HEATING
hEeleacttinrigfi cina ptiroonce osfs applications
By Dave Palmer, general manager for the UK and Ireland, ICS Cool Energy
McKinsey reports that industry consumes more energy than any other sector: 149 million TJ in 2017. Fuel
consumption for energy accounts for almost 45% of that (see www.is.gd/isafak). The European Heat Pump
Association (EHPA) reports that most of the 2,388TWh of final energy the industry uses for heating and cooling
purposes is for process heating. This puts heating as one of the prime opportunities for reducing fossil-fuelled
energy consumption and related emissions
Renewables could produce
more than half of the world’s
electricity by 2035, at
lower prices than fossil fuel
generation, according to the
same McKinsey report. Considering
zero-carbon electricity is flowing through
the grid, by betting on electrification
of heating technologies available
today, industrial plants can lower their
greenhouse-gas emissions significantly.
While feasibility of a heat pump in
industrial applications depends on
the temperature levels required by
the manufacturing process, there are
applications which need low to medium
temperatures – an area where heat pumps
can step in to replace the fossil-fuel
based solutions. While heat pumps were
traditionally known for their residential
applications, with rising energy costs and
increasingly ambitious environmental
goals, they have become more and more
recognised for their commercial and
industrial applications.
Heat pumps rely on one of the most
energy-efficient methods of heating:
the transfer of free thermal energy from
outside to inside based on the difference
in temperature between the two. Not
everyone in industry considers cooling
and heating at once. There are new
opportunities if we stop treating cooling
and heating separately – we need to
change the paradigm and start looking at
heating from the cooling perspective, and
the opposite.
Across the plants and buildings in UK
and Europe, we see different heating
demand profiles that come with specific
efficiency opportunities. All of them allow
for significant efficiency improvements
by choosing the right heat pump solution
– and sometimes even combine it with
other technologies.
While pure heating heat pump
solutions require external (sustainable)
heat sources such as air or (ground)
water, simultaneous heating and
cooling applications provide the unique
opportunity to reclaim or harvest energy
which is available within the same plant or
building.
Repurposing energy by integrating
cooling and heating systems is an
opportunity often overlooked. An obvious
example is in a hospital. Hospitals require
year-round cooling in surgery rooms or
to keep vital IT equipment such as MRI
scanners running. Heating is required
70 www.operationsengineer.org.uk Winter 2021
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