Project overview
The project adresses five main activities to ensure a successful exploitation of the potentials of high-temeprature heat pumps.
The technical developments concerning high-temperature heat pump systems and components will increase the availability of alternatives, which is needed to cover the large and rapidly emerging market, and developing solutions for the integration at different integration levels will enhance the wide applicability of high-temperature heat pumps and enable efficient integration in various brown-field applications.
The integration on sector level enables the exploition of the benefits from integrating district heating for industrial process heat supply from a technical and economical point of view. These activities will advance the technology availability and enlarge the applicability by resolving technical integration challenges. Ultimately, this will facilitate the needed rapid transition towards emission free process heat supply and thereby the decarbonization of industrial processes.
Five main aspects of the project
The variety of aspects to be covered for a successful exploitation of the potentials of high-temperature heat pumps makes it apparent that interdisciplinary, cross-sectoral research, development, and demonstration projects are inevitable. The Interheat project adresses these five main aspects:
Technology development
The project aims at developing and demonstrating two different heat pump systems for two different integration levels. Technology concepts are developed and components are optimized, while building up on available equipment and ongoing R&D projects, such as the SuPrHeat project, whenever possible. This approach enables effective knowledge transfer for establishing redundancy in supply chain and developing competing technologies, while ensuring the effective utilization of resources by avoiding parallel and uncoordinated developments of similar technologies. In addition, new technology is being advanced and brought into demonstration at full scale.
Testing
All new technologies will be assembled and tested in the high-temperature heat pump testing laboratories at Danish Technological Institute in Denmark. The tests aim at ensuring proper function of the systems and removing “child sicknesses” in a testing environment with the possibility for modifications and optimizations. In addition, the system performance will be tested at a variety of operating conditions, providing a basis for estimating the performance in various applications. The testing phase in the laboratory is an important phase for allowing the technology suppliers to test their equipment, while end-users are gaining trust in the technologies.
Process and sector integration
The integration on different integration levels requires technical solutions for effective integration. On process level, there is a strong dependency between the process and the heat pump system, which creates the need for load balancing and dynamic operation of the heat pump systems. On utility or sector level, efficient recovery of excess heat and/or provision of cooling are important aspects to ensure high performances. The development of technical solutions for sector level focuses on the integration of district heating, which will enable new business models that facilitate the sector integration.
Demonstration
The project comprises the demonstration of two high-temperature heat pump systems. The first system will be integrated in a protein powder drying process and based on semi-hermetic standard components for smaller capacities. The second system will be demonstrated as a solution for upgrading district heating for supply of process heating at temperatures of up to 160 °C. The second technology will be based on industrial open compressors for hydrocarbons and steam. The systems will be demonstrated for several months and outline the benefits of the different approaches, while the technological developments will be proven in long-term operation.
Creating awareness
Exploiting the full potential of high-tempereture heat pumps requires a common understanding of the technology, its potentials, and its perspectives at a variety of stakeholders. In order to create the awareness among relevant target groups, a dedicated work package on demonstration is included in the project. This will comprise the dissemination of the main results towards relevant stakeholders.
Project outline with main activities