> giant industrial mini-spit-style air conditioners With mini-splits, the piping carries refrigerant (which actively participates in the thermodynamic cycle, r

> giant industrial mini-spit-style air conditioners With mini-splits, the piping carries refrigerant (which actively participates in the thermodynamic cycle, rather than just being a simple heat exchange fluid), but the problem is that you need quite exacting standards for the air-tightness of the system, the materials used, and the pressures can be quite high. Also, combining multiple refrigeration units is...tricky. Usually the way industrial-scale cooling/refrigeration is done is with devices called "chillers", in which all the refrigerant is entirely captive inside the chiller unit, and all you do with the chiller is hook it up to a supply of cooling water to dump heat into (or directly expose it to outside air), and you feed it water that it will cool down. Also give it an electricity hookup. You then use the chilled water to cool down whatever you want. The advantage is that you've reduced the problem to just moving around water -- which isn't a mixture of multiple exotic fluorocarbons and compressor lube oil with special handling needs, it's just bloody water (don't drink it though, there's all sorts of dissolved metals and antifreeze and biocides). Modern chillers are wonders of engineering, some even have active magnetic bearings that levitate the moving parts with fancy diagnostic/instrumentation systems that can tell you, to the micrometer, the position of the levitated shaft (not kidding, http://cgproducts.johnsoncontrols.com/yorkdoc/160.78-o2.pdf http://cgproducts.johnsoncontrols.com/yorkdoc/160.78-o2.pdf page 37). But yes, it's absolutely possible to do what you suggest, it's just that you'd end up moving chilled water and not refrigerant.