The main focus in this reporting period has been on the construction of two of the three heat pumps envisioned and the site integrations.
For the first demo at Stella Polaris in Norway involving Mayekawa heat pump technology, a cascaded heat pump system has been realized that will use waste heat (20°C) from an existing cooling system to be upgraded to about 80°C by an ammonia heat pump and further upgraded to produce 700 kW steam of 145°C with a pentane heat pump. This system has been integrated at the shrimp processing plant, including civil works, mechanical integration (piping) and electrical and control integration. Detailed risk assessments have been carried out to ensure safe operation with the flammable media involved. During the commissioning phase an incident occurred which will delay further commissioning until Fall of 2025.
The second demo at Tiense Suiker in Belgium involving GEA heat pump technology has realized a pentane heat pump that uses waste heat of around 80°C and upgrade this to produce 3.5 – 4 MW of steam of either 138 or 114°C, depending on the type of campaign. This heat pump has also been mechanically and electrically integrated at the sugar mill and housed in a separate housing. This heat pump has been commissioned and operated for a limited time during the last part of the thick juice campaigns. The heat pump successfully produced steam of the required pressure level. The heat pump will be restarted again at the start of the beet campaign in the Fall of 2025.
The third demo at Smurfit Westrock is currently on hold due to the takeover of the Spilling company.
Extensive modelling has been carried out for all the three demos. This modelling concerns both static calculations that assist the design of the systems as well as dynamic simulations that assist in the commissioning and controls of the heat pumps .
In order to improve the compressor performance, assessments have been carried out for compatibility of the O-ring seals of the GEA screw compressor. In addition fluid dynamics calculations have been done to decrease flow losses in the Spilling piston compressor. Finally, 3D manufacturing techniques were evaluated for the production of the pistons in this design.
Extensive modelling work was done to evaluate the use of zeotropic mixtures as working medium in industrial heat pump for applications that have a strong temperature glide. Mixtures of 9 different hydrocarbons and CO2 were analysed for different conditions of the application. The calculations show how the mixture needs to be chosen as to match the application conditions as close as possible. This leads to increased performance compared to the use of a single fluid.
In order to improve the competitiveness of industrial heat pump, efforts are made to arrive at a modular, standardized concept for such a system. The advantages are shorter development times, lower planning costs, improved maintainability and increased cost-effectiveness through series production. The heat pump is broken down in functional modules, each with their specific components. These components then need to be sourced from suppliers. This standardized heat pump system should match the demand from the end-user applications.
In order to further reduce the carbon footprint of heat upgrade solutions, SPIRIT is also exploring the integration of solar thermal systems with its industrial heat pumps. To this end, energy simulations were carried out for all three demo sites based on the innovative and SolarKeyMark-certified High Vacuum Flat Panel solar thermal technology of TVP. Further on-going analysis aims to assess the techno-economic feasibility of such integrated systems in various operational and geographical scenarios
A web based tool is developed that will assist end-users in their evaluation of heat pump applications. The first part of this too, a Pinch analysis tool, is available online, see
https://tlk-energy.de/tools/pinch-analyse-online(s’ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre). This tool will facilitate the identification of the location of the integration of the heat pump.
In addition to the top-down analysis of the heat pump market, a bottom up analysis was carried out this reporting period. So far more than 10 GW total thermal capacity has been identified in several sectors in the EU. Relevant sectors studied are papermaking, food and beverage, textile and automotive. The sizes are ranging from 30 kW for a microbrewery to 20 MW for sugar or paper manufacturing. The numbers range from thousands for the smaller ones and hundreds of larger scale heat pumps.
Finally, the SPIRIT project keeps attracting lots of attention. The website and LinkedIn account are very effective dissemination tools. Several international and Belgium newspapers and platforms reported about the inauguration event of the GEA heat pump at Tiense Suiker. During the past period 1 newsletter and 3 webinars were issues/organized. Several preparatory activities took place in this period for the SPIRIT summer school that is organized in June 2025 in Copenhagen, Denmark.
