Decarbonisation of industrial processes with heat pumps

To counteract climate change the efficient use of energy in industry becomes increasingly important. Heat pumps enable decarbonized industrial processes by replacing fossil fuels with electricity. DryFiciency develops and demonstrates high temperature heat pumps using OpteonMZ as refrigerant to supply hot water up to 160°C. Heat pumps will be installed in drying processes for starch and bricks in two Austrian companies in spring 2019. We present design considerations for high temperature heat pumps, as well as the expected CO2 reductions and primary energy savings. Calculations are based on numerical process simulation. At the two demo-sites CO2 emission reductions up to 40-90% and primary energy reduction from 20-80% can be achieved compared to natural gas. If the heat pump technology is spread out to 50% of all drying processes in the EU, they would contribute 3-7% of the CO2 emission reduction necessary to achieve the EU climate targets. Heat pumps improve the energy efficiency of industrial processes significantly. The demonstrators are an important step in the development of viable industrial solutions.