Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SPIRIT (Implementation of sustainable heat upgrade technologies for industry)
Reporting period: 2022-09-01 to 2024-02-29
The transformation of the European economy to carbon neutrality by 2050 requires a drastic decrease in our GHG emissions. Currently, 20% of European GHG emission arise from the use of fossil fuels in the industrial sector (excluding upstream emission) and of this, 40% from the combustion of fossil fuel for the generation of heat. To ensure that industrial sector is sustainable, reducing the climate impact of heat is a key component. Within the wide range of process temperatures in industry, the temperature region between 100°C and 200°C is a segment where industrial heat pumps will play a significant role in decarbonization of industrial heat demand.
The SPIRIT project will implement three full-scale (> 0.7 MWth) demonstrations of heat pump technologies integrated at three different process sites in the paper & pulp and food & beverage sectors with sink temperatures between 135°C and 160°C. The two market segments (paper & pulp and food & beverage) combined cover 63% of the potential high-temperature heat upgrade market. SPIRIT aims to enable industrial heat pump technology to become the reference (climate neutral/friendly) technology for covering industrial heat demand for temperatures up to 160°C by 2030.
The SPIRIT project will implement three full-scale (> 0.7 MWth) demonstrations of heat pump technologies integrated at three different process sites in the paper & pulp and food & beverage sectors with sink temperatures between 135°C and 160°C. The two market segments (paper & pulp and food & beverage) combined cover 63% of the potential high-temperature heat upgrade market. SPIRIT aims to enable industrial heat pump technology to become the reference (climate neutral/friendly) technology for covering industrial heat demand for temperatures up to 160°C by 2030.
The main focus in this reporting period has been on the engineering and construction of the three heat pumps and the three site integrations. The engineering process started with preparing a Basis of Design (BoD) document that offers an overview of the general project requirements and is meant to be used at every stage of the project life cycle, including design, engineering, construction, commissioning, operation, and decommissioning phases, for each of the demonstrations. Demo 1 will use waste heat (20°C) from an existing cooling system that will be upgraded to about 80°C by an ammonia heat pump from Mayekawa driven by a piston compressor. This heat will be further upgraded to produce 700 kW steam of 145°C with a pentane heat pump again from Mayekawa. This second heat pump is driven by a modified screw compressor. The steam is subsequently used in a prawn cooker at Stella Polaris in Norway. Demo 2 concerns a sugar production process at Tiense Suiker in Belgium. Waste heat of around 80°C is used in a GEA pentane heat pump, driven by a screw compressor, to produce 3.5 – 4 MW of steam of either 138 or 114°C, depending on the type of campaign. The last demo concerns a paper production process at Smurfit Kappa in the Czech Republic. The Spilling heat pump (steam compressor) will use flashed condensate after the drying process with a pressure of about 2 bara and compress this steam in a 4-cylinder piston compressor to a pressure of 6 bara with a thermal power of about 800 kW. This steam can be reused in the paper drying process.
The basic engineering has been based on the BoD document and has been completed for all three demos. Both the heat pumps and the way these will be integrated into the process have been worked out in engineering documents. Important issue for all demos are the safety aspects related to the installation of this new equipment including flammable working media for demo 1 and 2. Depending on the demo, all detailed engineering has been completed as well and construction is underway for both the heat pump and the integration for demo 1.
In parallel with the engineering, a test program has been defined for each demo that will be carried later in the project during the demonstrations. This test program entails both short term/dynamic testing as well as duration tests where the heat pumps will run for at least 2000 hours.
A barrier for the market introduction of industrial heat pumps (IHPs) is the lack of standards on testing of such systems at high process temperatures. These standards would reduce ambiguity which is critical regarding a technology where performance is dependent on the operation conditions. Within the SPIRIT project a common benchmark method for measuring the performance of IHPs has been created for testing and rating of performance both for testing IHPs in the laboratory and on-site.
All the demonstration activities are accompanied by modelling activities. A static and dynamical model of each demonstration will be developed that will be used to analyse the experiments and as well give guidelines on the control of the heat pump.
An important component, mainly for the heat pumps in demo 1 and demo 2, is the oil lubrication system. This is essential for operation of the compressor but also adds complexity to the system and lowers the performance. The high temperature used in these heat pumps put special demands on the type of oil to used. Recommendations have been drafted on the type of oil to be used in combination with certain working media. In addition, a study has been done on the reuse of the heat that is released from the oil cooling system. Depending on the temperature of this heat this could be used as well for a heating application on site. This will improve the overall performance.
A web based tool, available for multiple stakeholders, is under development that will design, dimension, and optimize the most relevant heat pump cycles concerning thermodynamic performance and economic key-performance indicators. The graphical user interfaces (front end) for this tool have been completed, while programming of the back end is ongoing.
To gain more insight in the actual market of industrial heat pumps, existing market studies are updated. A top-down analysis of relevant sectors in EU industry reveals a process heat demand < 200°C in the order of 600 TWh. Most relevant sectors are Paper & pulp, food, and chemical industry. This top-down analysis will be complemented by a bottom-up study that will study individual processes.
Finally, the SPIRIT project has been quite active in Dissemination and Communication activities. The website (Spirit-Heat) is live and attracts lots of attention. LinkedIn has proved to be the major dissemination tool for SPIRIT. In the reporting period 3 e-newsletters have been issued as well as 3 webinars organized (in cooperation with sister project Push2Heat).
The basic engineering has been based on the BoD document and has been completed for all three demos. Both the heat pumps and the way these will be integrated into the process have been worked out in engineering documents. Important issue for all demos are the safety aspects related to the installation of this new equipment including flammable working media for demo 1 and 2. Depending on the demo, all detailed engineering has been completed as well and construction is underway for both the heat pump and the integration for demo 1.
In parallel with the engineering, a test program has been defined for each demo that will be carried later in the project during the demonstrations. This test program entails both short term/dynamic testing as well as duration tests where the heat pumps will run for at least 2000 hours.
A barrier for the market introduction of industrial heat pumps (IHPs) is the lack of standards on testing of such systems at high process temperatures. These standards would reduce ambiguity which is critical regarding a technology where performance is dependent on the operation conditions. Within the SPIRIT project a common benchmark method for measuring the performance of IHPs has been created for testing and rating of performance both for testing IHPs in the laboratory and on-site.
All the demonstration activities are accompanied by modelling activities. A static and dynamical model of each demonstration will be developed that will be used to analyse the experiments and as well give guidelines on the control of the heat pump.
An important component, mainly for the heat pumps in demo 1 and demo 2, is the oil lubrication system. This is essential for operation of the compressor but also adds complexity to the system and lowers the performance. The high temperature used in these heat pumps put special demands on the type of oil to used. Recommendations have been drafted on the type of oil to be used in combination with certain working media. In addition, a study has been done on the reuse of the heat that is released from the oil cooling system. Depending on the temperature of this heat this could be used as well for a heating application on site. This will improve the overall performance.
A web based tool, available for multiple stakeholders, is under development that will design, dimension, and optimize the most relevant heat pump cycles concerning thermodynamic performance and economic key-performance indicators. The graphical user interfaces (front end) for this tool have been completed, while programming of the back end is ongoing.
To gain more insight in the actual market of industrial heat pumps, existing market studies are updated. A top-down analysis of relevant sectors in EU industry reveals a process heat demand < 200°C in the order of 600 TWh. Most relevant sectors are Paper & pulp, food, and chemical industry. This top-down analysis will be complemented by a bottom-up study that will study individual processes.
Finally, the SPIRIT project has been quite active in Dissemination and Communication activities. The website (Spirit-Heat) is live and attracts lots of attention. LinkedIn has proved to be the major dissemination tool for SPIRIT. In the reporting period 3 e-newsletters have been issued as well as 3 webinars organized (in cooperation with sister project Push2Heat).
The start-up phase of the SPIRIT project has focused on progressing the engineering of the three demonstrations down to the Detailed Engineering package and starting construction. The demonstrations will provide valuable proof that it is possible to operate high-temperature heat pumps for steam production in a real industrial environment. Together with advanced dynamical modelling work (digital twin) this will move industrial heat pumps and their integration beyond the current state of the art.
The impacts and wider societal implications of the project so far will become apparent as the work packages dealing with these issues start producing results later in the project. The basis within the different work packages has been laid.
The impacts and wider societal implications of the project so far will become apparent as the work packages dealing with these issues start producing results later in the project. The basis within the different work packages has been laid.