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Use Industrial Heat Pumps as a Decarbonization Solution for Your Operations
Heat pumps play a crucial role in decarbonization by providing highly efficient heating and cooling solutions that reduce reliance on fossil fuels and lower greenhouse gas emissions.
How Do Heat Pumps Work?
Industrial heat pumps use the same principles of the refrigeration cycle, which involves four main processes outlined below. Heat pumps allow the capture and repurposing of exhaust thermal energy and repurposing lost power for other processes.
- Evaporation: This is where the working fluid of the heat pump, a refrigerant, first absorbs heat from the waste heat source and evaporates at a low pressure. The heat source could be at temperatures close to ambient temperature or use any source of low temperature waste heat from the facility .
- Compression: The vaporized refrigerant is compressed by a compressor, which increases its pressure and temperature. The compression of the gas requires mechanical work, which is usually supplied by an electric motor. The refrigerant’s temperature rises significantly due to the increase in pressure.
- Condensation: The high-pressure, high-temperature refrigerant releases heat to the heat sink, a high-temperature industrial process, and condenses back into a liquid.
- Expansion: The last step is the high-pressure liquid refrigerant passes through an expansion valve, reducing its pressure and temperature. The expansion process cools the refrigerant, preparing it to absorb heat from the waste heat source again. The refrigerant returns to its initial low-pressure, low-temperature state, completing the cycle.
Maximizing the Efficiency of Industrial Heat Pumps: Key Factors to Consider
Industrial heat pumps offer an effective way to decarbonize operations. However, their efficiency can vary significantly depending on several factors. Kanin’s role as a developer is to understand these factors in order to help optimize the performance of your system. Some factors to consider are listed below:
- Temperature Ranges: Industrial heat pumps can operate across a wide range of temperatures, typically from -10°C/15°F to 150°C/300°F. The specific temperature range depends on the refrigerant and system design. Kanin takes a technology-agnostic approach by selecting a heat pump compatible with your process temperatures.
- Energy Input: Mechanical energy input is required to drive the compressor, typically supplied by electric motors or other prime movers. The efficiency of the prime mover and the overall system design will impact the overall energy consumption of the heat pump.
- Efficiency Considerations: The coefficient of performance (COP) is a key metric indicating the heat delivered to the work input ratio. Higher COP values indicate better efficiency. Factors such as the heat source temperature, heat sink temperature, and system design can influence the COP.
- Temperature Lift: The temperature lift is the difference between the temperature of the heat sink and the temperature of the heat source. It is a crucial parameter in determining the performance and efficiency of a heat pump system. A higher temperature lift typically results in a lower COP because the system requires more work to transfer heat across a larger temperature difference. Minimizing the temperature lift can improve the COP, making the system more efficient. This involves careful selection of heat sources and sinks to ensure that the temperature difference is as small as feasible.
- By considering these factors and implementing appropriate strategies, Kanin can work with heat pump providers to maximize the efficiency of the industrial heat pump system and reduce overall operational costs.
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- Heat Source Temperature: Ideally, the temperature of the heat source should be as high as possible. Waste heat from industrial processes are usually viable for heat pump applications.
- Temperature lift: The temperature lift is the difference between the temperature of the heat sink and the temperature of the heat source. A higher temperature lift typically results in a lower COP because the system requires more work to transfer heat across a larger temperature difference
Electrical consumption of the heat pump is a function of the coefficient of performance (COP), where the power required to operate the pump is equal to the COP times the heat required. Most of the industrial heat pumps have a COP ranging between 2 and 5, but emerging technologies are enabling COPs of 20.
Heat pumps reduce the energy requirements to deliver heat. Depending how heat is generated on site (burning fossil fuels or with electric boilers/heaters), the heat pumps can reduce fuel or electricity consumption, respectively, and therefore the associated cost to generate heat.
Scope 1 reductions vary depending on the project. These projects reduce scope 1 emissions by lowering the energy (either fuel in the case of natural gas boilers) or scope 2 emissions electricity (for electric boilers) to produce the heat required on site.