State of the art / Very high temperature heat pumps for industry
Heat pumps benefit from numerous advantages in comparison to competitive technologies: the reuse of waste heat, a high energy efficiency and relatively low carbon emissions. They are already used for the electrification of thermal processes using low and medium temperatures (generraly between 60°C and 90°C), and more widely for applications of decarbonisation. Moreover, the price ratio of electric and fossil energies in France is rather propitious for the development of heat pumps applications in the industry.
Recent teechnological breakthroughs led to the development of solutions of very high temperature (VHT) heat pumps, providing useful heat at temperatures above 100°C, for hot air, vapor or superheated water production.
This report aims at presenting an overview of available VHT heat pumps for industrial applications :Recent teechnological breakthroughs led to the development of solutions of very high temperature (VHT) heat pumps, providing useful heat at temperatures above 100°C, for hot air, vapor or superheated water production.
- In the first part, the working principles of heat pumps are explained, a as-exhaustive-as-possible list of currently available VHT heat pumps is drawn up, and attention is drawn to the specificities of the refrigerants used in these solutions.
- In the second part, the overview is broaden to include alternative technologies (i.e. not based on the traditionnal thermodynamic cycle for heat pumps) able to provide heat at comparable ranges of temperature.
