Industrial Heat Pump Whitepaper - pdf
In recent years the ability of heat pumps to deliver process heat as become more of interest for several industries under the aspect of energy efficiency, utilization of excess heat and reduction of climate gas emissions related to generated of process heat. High temperature heat pumps, or industrial heat pumps, can be defines as heat pumps being able to deliver heat.Current heat pump solutions are mostly limited to heat supply of around 70°C to 80°C, while industry process are quite often designed for heat supply temperature of around 100°C to 200°C.
High temperature heat pumps can be used for everything from hot water production to upgrading waste energy to be used in other processes. One of the main challenges of high temperature heat pumps is the integrability into the production process industry and to match the available heat source to the required heat demand.
Supply of process heat by heat pumps
Steam producing heat pumps Mechanical Vapor Recompression (MVR)
High temperature heat pumps can be used to produce high pressure steam, which is the preferred choice as heat carrier in the industry. Industrial steam is used in everything from drying of food, textiles and paper, sterilizing of milk and equipment, and as heat carrier in most industrial processes. Steam produced from heat pumps is eco-friendlier compared to steam from conventional boilers due to higher energy efficiency, often 50% less energy per kilo steam is required. Natural refrigerants such as steam and butane are suitable in high temperature heat pumps.
Mechanical Vapor Recompression does not generate steam as regular high temperature heat pumps but recompress steam from processes such as drying or evaporation (concentration). In steam drying, wet products enter the drying chamber, together with hot steam. The high temperature steam warms up and evaporates the water within the product. The cooled steam exits the dryer, while a smaller excess stream is compressed to a higher pressure. Now, the high-pressure steam is condensed in a heat exchanger, and the rest of the steam is warmed up and can be used again as drying agent. Implementing MVR in dryers and evaporators often reduce the energy requirement by over 50%.
We work within these areas:
- System integration and evaluation of different of solutions
- Development of compressors and design of heat exchangers
- Energy efficiency by implementing high temperature heat pumps
- Combined heating and cooling
- Turbo compressors
- Steam producing heat pumps
Typical projects for us are:
- Mapping of energy reducing solutions in different processes
- Simulation, dimensioning, planning and implementation of different solutions
- Develop new solutions within high temperature heat pumps/MVR
The methods we use are:
- Testing of components and systems in SINTEF Energy lab(LINK) and SINTEF HigheffLab (LINK)
- Determination of key point indicators in the solutions
- On-site measurements of important parameters
- Simulation and modelling
Why choose SINTEF?
SINTEF is a world leading research institute with expertise within high temperature heat pumps, especially by using natural refrigerants. SINTEF has developed a cascade heat pump which can deliver both heating at cooling and has one of the highest temperature lifts in the world. For steam compression, SINTEF has broad experience from national and international projects in cooperation with both the industry and other research facilities.
Who are we doing this for?
Companies who are aiming to reduce their carbon footprint and reduce energy related costs while maintaining HSE and product quality.
Relevant projects: