Techno-Economic Comparison of Steam Generation Systems with Industrial Heat Pumps

Steam generation significantly contributes to the energy demand in industry since steam is widely used as energy carrier. To cope with energy efficiency measures, it becomes crucial to recover the waste heat as it is an inevitable product. Thus, the incorporation of a heat pumps might assist in this recovery for steam generation applications. In this work, the industrial steam generation with the aid of a heat pump is investigated. The integration of the heat pump into the process is realized for three main approaches: 1) direct steam generation, 2) steam generation with a flash tank and forced circulation and 3) steam generation with a drum for natural circulation. In the second approach, a circulation pump is needed. The last approach relies on natural circulation. This work conducts a simulation-based analysis to examine the performance of 4 configurations. The findings reveal a promising applicability of such systems with notable performance, which allows in promoting the energy efficiency measures in industry with great savings in CO2 emissions compared to a conventional steam generation system (e.g. gas-fired steam generator).