SPH has a central role in many exiting projects with high temperature industrial heat pumps

SPH has a central role in many exiting projects with high temperature industrial heat pumps!

News about SPH heat pump projects

Published 15-05-2023

SPH has a central role in many exiting projects with high temperature industrial heat pumps!

This Newsletter is dedicated to a number of ground-breaking energy projects aiming at decarbonising industrial processes. All the projects use the ThermBooster™ as the key technology for the reduction of costs and CO₂ emissions related to the use of industrial heat. The ThermBooster™ is the industrial high temperature heat pump developed and produced by SPH Sustainable Process Heat GmbH. Studio Caramelli S.r.l. is the market promotor for this machine in Italy and Southern Switzerland.

1. UBQ Project

At the end of April 2023 two ThermBooster™ have been delivered to the new establishment of UBQ Materials (https://www.ubqmaterials.com/) in Bergen op Zoom, in the Netherlands. This project is caried out in collaboration with Technotrans SE (Germany) and includes the installation of two heat pumps to be used for the 24/7 delivery of heat for drying processes.

The two compressor ThermBooster™ heat pump delivered to UBQ

Each machine has two compressors. Together they will deliver about 1,5 MW of hot water at 130 °C. The waste heat is recuperated at 75 °C and the expected COP is 4,4 . The total heat delivery capacity is circa 2 MW, but normally, only three compressors will be used for meeting the load of 1,5 MW and one compressor is kept for redundancy. So, even if one compressor should fail for whatever reason, UBQ’s operation can continue without interruption.

The total yearly heat output is expected to be circa 39 TJ. In case the heat pumps are powered with carbon free electricity, e.g. from the North Sea, circa 2400 t of CO₂ emissions will be avoided each year.

Scheme of the two compressor version of the ThermBooster™

Mr. Gil Felus, Chief Operation Officer at UBQ Materials has commented as follows: “In December 2021 we completed a funding round of $170 million with a leading group of international impact investors to fuel our global expansion. As we move forward with our new upscaled factory in the Netherlands, we have made it a priority to partner with efficient energy solutions companies to further optimize the environmental impact of our production process. The equipment and solutions delivered by Technotrans GmbH and SPH Sustainable Process Heat GmbH play an important role in making this happen”.

2. Gelatine Project

In this project the ThermBooster™ is used in the food industry in Germany, for the production of low pressure, saturated steam. The heat is recuperated from the cooling water of an ICE[1] co-generator. The steam produced is fed into the existing steam network in the factory. The heat pump has one compressor and the condensation of the refrigerant takes place directly inside the steam generator. In this way an additional heat transfer circuit and the accompanying temperature losses are avoided. In this manner the best possible heat pump performance is assured.

ThermBooster™ with steam generator used in the Gelatine Project

The project is carried out with 2G Energy AG, the manufacturer of the co-generator.

About 0,8 t/h of 2 bar steam will be delivered and the expected COP is 4,4 . As a result of this energy saving measure about 550 t of CO₂ emissions will be avoided each year.

The machine has been extensively tested in the test facility of SPH and the delivery is planned before the end of Q2 in 2023.

3. Industrial bakery project

Also in this project, which is located in the South of Germany, the cooling water of an ICE co-generator is used as heat source. The project is carried out in collaboration with 2G Energy AG.

In this case the ThermBooster™ is equipped with two compressors but uses one single, steam generating, condenser. About 2 t/h of steam will produced at 1,5 bar and the COP is 5,5 .

The two compressor Thermbooster™ for the bakery project

Each year circa 1700 t of CO₂ emissions will be avoided when compared to systems using natural gas.

4. AHEAD Advanced heat pump demonstrator

In this research project a steam generating heat pump is combined with a mechanical vapour recompressing system (MVR) for the production of high pressure steam in a pharmaceutical industrial plant from Tekada in Austria. The advantage of this solution is that the heat pump does what it does best: the production of low pressure steam (3 bar). The MVR unit is used in a second stage after the heat pump in order to bring the steam at the required temperature by increasing its pressure to circa 11 bar (184 °C).

The heat source is the heat rejected by a large refrigeration plant. This heat is upgraded by an existing ammonia heat pump up to 70 °C. The schematic lay-out of the system is shown in the figure below:

Schematic view of the modified steam generating system in the Takeda pharmaceutical plant in Austria

Only natural refrigerants are used in this project. The ThermBooster™ will use Butane as refrigerant. The heat production will be circa 1,7 MW and the installation is planned for summer 2024. Extensive monitoring is planned for.

It is estimated that on a yearly basis the CO₂ emissions will be reduced by circa 90 %.

This project is co-financed by the Austrian Government and the other participants in the are:

5. Push2Heat Project

SPH was selected to provide a piston compressor heat pump for the EU Push2Heat Project*. This EU-funded project aims at addressing the technical, economic, and regulatory barriers that prevent heat pump technologies to be widely deployed. It will do so by scaling up four different heat upgrading technologies (whose supply temperatures range from 90 °C to 160 °C) to optimise their efficiency and economic performance.

The re-use of waste heat from a paper dryer

In this project the ThermBooster™ will be used for upgrading the heat recuperated from a dryer in a paper factory. The energy from the warm and humid exhaust air from the paper drying machine, is recuperated through a water/glycol circuit at 30 – 50 °C and then used as heat source for the heat pump for the production of low pressure steam 1,8 – 2,2 bar (117 – 123 °C). The steam produced by the heat pump is again used for the drying process and so the need for fossil generated heat is reduced.

The project will be realized in the establishment of the Felix Shöller Group in Weissenborn (Germany).

The establishment of the Felix Shöller Group in Weissenborn (Germany).

The thermal output of the system will be about 840 kW and the expected COP is 2,3 – 2,6 .

For more information:

Requests for further information or quotations can be send to: dolf.vanhattem@studiocaramelli.com