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Background

The reduction of GHG emissions from industrial processes has become imperative for industries and the decarbonization of industrial process heating is a key measure for reaching the defined ambitions. The European Union has defined the ambitions to reduce CO2 emissions by 55 % until 2030 and by 90 % by 2040 (European Commission, 2023). For the industry sectors, this means that 62 % of reductions are expected by 2030 (European Parliament, 2023). Similar ambitions are defined in several countries, confirming the global trends towards reduced climate impact from industrial processes. The political frameworks are accompanied by initiatives that are establishing the commitment of companies to reduce their climate impact as market parameters. One of these initiatives is the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTI), which allows companies to get certified if they are committing to reduce their climate impact based on scientifically approved benchmarks and approaches. SBTI is receiving a rapidly growing interest from companies committing to reduce the emissions from their own operations in Scope 1 and 2, but also by putting requirements on their supply chain to reduce their Scope 3. This mechanism is thereby creating a market development, which causes a rapidly growing number of industrial companies that are committed to actively reduce their GHG emissions.

In this context, decarbonization of industrial process heating is receiving growing attention, as it accounts for a considerable share of industrial GHG emissions. The governing principles for a successful decarbonization of industrial process heating are electrification and energy efficiency. This makes industrial heat pumps a highly promising technology, which many companies are considering as an integral part of their decarbonization strategy. The IEA plays a crucial role in providing independent and credible know-how on energy technologies to facilitate the net-zero transition. It is estimated in “Net Zero by 2050 – a roadmap for a global energy transition” by the IEA that industrial heat pumps are the main technology to be implemented until 2030 to replace fossil fuel boilers. To reach the targets, 15 % of the industrial process heat below 400 °C in light industries should be covered by heat pumps, and 30 % by 2050. This requires an enormous acceleration of the adoption rate, reaching an average of 500 MW installed capacity per month globally, between 2021 and 2030.

Three main developments are expected to be decisive for the development and to which extent the growth curve achieves the required numbers for exploiting the full potential: i) Technology developments, ii) End-user adoption and iii) Boundary conditions. These developments are mutually interdependent and may develop a self-reinforcing dynamic, and communication is key to unfold the full potentials.

Objective

The overall objective is to establish an independent knowledge hub with valuable, high-quality information about industrial high-temperature heat pumps, which will create a common understanding at a variety of stakeholders, ultimately leading to an accelerated uptake of industrial heat pumps in industrial applications. More specifically, this will be achieved by the following objectives:

• Provide a regularly updated overview of available and close-to-market technologies for high-temperature heat pumps and realized demonstration cases of high-temperature heat pumps (Task 1)
• Facilitate the knowledge exchange between solution providers and end-users to develop sector-specific solution concepts and increase the awareness for these solutions in the selected sectors (Task 2)
• Develop and provide education materials to support the education in academia and industries (Task 3)
• Disseminate the gathered information to create a common understanding at a variety of stakeholders (Task 4)

Activities

Task 1 – Technology developments and perspectives
This task will review ongoing technology developments (TRL 4-9) and their perspectives. It will continue and maintain the database of existing technologies and demonstrations as generated within Task 1 of Annex 58 and build on the same structure. This database was found to be valuable information for a variety of stakeholders, and it is expected that it becomes even more important considering the rapidly growing market. Information about supplier technologies (general technology description, working fluid, compressor type, performance data, specific cost, TRL, footprint, …) and about realized projects (description of the project, supplier, integration concept, operating performance, cost, …) will be collected by using the structured 2-page descriptions. These descriptions will be updated on a yearly basis and analysed in a progress report. The progress reports will analyse the developments with respect to overall trends, such as refrigerants, standardization, price developments, technical features and more, while highlighting challenges where innovation is needed. The overall developments will be put into context in the final Task report. All participating countries will contribute to the review with collecting supplier technology schemes and realized demonstration cases with a focus on, but not limited to, their respective country.

Task 2 – Sector collaborations
This task aims at establishing sector collaborations to facilitate a dialogue between technology suppliers, end-users, sector organizations, R&D organizations, consultants and other stakeholders, ultimately leading to sector specific solutions, that are enabling a sector-wide rollout of HTHP technologies. These sector collaborations will be based on the collaboration-scheme as established by EHPA and CEPI, which brought technology suppliers together with end-users from the pulp and paper industry. The sectors will be selected in collaboration with the Project participants, and it is intended to have one organization as the main responsible for each collaboration. The chosen sectors should be identified as a group of applications that share similar profiles regarding the use of high-temperature heat pumps. Examples include the dairy sector, brewing sector, textiles sector, and chemical sector. It is the ambition to facilitate sector collaborations for a minimum of 3 sectors and that the collaboration can be realized within a maximum of 1.5 years.

For each sector, 2-3 interactive, physical workshops will be facilitated, to:
• Identify and describe typical applications and integration concepts
• Identify the most promising HTHP technologies for these applications and establish a sector-specific technology overview.
• Identify technology development gaps
• Identify sector- and application specific barriers and develop solutions to overcome these barriers

These solutions will be documented by a sector report, presenting the main findings of the sector collaboration. Moreover, these collaborations will establish a network among key stakeholders, proving a basis for an effective development, demonstration and deployment of these key-enabling technologies. The Task will run for the entire period of the project but will be structured in three phases. During the first year, key stakeholders will be identified, and a working plan will be developed. The active phase of the sector collaboration will each be around 12 to 18 months, while the final phase will be used for dissemination and reporting.

Task 3 – Education materials
This task aims at developing education materials for industrial heat pump applications. These education materials will be based on the materials from Annex 48, 58 and this project (specifically Task 1 & 2), as well as relevant ongoing R&D projects. The education materials will support a wide-scale application of industrial heat pumps by focusing on the design and integration of heat pumps in industrial applications. The materials will cover topics, such as basics and functioning principles, components and systems, process integration, technoeconomic assessment, safety aspects and more, and will consist of theoretical materials, supplemented with practical examples. The format for making the education materials available will be defined in collaboration with the participating organizations, with a focus on a solution allowing to define education pathways for different target groups. The target groups include a variety of stakeholders from industry (end-users, consultants, component suppliers, system suppliers, management, …), but the materials can also be used for academics, such as bachelor, master, and PhD students.

The development of education materials will be started after half a year with the development of a working structure, while the Task will be executed within a 24-month period.

Task 4 – Dissemination
This task will ensure a dedicated dissemination of the results among the wide range of stakeholders. The task will comprise the production of the deliverables described in section 6 as well as the dissemination of the results at a national and an international level through presentations in working groups, workshops, conferences and similar. Furthermore, it is intended to arrange presentations or dedicated workshops for attendees at relevant conferences, such as a workshop at the IEA HP Conference. Online Deep Dive sessions will be organized for relevant topics depending on the interest from potential participants. The additional deliverables will be defined in coordination with the final group of participants and according to the project progress. This task will furthermore ensure coordination and knowledge-sharing with otherworking groups and organizations, including:

• IEA Technology Collaboration Programmes (IETS, ES) and their relevant ongoing and future Annexes
• EHPA
• IIR
• ASHRAE

Operating Agent & Contact Person

Benjamin Zühlsdorf, bez@dti.dk

Participants

Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Japan.

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