HPC Newsletter

Industrial applications

Volume 25, No.1/2007

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In this issue

Industrial applications
Dear readers,
This issue is about heat pumps that are not so many by the numbers, but does a horse job because of their size – industrial heat pumps. There are many things that differ in their design compared to domestic heat pumps, and their working temperature range is much wider. Please be inspired by the articles, and have a good (late) spring!

Roger Nordman
Editor

Heat Pump News

DuPont, Honeywell announce joint development
DuPont and Honeywell have announced a global joint development agreement to accelerate the development
and commercialisation of nextgeneration, low global warming refrigerants for the automotive air conditioning industry.

Danish subsidies for heat pumps
The Danish Government has decided on a DKK 30 million programme for replacing oil boilers in areas without district heating or natural gas. The money will be spent on standard approval certifi cation, energy labelling of heat pumps and an information
campaign. In addition, a grant for purchase of the most effi cient products will be available for a limited time.
Source: Scanref Newsletter

Beta version of RETScreen
ice rink model
released
Canada The CANMET Energy Technology Centre – Varennes of Natural Resources Canada has developed the new RETScreen model for assessing the viability of energy-effi cient ice and curling rink projects, with a focus on heat recovery from refrigeration systems.
Source: CANMET Energy Technology

New natural refrigerants
web site launched
The web site for the Initiative to establish a Natural Refrigerants Fund has been launched. Please visit www. nrfund.org for more information.
Contact: Prof. Dr. Risto Ciconkov
ristoci@ukim.edu.mk

Topical Articles

Industrial high-temperature heat pumps for wood drying
Vasile Minea, Canada

Canadian sawmills traditionally deliver 72 million m3 of resinous lumber per year. About 2% are dried using low-temperature heat pumps and the rest through other technologies using bark-, natural gas- or oil-fi red boilers as primary energy sources. However, such products are well suited to high-temperature drying. Two hybrid (electricity/fossil) industrial-scale high-temperature heat pump prototypes for resinous
lumber drying have been developed and investigated in Canada. Several improvements have been achieved in terms of working fl uid selection, refrigerant fl ow control, system operating stability, dehumidifying capacity control and optimum drying schedules. The thermodynamic operation and specific energy performances of high-temperature drying heat pumps have fi nally reached all expected targets.

Application of Ammonia Heat Pumps in Norway
Jørn Stene, SINTEF Energy Research, Norway

The use of naturally occurring and ecologically safe substances as working fl uids in heat pumps represents an environmental friendly and long-term solution to the problems of HFCs. The most important natural working fl uids include ammonia, hydrocarbons and carbon dioxide. This article discusses the main characteristics of ammonia heat pumps, and describes the market development for this energy-effi cient technology in Norway.

Thermally Powered Heat Pump/Chiller
Sets New Effi ciency Standard
Donald C. Erickson, USA

Conventional thermally powered water heaters are 80 to 95% effi cient. The new thermally powered heat pump (TPHP) reported herein is over 140% effi cient. In addition, the cold end of this TPHP produces useful chilling. The amount of energy-free chilling is equal to the amount of heat pumping. The combination of the world’s highest hot water heating effi ciency, plus energy-free chilling, all from a single economic appliance, makes this a very signifi cant development. This article explains how the TPHP works, making use of an ammonia-water absorption cycle. It also presents operating results from an ongoing full-scale demonstration of TPHP at a poultry-processing plant,
where a thermal (steam) input of 530 kW produces 320 kW chilled water and 850 kW hot water. It operates on a 20/5 basis automatically and unattended. The savings in both natural gas and electricity add up to over $110K per year. The simple payback is approximately 1.8 years.

Non - Topical Article

Coabsorbent heat pumps for the future
Mihail-Dan N. Staicovici

Based on the coabsorbent cycles, recently introduced by the author, a particular new technology can be developed for extremely effi cient and feasible heat pumping applications. The paper presents model results of residential and district ammonia/water heating applications for coabsorbent hybrid

and absorption heat pumps, supplied by different winter and summer heating and cooling pairs of sources. Among these applications, author’s proposal of coupling the coabsorbent heat pumping plants with thermal power stations, is one of the most important, for effective district heating (besides thermofi cation) and/or cooling, and power plant global effi ciency increase up to 90 percent.