Developing the world’s ‘hottest’ heat pump
Image: Thor Nielsen
Researchers working with industrial partners have developed the world’s first heat pump producing temperatures of up to 180 degrees celcius. Such record high temperatures will enable one fifth of European industry to reduce its energy consumption by up to 70 percent, and become entirely climate neutral.
The heat pumps we use to heat our homes and domestic water operate at temperatures of between 30 and 60 degrees, but many industrial processes require much higher temperatures – and some industries require an entirely different technology.
Industries, working with their research partners, have recently developed the world’s first heat pump that can produce process heat at temperatures of up to 180 degrees.
Perfect for a fifth of European industry’s needs
Different processes have different heating needs – from between 50 and 100 degrees, and upwards to many thousands of degrees. A fifth of the industries in Europe require temperatures of approximately between 100 and 180 degrees.
“This new heat pump delivers exactly what they want, so it has great commercial potential”, says SINTEF researcher Michael Bantle. “This will be low-hanging fruit for industries that are aiming to reduce both greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption”, he says.
Industries that will benefit from heat pumps operating at these temperatures include the foodstuffs, fisheries and aquaculture, paper, oil and gas and metallurgy sectors.
The world’s first zero-emissions dairy
The new heat pump represents the further advance of a technology initially developed for processing of dairy product at TINE, in the Norwegian city of Bergen, and enabled the company to become the world’s first zero-emissions dairy. It was the first to utilise only heat pumps for industrial heating of these products and in a temperature range of 100°C.
“The project demonstrated how profitability could be achieved using green industrial processes”, says Bantle. “The heat pump enabled us to remove greenhouse gas emissions and save primary energy at the same time. Primary energy is that which is put into to the facility from outside sources”, he says.
TINE achieves this by upgrading their excess heat to process heat temperature with a series of heat pumps and thermal storages hereby reducing its total energy consumption by up to 50 percent.
Temperatures higher than 100 degrees are normally not required in the dairy sector, and can be generated using ammonia and water as a work medium.
”This mixture is a well-known refrigeration agent, suitable for work temperatures of between 50 and 120 degrees”, adds Bantle.
Since their success at TINE, the researchers have been looking into how it might be possible to produce even higher temperatures using a heat pump concept that also utilises a climate-friendly refrigeration agent.
“In order to achieve temperatures of up to 180 degrees, we had to identify a refrigeration agent with somewhat different thermal properties, and we finally ended up with the most natural of them all – water”, says Bantle.
Combining two machines into one
The project is a collaborative effort involving SINTEF, NTNU and the Norwegian compressor manufacturer Tocircle. Together they have developed a heat pump that combines SINTEF’s extensive R&D experience in the field of water and steam technology, with a rotary vane machine specially designed and built by Tocircle.
“The vane machine is a type of compressor equipped with vanes that rotates such that it changes the compressor volume with each revolution”, Bantle explains. “The secret behind Tocircle’s compressor is that all its moving parts that are in contact with the work medium are lubricated using water”, he says.
Here we see the heat pump in action at Tocircle’s facility in Glomfjord in Nordland county. The process recovers surplus heat and can achieve temperatures of up to 180 degrees. Image: ToCircle Industries AS
The use of injected water in connection with steam compression not only promotes lubrication, but also reduces the thermal stress on the system. Without the water there is a danger of overheating the compressor while it is being compressed.
“All these factors combined in a single machine offer a very promising platform for the development of a high-temperature heat pump with pure water as its work medium, and not least because many industrial processes already use steam as an energy carrier in the first place”, explains Bantle.
No heat wasted
The researchers are anticipating that the new heat pump technology will enable reductions in industrial energy consumption of between 40 and 70 per cent, facilitated by the recovery of low-temperature waste heat. This will consequently reduce the need to use gas or electric boilers.
“This means that we no longer have to waste any heat, but can keep the heat we generate all to ourselves”, says Bantle. “This in turn will drastically reduce our greenhouse gas emissions because it will be possible to retain the surplus heat generated by the industrial process, feed it into the heat pump, and so increase the process temperature”, he says.
“Investment in a heat pump costs money, but this technology will guarantee big savings that will enable us to recover our investment costs relatively quickly”, adds Bantle.
Zero greenhouse gas emissions
“Since we have excellent access to clean energy here in Norway, there will be no greenhouse gas emissions from the use of this heat pump technology”, says Bantle.
In large parts of Europe, where the energy mix is not exclusively renewable, perhaps only a third of energy sources can be regarded as clean.
”However, even here, the new heat pump technology will result in similar reductions in greenhouse gas emissions”, says Bantle. “Emissions reductions will depend only to a small extent on where the electricity comes from, if the electricity is used to run a heat pump”, he says.
It is anticipated that the technology will be launched onto the market during 2021.
Facts aboute the project:
The research project called ‘Free2Heat’ is a collaborative effort between SINTEF, NTNU and Norwegian pump and compressor manufacturers Tocircle, which supplies heat pumps to a number of industrial sectors.
The project was launched in 2019 and will continue until 2024.
The project is a spin-off generated at the HighEFF Centre for Environment-Friendly Energy Research.
See more here: sintef.no
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Jerry Krause
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Hi PSI Readers,
I have a question: Why is this system based upon, or at, a DAIRY??? And, “The new heat pump represents the further advance of a technology initially developed for processing of dairy product at TINE, in the Norwegian city of Bergen”. Do you believe the location of this dairy might be a factor???
Have a good day, Jerry
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Herb Roser
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This has all the hallmarks of a perpetual motion machine. The efficiency of a heat pump is determined by the initial temperature and end temperature and how much energy is used to accomplish this change. A heat pump is very efficient if you want to heat your house in summer or cool it in sinter but when you want energy to flow against the grain there is a cost. Ask those who use heat pumps in winter to heat their homes. It may work when the temperature difference isn’t great but when hey have to turn on the electric heating coils the expense skyrockets.
What exactly do they mean by waste heat? If you run your compressor inside the heat from the electric motor will increase the initial temperature making it more efficient but thats about it.
With water, when raising the temperature from 0 C to boiling only 16 % of the energy causes a raise in temperature. Why don’t they use their new compressed to turn the water to steam and then use the steam to produce the power to run the compressor?
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Brian James
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Geothermal explained
What is geothermal energy?
Geothermal energy is heat within the earth. The word geothermal comes from the Greek words geo (earth) and therme (heat). Geothermal energy is a renewable energy source because heat is continuously produced inside the earth. People use geothermal heat for bathing, to heat buildings, and to generate electricity.
https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/geothermal/
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dnomsed
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@herb tosser
Fair comments.
The major drive behind water-based compressors is to replace conventional refrigerant-based rhvac systems with water-based systems. For a heat-pump, the refrigerant is pumped around as a vapour until it goes through the condenser. It is then typically flashed back to low pressure vapour before going to the evaporator where its temperature rises. Thereafter it goes to the compressor which raises its pressure. The amount of heat that can effectively be transferred depends on the pressure difference (saturation temperature) between high and low-pressure circuits.
(Disclosure – heat-pump designer)
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dnomsed
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Further clarification:
The condenser transforms the high-pressure vapour from super-heated vapour, through liquid phase, to sub-cooled phase. It the travels as sub-cooled liquid to the flashing device, where it becomes low-pressure vapour. Thereafter it travels to the evaporator
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Jerry Krause
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Hi Dnomsed, Brian, Herb and hopefully other PSI Readers,
The topic is heat pumps but first we need to review some factual history.
It is easy to find examples where persons with great achievements have, for various reason, overlooked the obvious. Galileo refused to accept the measurements of Tycho Brahe and the analysis of Brahe’s data by Johannes Kepler which clearly showed that the orbits of the planets about the Sun were elliptical and not perfectly circular.
A more recent case is that of Richard Feynman. (https://principia-scientific.com/feynmans-blunder-part-1/) and (https://principia-scientific.com/?s=Feynman%27s+Blunder)
I have repeatedly stated that the air temperature has never been observed than the air’s dew point temperature measured at the same place and time. Don’t we all know that warm blooded animals have a body temperature of 37C (98.6F)? However, not all of us have lived where we can see our breath we exhale on cold winter days like probably occur at the dairy in Norway. And not everybody has lived at 45N latitude in Eastern South Dakota and also in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. And not everybody heats their home with a heat pump as we do in Oregon. So everybody does not know when the outside air temperature is several degrees below the freezing temperature of water, that the outside ‘fins’ frost up and they must be defrosted by using heat from inside our home to melt the frost so the outside fan can blow the liquid water out of the fins.
So what a reader might ask at this point. The Willamette Valley is about 60 miles from the Pacific Ocean and the prevailing wind is from the west and during the winter it rains a lot during most winters. Hence, the relative humidity of the air is near 100%, especially during the nighttime. Now I ask: How many of you see that the source of energy that the heat pump is moving from the outside to inside our house is not the energy of cooling the outside air but is instead first the latent heat due to the condensation of water molecules to liquid water and eventually the latent heat of the liquid water freezing to frost? Hence, the air temperature being moved through the outside fins is that of the dew point of the outside air. Which condensed liquid water is blown out of the fins until at some point the liquid water begins freezing and the fins quickly frost up. The details of the actual mechanism is a bit more complex than this but I my purpose is to alert a reader to what is generally occurring.
Einstein stated: “The only source of knowledge is experience.” I have just reviewed my Oregon experiences with heat pumps. Now, I need to share an South Dakota experience which provides the knowledge which suspect few readers have had because there are very few dairies which need to have many milk cows to supply the milk and in South Dakota and Norway these cows must be housed inside a barn during the winter.
My SD experience is my father built a new barn when I was about 7 and he did anticipate the problem that a new tight barn would create. The breathe of the cattle nearly saturated with water molecules began condensing on the inside of the siding. So, a large ventilating fan was needed to remove this ‘humid’ air from the barn.
Now, I can imagine heat pumps could be used to condense the water molecules from the humid, warm air being produced that the warm blooded cattle. And the cold outside air was not at all an factor as an energy source. The cattle, because of the food they ate was, the waste energy source of the energy being produced by the heat pump.
In conclusion, I believe that the energy of the milk cows’ feed was being overlooked in the energy analysis by using heat pumps to cool and condense the hot (37C, 98.6F) breaths of the milk cows instead of venting them directly outside as done in my father’s new barn.
Have a good day, Jerry
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Herb Rose
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Hi Jerry,
Stop using that stupid statement about the atmosphere’s temperature never being observed below the dew point. Anyone who has gone outside and seen dew has observed where the atmosphere’s temperature has dropped below the dew point. Those who have seen temperatures below -30 have seen temperatures below the dew point because liquid water (dew) does not exist and what they see is clear sky precipitation (diamond dust) where water comes out of the atmosphere as ice crystals.
Your father, by using a ventilating fan, was defeating the purpose of the sealed barn by pushing the warm air out and replacing it with cold air. A dehumidifier would remove the moisture from the air without losing the heat. What a heat pump does is remove heat from the cold outside, making the outside colder and transfers that heat to the inside making it warmer.
Evidently the Norwegian dairy has found a way to get milk from anaerobic bacteria without using cows, which produce both CO2 and methane greenhouse gases.
Have a good day,
Herb
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Jerry Krause
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Hi Herb and hopefully other PSI Readers,
First, just as there is an atmospheric dew point, there is an atmospheric frost point. For the measured vapor pressure of ice (which cannot be super-cooled) is less than that measured for super-cooled liquid water at the same temperature as the ice.
“Anyone who has gone outside and seen dew has observed where the atmosphere’s temperature has dropped below the dew point.” Please reference this. Here you must also measure the dew point an inch above the dew and not 4.5ft higher. Same place and time.
There are more than 2000 RAWS (Remote Automated Weather Stations) (https://raws.dri.edu) which conventionally measure air temperatures (ATs) and relative humidities (RH) from which the atmosphere’s dew point temperature is commonly calculated. However, at ATs above 0C (32F) the dew point temperature can be directly measured by a simple experiment. And of these thousands and thousands find me one hour’s report where the AT is less than that of the dew point.
Some of these stations have a simple instrument termed a fuel stick which is mounted a foot above the earth’s surface instead of about 4.5ft. Read about it and some reported hourly data of two different weather stations at (https://principia-scientific.com/the-corvallis-or-uscrn-site-a-natural-laboratory-part-two/). And you will find that the reported fuel temperature FT) during the nighttime can be maybe a couple of degrees lower than the AT being measured at the same time. However, there is no instrument measuring the air’s RH at 1ft above the surface. Which value, if used to calculate the dew point of the air 1ft above the surface, would confirm that the calculated dew point was lower than that measured at 4.5ft. Hence, no measured temperature below the dew point temperature measured at the same place and time.
“What a heat pump does is remove heat from the cold outside, making the outside colder and transfers that heat to the inside making it warmer.” This is clearly not what I wrote..
Have a good day, Jerry
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Herb Rose
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Hi Jerry,
Dew forms when the temperature of the air falls below the dew point. It doesn’t matter what your inaccurate instruments say, the evidence is the dew. If you see tracks from a tiger are you going to say that nobody has ever observed a tiger in the area so there can’t be a tiger?
I know you didn’t write that about the heat pump because that is what a heat pump does and you have no idea what a heat pump is or how it works.
Have a good day,
Herb
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K Kaiser
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The Carnot Cycle limitations still exist.
In other words: There is no “free energy” other than heat.
And heat pumps are essentially useless if the “heat source” is below 0 deg. C.
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Jerry Krause
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Hi K Kaiser,
You concluded: “heat pumps are essentially useless if the “heat source” is below 0 deg. C.
This is absolutely false: We heat our 1400 sq ft, two story home with a heat pump down to 23F (-5C) because we are not cooling the air to transfer its energy (heat) into our house. The heat pump is condensing the atmospheric water vapor and transferring this latent energy (heat) into our home. As was the point of my comment.
Herb, and maybe you, need to explain how it is that the air temperature of Oregon to the west of the Cascade Mt Range seldom falls below 0C (32F) during the winter. Which is due to the observed law that the air temperature never falls below the air’s dew point temperature measured at the same place and time. And this has nothing to do with the Carnot Cycle.
As I ponder your comment which I have quoted, I ask: Why you lower limit (0C) economical utility of the heat pump. Do you consider that if not electricity for the heat pump what fuels is one going to use to heat the inside of one’s home 22C (40F) above the outside ambient temperature of 0C (32F). You are right: there is no free lunch. And explain how you are going to move energy from a building so its temperature is cooled to say 76-78F (25-26) to the outside air at 100F (38F) if not via an heat pump?
K. Kaiser, I respect you, but please do not become a Herb and confuse PSI readers..
Have a good day, Jerry
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