E.ON turns sewage water into a valuable resource with GEA heat pump technology
Reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the heating supplied to Malmö in Sweden required a sea change in thinking by a major power company, using GEA’s energy-efficient heat pumps. After testing the water, a sewage plant was considered the best source for heating homes in an innovative approach for turning waste into usable energy.
Carbon footprint goal
Under the banner of ‘Clean 2025’, energy company E.ON Sweden has been working towards ambitious climate protection targets first set in 2017. It intends to provide to its customers 100% recycled or renewable energy by 2025 and has developed appropriate measures to achieve this goal.
The company decided that GEA’s ammonia heat pumps were ideal for district heating in southern Sweden, along with biomass and other renewable technologies to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions from heating. With a heating capacity of 10MW each, four GEA heat pumps were installed next to a sewage treatment plant and waste incinerator in the harbour area of the city of Malmö, where they are now providing 8% of the total energy to approximately 100,000 homes, the yearly equivalent usage of 10,000 households, contributing to around 50,000 metric tons of CO2 savings per year.
Power from waste
Whether drawing energy from effluent or a waste incinerator plant, heat pumps are increasingly being used for lower-carbon district and residential heating, in order to meet ever-stricter environmental rules and reduce CO2 emissions as well as operational costs.
The heat pumps operating in Malmö take advantage of the waste heat from the sewage and waste incinerator plants. E.ON decided to use recycled sewage water for the system due to the higher temperatures emitted by the sewage plant (14°C / 57.2°F) – making the water warmer than the seawater near the city which was too cold for efficient use.
Withdrawing 30MW / 40,230HP of heat from the sewage water, the energy harvested is upgraded to useful heat for the district heating network, with the integrated heat pumps working in conjunction with the nearby waste incinerator plant. The heat pump is designed for delivering up to 80°C / 176°F but will rarely be required to deliver temperatures above 71 °C / 159.8°F.
GEA ammonia heat pump plant in E.ON, Malmö
Ammonia - the natural choice
As fluorinated gases are phased out to meet with European F-Gas regulation, also designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, natural refrigerants are becoming more popular– especially ammonia, a climate-friendly refrigerant which is readily available, inexpensive and has no impact on global warming or ozone depletion.
While this is not the first time that heat pumps have been used in Sweden, the Malmö project is the first in the country to specify ammonia. E.ON opted for ammonia rather than chemical-based refrigerants due to the EU F-Gas regulation, which aims to phase down HFCs by 79% by 2030, and the company’s understanding of and commitment to its environmentally conscious customers.
3D model of the GEA ammonia heat pump for this Malmö project
Mats Egard, Project Manager at E.ON Värme Sverige AB, said: “It would have been cheaper to install an R134a heat pump, but we didn’t believe in that refrigerant for the future, because we are going to become 100% renewable. We’re going to supply district heating energy that is either recycled or renewable by 2025.”
Warming to the task
Kenneth Hoffman, GEA’s Product Manager Heat Pumps, summed up the science behind th heat pump technology that is helping to transform district heating by recovering heat from wastewater and supplying it to Malmö’s district heating network.
He said: “The four heat pumps work in parallel to deliver the promised temperatures. Each has a coefficient of performance (COP) above 3.5, so for each 1kWh of electricity used by the heat pump, 3.5 kWh of heat is produced for the city.”
A heat pump system requires comprehensiveanalysis of the requested temperatures and assessment of the right process parameters.Every degree counts with a heat pump and the more accurate the initial design, the more energy can be saved. Instead of focusing on small pipes with large temperature difference to keep the initial cost down, a heat pump investment is based on continuous savings every day.
GEA ammonia heat pump in E.ON, Malmö
Driving increased sustainability
Heat pump technology can help improve energy efficiency across a wide range of industries and applications. It can do basic jobs, like heating and cooling a small suburban home, right up to taking a central role in a super smart, zero-emissions strategy for district heating.
In countries where emissions requirements are less stringent and fossil-fuel-based solutions remain economically competitive, some district heating operators may continue with existing heating technologies rather than invest in lower-emission alternatives. However, According to IEA [The Future of Heat Pumps, 2022], heat-pump capacity needs to nearly triple by 2030 in a scenario consistent with the global 1.5°C climate target, with heat pumps meeting around one-quarter of heating needs. Read the IEA report: https://www.iea.org/reports/the-future-of-heat-pumps/executive-summary. So, let’s take action now and engineer for a better world together!
GEA Scope of Supply:
- GEA solution: Customized heat pump system (4 heat pumps)
- Heating capacity: 40 MW
- Heat source: Sewage water (8 to 14°C / 46.4°F to 57.2°F)
- Heat sink: District heating water (55 to 65°C / 131°F to 149°F)
- COP: >3.5 (yearly average)
- Compressor type: GEA Grasso Screw compressors
- Natural refrigerant: Ammonia
