Kickstart market industrial heat pumps

Aanleiding

Industry is facing huge challenges in order to make the transition to a nearly CO2-neutral industry in 2050. Use of industrial heat pumps that upgrade waste heat to process heat is one of the possible solutions to enable this.

Compression heat pump technology has been developed to such a level that market introduction is possible in the near future. However, two main challenges hamper the implementation at the moment.

1. Proven Technology: Firstly, industrial heat pump technology has not reached the status of proven technology for end-users. Knowledge is lacking with respect to the integration with the process, the performance under industrial conditions, and the practical problems and risks that are associated with introducing heat pump technology.
2. Market Visibility: Secondly, current companies in the supply chain of industrial heat pumps are mainly active in the market for industrial refrigeration technology. The market for industrial heating technology is hardly visible from that perspective. This leads to unfamiliarity and uncertainty at potential heat pump suppliers with respect to which products to develop (temperature, power) and how to integrate these into industrial processes.

Doelstelling

The objective of this project is to accelerate the implementation of industrial heat pumps by:

• Developing technological solutions that are a commercially viable alternative to fossil fuel-fired heating systems for industrial heat demand < 200°C, both for brown field and green field applications.
• Identifying the main non-technical barriers that hamper market implementation and how to reduce them.

Commercially viable means:

• Technology available that meets the technical requirements of the application at sufficiently low cost and sufficiently high performance to achieve payback times of less than 5 years.
• Technology suppliers have organized their supply chain and are able to produce this technology at desired price levels while still maintaining a profitable business.

Reaching this objective will enable the implementation of heat pump technology on a significant scale before 2030 and, in the long term, to cover a large share of the industrial heat demand < 200°C. This will provide a significant contribution to a CO2-neutral industry in 2050.

Korte omschrijving

Full-scale heat pumps are developed for a specific application for two different end-users. To facilitate future integration of heat pumps, a so-called Digital Twin is developed. The heat pumps are tested at TNO Petten under controlled simulated end-user conditions.

Interfaces between the heat pump and the actual industrial process are developed by the end-users. Then the heat pump is integrated into the plant operation and commissioned, followed by actual testing and monitoring of the heat pump in field conditions during 2000 hours.

For green field application of heat pump integrated processes, a detailed thermodynamic analysis of common unit operations in industry with a heat demand < 200°C will be made. This will be combined with an analysis of several heat pump concepts based on 'standard' compression heat pump and modifications thereof, as well as alternative systems. This will result in the conceptual design of a new process/unit operation, including the heat pump.

Finally, the non-technical barriers for market implementation of industrial heat pumps will be investigated and addressed through case studies with end-users, the supply chain, and the innovation ecosystem.

Resultaat

The project will generate the following results:

• Two repeatable heat pump concepts developed and tested for brown field applications.
• Industrial heat pump technology integrated into two processes and operating reliably.
• Five repeatable concepts developed for heat pump integrated processes.
• Recommendations for accelerating market implementation of the heat pump technology.