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Analysis of technologies and potentials for heat pump-based process heat supply above 150 °C

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Abstract

The ambitions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions do inevitably require sustainable alternatives to fossil fuel-based combustions for supply of process heat to industrial processes. Electricity-driven heat pumps imply the general potential to operate emission free and do thereby represent a sustainable long-term solution for emission free process heat supply. Currently available heat pump technologies are however limited to supply temperatures of 100 °C to 150 °C, while electric boilers and biomass boilers are often mentioned as alternatives in energy transition strategies. The overall feasibility for heat pump systems in such applications is among others limited by technical component constraints as well as limited hermodynamic performances, resulting in limited operating performances. Zühlsdorf et al. [1] have therefore analyzed the possibilities for heat pump-based process heat supply at large capacities and temperatures above 150 °C. They evaluated the technical and economic feasibility of two heat pump systems for two case studies. The main results from [1] are summarized by this extended abstract. The article focused on large-scale applications and considered components as known from oil- and gas applications, as these are capable of operating in more challenging conditions and enable exceeding the limitations known from available refrigeration equipment [2]. In addition, the focus was on applications, in which the plant owners have access to electricity at low costs or the possibility to invest in own renewable electricity generators, such as wind farms and photovoltaics, as these are ensuring low levelized cost of electricity [3].