Industrial Heat Pumps Using Solid/Vapor Working Fluids

Abstract

Industrial heat pumps have the potential to reduce the operating costs of chemical and heat treating processes in the chemical, petroleum, paper, dairy, and many other industries. The cost development of fossil fuel and other prime energy require excellent efficiency/cost ratios and hardware designs adaptable to specific process needs, in order to compete with vapor re-compression recovery systems. The state-of-the-art heat pump equipment employing liquid/vapor working fluids fulfills the requirements only in some applications. The employment of solid/vapor complex compounds leads to more cost effective heat recovery, which is due to simple hardware with no moving parts, extraordinary low maintenance effort, excellent temperature lifts avoiding the need of two-stage systems, and low first cost. This paper describes the advantages and disadvantages of solid/vapor working media.