Heat Pumps are becoming more and more effective at industrial levels and Kronoterm are leading the field in bringing heat pumps to this sector.
Currently available heat pump technology can provide heat up to 100°C with new and improved products expected in the market, Kronoterm are at the forefront with their impressive 2 MW Lusty Tomato project.
Originally Lusty used to utilize geothermal energy (installed capacity of 2,7 MW) for heating green houses with heat exchangers in addition to gas furnace installed capacity of 6 MW. The outlet temperature from borehole – 1,5 km deep – is 65 °C. They utilized geothermal source only down to 35 °C for heating of green houses, below this temperature the heat was not „useful“ anymore. Because of legislation in Slovenia the company couldn’t pump higher volumes of geothermal energy, so they couldn’t get more heat from heat exchangers, therefore they needed to implement HP technology.
Savings of up to 72 {aae4186bff6d839141d186d76fb99607257623e66eaf92492a95bc0db448e933} compared to natural gas and producing up to 50 {aae4186bff6d839141d186d76fb99607257623e66eaf92492a95bc0db448e933} less CO2 emissions with Kronoterm’s new, unique heat pump for the greenhouse which churns out a remarkable 2 MW. This is enough power to heat a community of 400 low-energy houses of 140 m2. The working efficiency of the COP heat pump is excellent, varying between 5.1 and 6.0
This means 1 unit of electrical energy input to power the heat pump yields as many as 5 to 6 units of heat energy, far exceeding the expectations of investor. The entire investment was repayed in less than a year (ROI < 1 year) due to the negligible heating costs. The investor is thrilled to say that the new system is as much as 100 {aae4186bff6d839141d186d76fb99607257623e66eaf92492a95bc0db448e933} efficient in pumping geothermal energy from an incredible depth of 1500 m.
The assessment from the EHPA which looks at potential for heat pumps in Industry reveals a hgh potential for heat pumps in the temperature range up to 100°C of 68 TWh, mainly in the chemical, paper, food/tobacco and wood industries (see blue shaded bars in figure 2). Adding the sectors of hot water and space heating reveals an additional 74 TWh (see orange shaded bars in figure 2). With technical progress, an additional potential of 32 TWh in the temperature range from 100 to 150°C can be made accessible (see darkest blue bar in figure 2). In total, 174 TWh or 8,7{aae4186bff6d839141d186d76fb99607257623e66eaf92492a95bc0db448e933} of all heat demand in industry can be provided by heat pumps.
