The hidden champion of industry: meeting sustainability targets and saving operating costs with GEA heat pump technology

Combining climate protection with cost reduction

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), heat accounts for more than half of the world's final energy consumption, with most of this being generated from fossil fuels. In industry and commerce, the demand for hot water and process heat is very specific. It can often be met with heat pumps. Their efficiency and short payback period make them an environmentally friendly and economically attractive alternative to conventional heating systems. A heat pump converts heat from the environment - water or process waste heat - from a low temperature level to a higher one.

The type of application is decisive when planning and selecting a heat pump system: The variety of industrial heat pumps makes them interesting for numerous applications where both heating and cooling is required. The smaller the temperature lift is for the heat pump the less electrical power is required. For heat pump installation it is important to find the highest temperature heat source and optimize the heating system for supplying the lowest practical hot water temperature. If the demand for heating and cooling changes seasonally, typically in office buildings or greenhouses, a GEA heat pump can heat in winter and cool in summer. In the seasons where both heating and cooling is required, the efficiency can be more than ten times higher than a conventional installation with boiler for heating and air conditioning for cooling.

GEA experience with cooling systems as a decisive advantage

GEA's technicians are experts in both cooling systems and heat pumps. With more than 100 years of manufacturing ammonia refrigeration and more than 10 years knowledge from high temperature heat pumps installations the reasons are obvious. Heat pumps and refrigeration systems use the same physical principle - and they all consist of the same main components, such as compressors and heat exchangers. The principle of the heat pump is also used for cooling (as with the refrigerator), while the term "heat pump" is only used for the heating unit. In the cooling process, the useful energy is the heat absorbed from the process/cold store to be cooled, which together with the drive energy is dissipated to the environment as waste heat. When a heat pump is combined with a cooling unit, both cooling and heating are possible, so that the one-time use becomes a continuous cycle, which reduces energy costs by 30 percent or more. This is a significant saving when you consider that in the food, dairy and beverage industry up to 60 percent of energy consumption can be used for heating and cooling.

The centerpieces: GEA reciprocating and screw compressors

They are the heart and therefore literally the pump of the heat pump: GEA reciprocating and screw compressors. GEA has the largest range of high-pressure ammonia screw compressors suitable for heat pump application. Through its many heat pump installations GEA has optimized the range for low vibration levels and high efficiency. With the small cylinder reciprocating V-compressor range available for higher pressures GEA is now able to offer the most efficient ammonia compressor solution on the market. These compressors are specially designed for the high final compression pressure in a heat pump. They offer condensation temperatures which, depending on the design, are just as suitable for operating low-temperature hot water as for providing process heat.

GEA relies on environmentally friendly refrigerants

As fluorinated gases are gradually being phased out Globally to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, natural refrigerants are becoming increasingly popular, especially ammonia, an environmentally friendly refrigerant and cost-effective and has no impact on global warming or causing build-up of fluoride compounds in the nature. Ammonia is widely used in food processing plants, the beverage and dairy industries, breweries and cold stores. Thanks to improvements in compressor technology, ammonia heat pumps can now produce higher temperatures. This has paved the way for their wider use in the food, beverage and dairy industries, where waste heat can be reused and enhanced for washing, cleaning and drying products, heating water for cleaning and processing purposes, and pasteurisation.

Traditionally, these industries used boilers to cook or pasteurise products, which were then cooled down again, resulting in massive waste of energy. The heat from the cooling process was too low to be reused. However, a heat pump can raise the temperature of the refrigeration plant waste heat up to 90⁰C so that it can be returned to the cycle. This means that more fossil fuel boilers can be phased out, the heat can be regenerated or recycled, and CO₂ emissions are greatly reduced - in many cases by more than 50 percent. In addition, CO₂ emissions can be reduced to zero if "green electricity" is used.