Life Cycle Assessment of a Stirling Cycle-Based High- Temperature Heat Pump for Industrial Decarbonization
High-temperature heat pumps (HTHPs) that utilize industrial waste heat as a low-temperature source in combination with renewable electricity offer a promising alternative to fossil fuel-based heat generation and can significantly reduce CO2 emissions in the industrial sector. This study presents a detailed life cycle assessment (LCA) of a stirling cycle-based high-temperature heat pump (SC-HTHP). Experimental testing of the SC-HTHP system was conducted at the SUSHEAT end-user site at the IVAR biogas facility in Stavanger, Norway. The analysis uses the ReCiPe 2016 Endpoint (H) impact assessment method and the IPCC 2021 GWP20 climate change indicator, taking a “cradle-to-partial-grave” approach. Life cycle inventory (LCI) data were obtained from the Ecoinvent database (via SimaPro), along with manufacturer-specific data from Enerin. The functional unit is defined as a 400 kW SC-HTHP, and the assessment includes the construction/manufacturing, distribution, and use/operational stages over a projected 25-year lifetime. The results demonstrate that the environmental impact is primarily driven by the use/operational phase of the SCHTHP, whereas the construction/manufacturing and distribution phases contribute significantly less. The total category impact for the use/operational phase, the construction/manufacturing phase, and the distribution phase was found to be 90.13%, 9.86%, and 0.0001%, respectively. Furthermore, the total CO2 emissions (2.42×106 kg CO2-eq) associated with the operational phase exceeded those associated with the construction and distribution phases over 25 years of use.