A Graphical Method for Combined Heat Pump and Indirect Heat Recovery Integration

• Published in: Energies
• Main Authors: Raphael Agner, Benjamin H. Y. Ong, Jan A. Stampfli, Pierre Krummenacher, Beat Wellig
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2022-04-01
• Subjects: energy optimisation; process integration; heat pump; thermal energy storage; electrification
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/8/2829

Industrial sectors are improving their energy efficiency and increasing their share of renewables for heating and cooling demands by using lower emission technologies. One specific approach to help achieve these targets is the integration of heat pumps (HPs) in industrial processes. However, due to the temporal variation of the heating and cooling requirements in non-continuous processes, the integration of HP is challenging. In this paper, a structured method for the design of HP integration is proposed. The method implements an engineer-centred workflow that extends the concept of the Indirect Source Sink Profile (ISSP) to HP integration. For this purpose, an adapted Grand Composite Curve is derived from the ISSP. This ensures correct HP integration across the pinch while maintaining the temperature lift of the HP small. The proposed workflow is applied to a demonstration case study and a case study from industry. In both cases, the resulting system with integrated HP enables the elimination of hot utility demand and significantly reduces cold utility demands. The static paybacks of the proposed solutions are in the range of 4.5 to 5 year.