Industrial Heat Pumps

From process heat to space or district heating – these days, thermal heat makes up a significant portion of energy demand across Europe, with about two thirds of that heat being produced using fossil fuels. As a result, industrial process heat is responsible for about 20 percent of CO2 emissions across Europe. Industrial heat pumps help to upcycle low-temperature waste heat sources (such as river water, sewage water, process wastewater and warm drying air or steam). With the use of a fraction of the electric power to drive the heat pump (typical 20-40%), and with no CO2 emitted, this upgraded waste heat can be re-used in a process with the lowest environmental impact possible. The efficiency of a heat pump is expressed by the COP — Coefficient of Performance. It depends on the temperature lift between heat source and sink, but also on other aspects, such as fluid and size of the heat pump. Usual values for a COP are between 2 and 4.

While sustainable hydrogen can be used as a direct replacement for fossil fuels in industrial- and district-heat generation, heat-pump technology excels in terms of energy efficiency in all applications that don’t require temperatures greater than 300°C and long-term storage. With their superior efficiency, industrial heat pumps enable a much higher conversion of electricity into useful process heat compared to hydrogen production and combustion.