Norwegian heating specialist Enerin SA has developed an industrial heat pump that is purportedly capable of delivering heat up to 250 C and adapting to different operating conditions.
“The HoegTemp has been piloted by blue-chip companies in the pharmaceutical and animal-feed sectors, with early adopters GE Healthcare, Pelagia and IVAR IKS Biogas,” a spokesperson from the company told pv magazine, noting it recently raised NOK 180 million ($17.7 million) in a Series A led by Climentum Capital, The Footprint Firm, Johnson Controls and Move Energy, with participation from PSV Hafnium and Momentum.
The system has a heat supply capacity of 0.2 MW to 1 MW, with the size of a 1 MW system being around 30 m2 and 10,000 kg. Up to 5 systems can be connected in parallel to reach a maximum capacity of 5 MW. It uses Helium R704 as the working fluid and steam, water or thermal oil as the heat carrier.
The heat pump operates on the Stirling cycle, with a closed single-phase system undergoing compression and expansion by double-acting pistons. Heat exchangers for the heat source and heat sink are integrated with the compressor assembly, making up a standard stand-alone unit.
Electrically driven with a choice of supply voltage from 400 V to 960 V, the system heats a heat transfer circuit that in turn heats a steam generator to generate high-pressure steam. It may also heat a water circuit directly or a thermal oil circuit. The heat transfer circuit can also be integrated with thermal energy storage (TES).
The heat pump features a coefficient of performance of 1.80 to 2.16 and sound levels of around 80 dB(A). It automatically adjusts to changing operating conditions, such as rapid fluctuations in the heat source’s temperature, while maintaining its heating capacity and efficiency, according to the manufacturer. Similarly, if sink temperatures need to shift due to production requirements or plant modifications, the heat pump will reportedly adapt to these new conditions without any reduction in efficiency.
“The HoegTemp heat pumps have been operating for more than 15,000 hours in industrial plants, with source temperatures from 15 C to 65 C and sink temperatures from 130 C to 200 C,” the spokesperson said. “The Carnot efficiency is in the 45% to 60% range and
increasing with temperature lift. The rated operating range is from -10 C to 250 C and the maximum temperature lift is 260K.”
The manufacturer also said the system has an expected lifetime of 20 years and a technology readiness level (TRL) of 9. The TRL measures the maturity of technology components for a system and is based on a scale from one to nine, with nine representing mature technologies for full commercial application.
Having Johnson Controls together with leading European VCs as investors is a powerful validation of what Enerin is building
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