Paper No 684 – Economic and Environmental considerations for the deployment of VHTHPs in European markets – 14th IEA Heat Pump Conference, Chicago, USA
This paper provides an overview of the most important economic and environmental considerations when deploying very high temperature heat pumps (VHTHPs) in the European region. One of the state-of-the-art heat pumps, a process based on the reversed Stirling cycle, can achieve temperatures of up to 200 °C, and temperature lifts over 150 °C. The coefficient of performance (COP) suffers during such large temperature lifts, and thus the relationship between the price of electricity and alternative fuels becomes a crucial factor when determining the feasibility of replacing existing boilers in industrial settings. The environmental impact is quantified using life cycle assessment and mainly depends on the electricity source used to run the heat pump as well as the construction and decommissioning of the heat pump itself. It was found that factors such as low electricity prices and/or carbon pricing mechanisms are crucial in order to operate low COP heat pumps profitably. Additionally, it was determined that VHTHPs can significantly reduce the environmental impact of steam generation compared to equivalently sized fossil fuel boilers, provided that renewable sources of electricity are used.