Upheat-INES
Upgraded high-temperature heat integration in energy-intensive sectors
:
UGent - Thermal Machines (TM): Prof. Steven Lecompte
UGent - Applied Thermodynamics and Heat Transfer (ATHT): Prof. Michel De Paepe.
KULeuven - Heat Integration into Smart Energy Systems (HISES): Prof. Sylvain Quoilin
KULeuven - Flexible Heat Pumps and Cooling Systems (FHP-CS): Prof. Alessia Arteconi
: € 760,450
: € 760,450
Objectives
Upheat-INES aims to address the fundamental challenges for the implementation of high-temperature heat pumps delivering heat up to 200 °C. By reaching these temperatures, heat pumps could meet 37 % of the European industrial heat demand. The electricity required by these heat pumps can be fully renewable.
In Upheat-INES 1.0, the lack of awareness of innovative industrial heat pump (VCHP) applications was tackled by the development of a comprehensive database with integration concepts for distillation, drying, thermal oil heating, and steam production. Financial competitiveness with other heating technologies has been demonstrated for natural gas boilers (NGB), electric boilers (EB), and heat transformers (HTF). In this analysis, different gross temperature lifts (GTL), waste heat availability ratios (WHR), electricity prices (cel), and electricity-to-gas price ratios (EGPR) have been considered. Figure 1 highlights the potential under specific boundary conditions.
The integration of high-temperature heat pumps has been further accelerated by improving its performance. To this end, a thermodynamic and financial optimization framework was developed. Within this framework, the working fluid, detailed cycle configuration, and operating conditions were optimized. This was applied to a large set of generic and specific process data to identify an innovative proof-of-concept (POC).
Results
The POC uses a mixture of water and ammonia, which has been shown to be highly efficient with several technical benefits. Furthermore, it is an environmentally friendly and future-proof choice. The design forms the basis for the construction of a laboratory-scale heat pump capable of delivering about 100 kW of heat at temperatures up to 200 °C. This POC will be constructed and extensively tested Upheat-INES 2.0, the continuation of Upheat-INES 1.0.