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The International Energy Agency (IEA) Heat Pump Programme has launched a new project titled "Application of Industrial Heat Pumps" that will focus on heat pumps for high-temperature industrial and commercial applications. The project will consider issues that have not been explored to date by other IEA projects, including new refrigerants for industrial heat pumps.

Operated by the Information Centre on Heat Pumps and Refrigeration IZW e.V. in Germany in collaboration with Laurent Levacher, EDF-R&D-ECLEER (European Centre & Laboratories of Energy Efficiency Research) in France, the project will aim at reducing the use of energy and greenhouse gas emissions through the increased implementation of heat pumps in the medium and high power ranges such as ammonia heat pumps by the industry.

These can be used for heat recovery and heat upgrading in industrial processes, as well as for heating, cooling and air-conditioning in industrial, commercial and multi-family residential buildings, and for district heating.

The project will:

• Generate information for policy makers
• Develop information for key stakeholders in industry and their supply and consulting chain as well as for policy makers
• Get insight in business decision processes
• Increase the knowledge and information about industrial heat pumps and make existing information available
• Apply new technologies and identify the needs for technological development
• Create a network of experts
• Find synergies with renewable energy production to increase flexibility of the grid

Industrial heat pump potential discussed at heat pump event

Earlier this year, at the European Heat Pump Forum organised by the European Heat Pump Association in Brussels, a representative from IZW had made the case for the big potential of industrial heat pumps, an application where also ammonia may be used.

The presenter maintained that the deployment of current heat pump products for industrial use could result in payback periods of as short as 3 years that industrial end-users typically require. He singled out industries such as food, pulp & paper and chemicals as areas with a large potential for heat pumps. He suggested that simply using the energy saving argument for convincing these industries to employ heat pumps for their processes simply would not be sufficient. One needs to make the case for additional benefits, such as quality gains for the industrial product.