Paper No 277 – New Perspectives for the Application of large-scale Heat Pumps – 14th IEA Heat Pump Conference, Chicago, USA
Large-scale heat pumps are an efficient and cost-effective solution for the generation of industrial heat and district heating. They take up thermal energy from a low-temperature heat source (e.g. waste heat from industries or ambient heat from sea, lakes, rivers, or geothermal sources) and supply thermal energy at higher temperature to a heat sink. During the next years, heat supply will be electrified and decarbonized step by step, due to the gradual replacement of fossil-fired heat supply by natural gas, coal, and oil. As the electricity generation will be decarbonized further in the upcoming years, more and more renewable electric energy will be available to achieve a climate neutral heat supply. Siemens Energy has long-term experiences with large-scale heat pump solutions up to 95°C and 30 MW of thermal output per heat pump unit. Several industrial segments need heat pumps with even higher temperatures and higher thermal output. Thus, new heat pump solutions and an enhanced heat pump portfolio to higher temperatures (up to 150°C) and larger thermal output (up to 70 MW in one unit) are being developed. Low pressure steam requirements can be met by these high temperature heat pumps. By adding an additional steam compressor to the high temperature heat pump, even higher steam temperatures and pressures can be achieved (up to 270°C and 55 bara). Heat pump solutions and possible applications for industrial hot water, steam supply and district heating are presented in this paper. Furthermore, ongoing and future projects of large-scale heat pump installations are shown.