15 May 2023

Presentation No 183 – A novel heat pump-based energy recycling system of an industrial building utilizing waste heat flows and geothermal energy – 14th IEA Heat Pump Conference, Chicago, USA

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The energy efficiency improvement potential in industrial buildings is often significant, considering all
unutilized waste heat flows. Cost efficient and innovative renovation concepts are needed for a good balance
between cost savings and investment costs including energy grants for new energy systems. The paper presents
a case study, motivated by financial savings and CO2 emission reductions for an industrial building in Finland
based on realized costs and measured energy consumption. The building belongs to a company with multiple
industrial facilities in Finland and around the world and the company fulfils its energy program Mission to
Zero, significantly reducing the carbon footprint of its buildings. The energy renovation concept studied in this
study relies on a novel heat pump-based energy recycling system utilizing boreholes for thermal storage and
free cooling. Sources for energy recycling are the cooling and pressurized air systems serving the production
line. The long-term renovation plan is included to improve the overall cost efficiency. The energy concept is
compared to the initial situation and a conventional ground source heat pump system utilizing free cooling
from the boreholes. The measurements indicate that the performance, (SCOP 3.3) and heating energy covered
by the heat pump system (about 97%), has been better than expected based on the energy calculations.