A comprehensive methodology for optimal High-Temperature Heat Pump design: integrating working fluid, cycle configuration, and component selection across a wide hightemperature operating range
High-Temperature Heat Pump offer transformative solutions for most industrial application, potentially reducing CO2 emissions by 148 Mt/a. However, their implementation faces challenges and competition from traditional energy systems, requiring strategic enhancements in design. The primary obstacle lies in absence of standardized methodologies for the optimal system design for each industrial application, as each case requires a specific model that is difficult to adapt to different operating conditions. Many studies examined cycle configuration and working fluid selection, but they often investigated these aspects independently and relied on fixed literature correlations to predict component performance. Hence, a detailed numerical model was developed and validated to simulate 59 potential refrigerants across six different cycle configurations, using five different compressors and two heat exchanger technologies. For each possible combination, energetic-economic-environmental analysis (including levelized cost of heat considering carbon tax) was evaluated across wide range of operating conditions (source temperature: 0:100 °C, sink temperature: 100:200 °C). The finding showed that single-stage cycles were optimal at temperature lifts <80 K, while cascade cycles dominated at higher lifts, and two-stage flash cycles were optimal in selected intermediate cases. Cyclopentane, n-pentane, and methoxymethane delivered the best performance, either alone in single-stage cycles or paired in cascade systems. Multi-stage centrifugal compressors were optimal across most conditions. Optimal designs converged to a Carnot efficiency of ~0.6. Compressor costs dominated the specific equipment cost (~60–70%), with heat exchangers contributing ~30%. Electricity consumption was the main levelized cost of heat driver (~60%), followed by CO2-emission taxes (~15%) and capital cost (~20%).