accelerated.
The evaporator is the CHIL compact high-efficiency design, which reduces refrigerant charge relative to conventional flooded-shell evaporators while improving heat-transfer surface utilisation. The wide ambient operating map — cooling from -4 °F to +130 °F ambient — means the chiller maintains cooling output in elevated outdoor temperatures, a direct requirement for airport ramp-side and rooftop plant in Gulf and Middle East climates where summer ambient regularly exceeds 45 °C. Thermal energy storage compatibility allows off-peak cooling production and day-peak demand reduction, which aligns with time-of-use tariff structures common in GCC utility markets.
Procurement engineers comparing air-cooled to water-cooled options in greenfield airport projects will find the RTAF sits at the upper end of the air-cooled screw range before moving to the TCA magnetic-bearing or Ascend ACR free-cooling units. It is the correct specification when water-cooled infrastructure (cooling towers, condenser-water piping) is impractical, but the load exceeds what scroll-based units (CGAM/ACS, ≤230 tons) can cover as a single unit.
Technical specifications.
| Capacity range | 115–500 tons |
| Model | RTAF |
| Compressor type | Helical rotary screw |
| Refrigerant | R-513A (low-GWP) |
| Ambient operating range (cooling) | -4 to +130 °F (-20 to +54 °C) |
| Chilled-fluid operating range | +10 to +68 °F (-12 to +20 °C) |
| Condenser coil material | Long-life alloy aluminium, modular V-shape |
| Equipment controller | Symbio 800 |
Use cases.
- ›Rooftop or ramp-side airport chiller plant where water-cooled infrastructure is not feasible
- ›Terminal and airside building cooling in high-ambient GCC climates
- ›Thermal energy storage integration for peak-demand management
- ›Mid-large aviation campus buildings: multi-gate concourses, cargo terminals
- ›Retrofit of ageing DX or older air-cooled plant in the 200–500-ton band