Industrial heat pumps, thermal energy storage a bridge for stable energy
The takeaway of the Industrial Heat Pump Conference Electrification Starts Here was that industrial heat pumps can solve and bridge the intermittency gap of solar, and the long lead times that are required for additional wind turbines as renewables are set to grow.
Enerin CEO, Arne Høeg, attended the conference in Prague from 27 to 28 November, 2024 where he spoke about thermal energy storage being a vital link for the electrification of industry using high-temperature heat pumps. A large-scale or industrial heat pump provides heating capacities above 500 kilowatts.
Michael Liebreich, CEO of Liebreich Associates, took the audience through the global energy outlook to 2050 in his keynote speech predicting growth in the sectors of renewables, electric cars, batteries, and heat pumps.
Michael Liebreich, CEO of Liebreich Associates, gave an engaging presentation on the world energy outlook to 2050. Photo: Zuzana Havlinova.
Gas is expected to peak in some regions, although Asian demand remains strong (1). Hydrogen, despite being the policy fuel of choice, is proving to be costly. Liebreich projected that by 2050 heat pumps are expected to supply 300 megawatts per month, a huge 105 gigawatts.
Liebreich quoted the Executive Director of the IEA, Fatih Birol, as saying: “Under existing policies and market conditions, global renewable capacity is forecast to reach 7 300 gigawatts by 2028. This growth trajectory would see global capacity increase to 2.5 times its current level by 2030.”
The consensus on the panel discussion in Prague was that industrial heat pump technologies are reaching a good maturity, and that the global market is large enough for a range of heat pumps from Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to be applied in diverse settings.
Sander Geelen from Geelen Counterflow said that the deployment of industrial heat pumps in Europe was dependent on the “spark gap” being narrowed between the price of electricity versus the price of gas.
Electricity is more expensive in the majority of European countries than the price of gas which can delay industry from switching from fossil fuel boilers to industrial heat pumps which use electricity.
Photographed below is Tomas Caha, an internationally recognised expert in large heat pumps for industrial and district heating from Exergie with the compere of the conference, Justin Svoboda; Sander Geelen, CEO Geelen Counterflow; and Paul Kenny, Director General, European Heat Pump Association. Photos: Zuzana Havlinova.
Significant challenges to the electrification path
The path to electrification faces significant challenges. Globally, there has been an underinvestment in ailing electricity grids that needs urgent addressing. Solutions that offer energy savings beyond direct electrification and existing power market structures should be found.
Investing in industrial heat pumps instead of electric boilers, that require additional electricity lines and transformers, offer further benefits. Although electric boilers reduce CO2 emissions they are more expensive to run. The energy return of heat pumps re-using waste heat and low-temperature thermal energy sources is currently underutilised, although this approach significantly reduces primary energy consumption and provides grid support.
Don’t get caught without energy
Enerin clients have reported that utilities and energy providers are only able to meet a portion of industry’s projected future energy demand due to insufficient grid capacity. New high-voltage transmission lines can take years to plan and approve, often facing tough environmental obstacles, including obtaining permission to transverse properties.
Reusing waste heat, investing in renewable energy and storage options on-site by charging water buffer tanks or thermal batteries at optimal times of day, can decentralize energy, create energy stability and mitigate price volatility linked to gas prices and the power trading market. European and global grids under pressure can be supported, particularly during low wind and sun conditions.
Enerin CEO, Arne Høeg. Photos: Zuzana Havlinova.
The future is industrial heat pumps and thermal energy storage
Enerin CEO, Arne Høeg, presented “The HoegTemp – the simple system integration and interaction with thermal storages”. He highlighted the flexibility of the HoegTemp heat pump Stirling cycle that delivers steam, hot water or thermal oil up to 250°C, from source temperatures as low as -30°C. Stirling heat pumps offer greater flexibility and higher temperature outputs, making them better suited for Thermal Energy Storage (TES) systems designed for industrial or high-grade heat applications.
The HoegTemp’s low thermal inertia and reverse Stirling process works with a dry single-phase cycle which makes it invulnerable to varying input and output temperatures. It can follow the operating conditions and deliver the desired heating and cooling to industry, irrespective of variations in source temperature or changing steam pressure demands – like a boiler, but with more benefits.
Enerin is a partner in two state-of-the-art projects that are developing new heat upgrade solutions for industry – SUSHEAT and I-UPS, which are funded by Horizon Europe and CINEA – European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency. Enerin’s Stirling high-temperature heat pump can deliver heat efficiently to thermal storage media, including molten salts and latent high-temperature phase change materials, enabling more efficient and versatile TES solutions.
“We partner with companies such as Kyoto Group (Heatcube), KTH Energy, RPow (pioneers in thermal energy storage solutions), UNED Energy Engineering Department and the GREiA Research Group, University of Lleida, to develop new energy systems for industry at a highly innovative lab level in Europe. ”
Kyoto’s Heatcube.
Heat pumps, thermal energy storage offer better CAPEX, OPEX
Enerin sees a big opportunity in co-operating with Thermal Energy Storage (TES) suppliers at high temperature lifts.
Even though the Co-efficient of Performance (COP) or energy efficiency of the heat pump is reduced at higher temperatures, the total efficiency of the manufacturing plant, and the attractiveness of government legislation boosts the overall project feasibility. For example, there are rewards related to the possibility of providing grid balancing services at an industrial scale which may supply an additional source of revenue for the customer.
The techno-economic analyses shift as a site’s factory output temperature increases taking into account the economics of the total system COP, or energy saving of the entire factory. This includes electricity grid congestion tariffs, power consumption, optimal use of heating and cooling, water, carbon taxes, production timing, flexibility needs, and infrastructure and engineering process costs, rather than just calculating the electricity or gas consumption per unit of material produced.
“TES paired with Enerin heat pumps and renewables will in many cases result in lower CAPEX and OPEX compared to similar systems based on boilers fed with fossil fuels, or direct electricity.”
Additionally, the European Commission Fit for 55 package and Green Deal outlines the European Union goals and programmes to abate emissions by 2050. Each EU member country has national initiatives under these programmes.
Extra savings with heat pumps using heating and cooling
Heat pumps offer energy efficiency by producing simultaneous heating and cooling, reducing the need for on-site cooling systems designed to remove heat from industrial processing — this ensures that temperatures are kept within health and safety limits.
Heat pumps dehumidify environments to speed-up drying through the evaporation of water. Part of this process results in low-temperature waste heat. Usually this low-grade waste heat in the form of heat and steam is not re-used and is let off into the air via chimneys. Industrial heat pumps can re-capture the waste heat, increase its temperature and re-use it for factory processes such as food drying, rapid heating, and distillation.
However, conventional heat pump systems based on working fluid phase-change have significant limits with respect to temperature lift and to maximum sink temperature — which is dependent on the optimal transfer of thermal energy that is influenced by the heat quality and the pressure of the steam. In some industrial processes, the available waste heat may be too low in temperature to be effectively upgraded by conventional heat pump systems.
Enerin's HoegTemp heat pumps are best operating across a range of temperatures. The HoegTemp is flexible to varying, fluctuating conditions and follows demand for hot water, steam and thermal oil delivery up to 250°C — from any source temperature, as low as -30°C. This is unique.
A further resource factor that should be examined when calculating CAPEX and OPEX is the cost of having or acquiring access to water for factory cooling towers. In some cases, water resources can be located further away from factory sites, are scarce or even finite, often necessitating massive piping infrastructure to transport it.
Applying for new cooling towers can be a costly and lengthy approval process. This was the case with the Tesla giga factory in Berlin that had to be redesigned to receive government approval for its potable cooling water usage (2). The company faced opposition from environmental groups, fearing they would endanger the region's water supply, despite using less water than other factories nearby (3).
The simultaneous optimisation of HTHPs providing circular heating and chilling is preferable to upgrading old process chillers or infrastructure. Additional value is created as energy consumption for process cooling is reduced, as well as power and energy consumption on seawater cooling circuits.
The Enerin HoegTemp installation at the IVAR biogas plant in Norway where heating and cooling are used simultaneously in a CO2 stripping process.
I-UPS project to validate a First-of-a-Kind heat pump with thermal storage
I-UPS is developing a cost-effective, reliable First-of-a-Kind (FOAK) high-temperature industrial hybrid heat pump for medium temperature heat decarbonisation for industry (at approximately 400°C), integrating Kyoto Group's thermal energy storage solutions. The project will validate the FOAK heat pump based on the Stirling cycle from Enerin using a non-toxic, zero ozone depletion potential and zero global warming potential media, able to deliver decarbonised heat up to 400°C.
An I-UPS techno-economic performance assessment of Enerin’s HTHP integration with Kyoto’s molten salts based power-to-heat system for flexible industrial heat generation was published in the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power, documenting the technological and economic analysis of the proposed I-UPS system titled: Techno-Economic Comparative Assessment of High-Temperature Heat Pump Architectures for Industrial Pumped Thermal Energy Storage. (4)
KTH researcher at the Heat and Power Division of the Energy Department, Rafael Guedez, commented on the anticipated preliminary results that document, in part, a potential 30% reduction in electricity consumption savings and projected investment reductions of "15–20% against non-flexible electric boilers based systems".
“The preliminary results of our research highlight the potential of combining these solutions to reach lower cost of heat and higher CO2 abatement than other competing solutions, in spite of its associated CAPEX and remaining tech integration uncertainties.”
He said there is no single, quick fix to solve all solutions for our energy transition. Industry would benefit mostly from hybrid energy systems — those with heat demand and waste heat profiles that could take advantage of the technologies when factoring in market boundary conditions such as electricity prices and CO2 tariffs, he added.
SUSHEAT renewable thermal heat upgrade system
SUSHEAT explores a renewable-based thermal heat upgrade solution for industrial processes, combining Enerin’s HTHPs with thermal energy storage, bio-inspired phase change materials, Lineal Fresnel Collectors, and a digital control and integration twin aiming for efficient energy systems that can be replicated across industrial sectors. (5)(6)
The SUSHEAT system energy rig, that includes a HoegTemp HTHP with optimised key components and engine design, will be assembled and validated by KTH Energy laboratories in Stockholm in 2026.
A scientific review Decarbonizing European Industry: A Novel Technology to Heat Supply Using Waste and Renewable Energy by UNED Energy Engineering authors José Daniel Marcos, et al, emphasizes the significance of recovering industrial waste heat as a cost-effective, low-emission energy source for primary energy consumption. Many sectors can recover waste heat below 250°C, which can be utilised for decarbonisation measures and more efficient energy use. (7)
The SUSHEAT technological solutions using the Pelagia fish factory validation case must be capable of receiving waste heat across the temperature range of 70–98°C and deliver it across a range of 150–250°C. In the Mandrekas dairy case, Fresnel Solar Collectors and ambient heat will be utilized for the rig.
“The Enerin HTHP achieves a COP of 2.8 with a temperature ratio of 1.26, operating within a temperature range of 165°C to 250°C. Additionally, for temperatures ranging from 70°C to 250°C, the COP is measured at 1.9 with a ratio of 1.52 for the Mandrekas and Pelagia systems. ”
Speed of industrial heat pump integration
Decarbonising industry — why it matters
The United Nations Environment Programme cautioned in an October 2024 press release that it is still technically possible to meet the 2030 climate goals “only with a G20-led massive global mobilization to cut all greenhouse gas emissions, starting today”. (8)
“Continuation of current policies will lead to a catastrophic temperature rise of up to 3.1°C”
Reaching our climate goals was the topic of a lively side panel discussion at the Conference in Prague which delved into why investment, funding and policy decisions are critical for the faster deployment of industrial heat pumps to hasten electrification. Crucial issues were discussed, such as the reliability and complexity of implementing HTHPs into industrial settings, the rapidly growing market, and the need for better outreach and communication to key stakeholders.
Pictured (l-r): Moderator Benjamin Zühlsdorf, Innovation Director, Danish Technological Institute, Arjun Arya, Senior Environmental Engineering Lead, Engineering Solutions, Philip Morris International, Rossen Ivanov, Managing Director EMEA, Armstrong International, Martin Sauer, Senior Policy Officer, Ministry of Environment of the Czech Republic (not picture), and Dominique Silva, Regional Market Leader, Trane Technologies. Photos: Zuzana Havlinova.
The well-attended Industrial Heat Pump Conference was organised by Tomas Caha of Exergie in the Czech Republic, in association with the European Heat Pump Association.
References
Reuters; Asia takes LNG that Europe doesn’t need spot price stays muted; 2024, 8 April; Clyde, Russel.
Reuters; German environmental authorities approve Tesla site expansion 2024, 4 July; newswire.
Reuters; Tesla faces day of reckoning on water supply for planned German plant; 2022, 23 February.
ASME Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power (The American Society of Mechanical Engineers); Techno-Economic Comparative Assessment of High-Temperature Heat Pump Architectures for Industrial Pumped Thermal Energy Storage; 2024, December 20 (online publishing), Paper No: GTP-24-1548; Trevisan, Silvia; Buchbjerg, Bjorn Bjarke, Høeg, Arne, Guedez, Rafael.
MDPI Applied Sciences; 2024; 30 March; Development of a Bio-Inspired TES Tank for Heat Transfer Enhancement in Latent Heat Thermal Energy Storage Systems; Cabeza, Luisa; Mani Kala, Saranbrabhu; Zsembinszki, Gabriel; Vérez, David; Amigó, Sara Risco; Borri, Ameliano.
Science Direct, Elsevier, 2024, Volume 237; A digital twin concept for optimizing the use of high-temperature heat pumps to reduce waste in industrial renewable energy systemsand a digital control and integration twin; Butean, Alex, Enriquez, Juan; Matei, Alexandru; Rovira, Antonio; Barbero, Rubén; Trevisan, Silvia; (6)
MDPI Applied Sciences, 2024, 6 October; Decarbonizing European Industry: A Novel Technology to Heat Supply Using Waste and Renewable Energy; Marcos, José Daniel; Golpour, Iman; Barbero, Rubén, Rovira, Antonio; Department of Energy Engineering UNED.
United Nations Environment Programme Press Release, 24 October, 2024.