U.S. OEM Echogen Power Systems has begun development of a pilot-scale 500kW (142TR) CO₂ (R744) high-temperature heat pump (HTHP) with funding from a $3 million (€2.7 million) award from the U.S. Department of Energy.

With a focus on industrial applications, the company seeks to produce a “sustainable, cost-effective” HTHP capable of generating steam at over 300°C (572°F) outlet air temperatures from ambient heat sources.

The funding award was provided by the DOE’s Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office (IEDO) and comes a year after Echogen successfully tested a 50kW (14.2TR) laboratory-scale steam-generating heat pump unit. Timothy Held, Echogen’s CTO, presented details about the company’s CO₂ HTHPs at the ATMOsphere (ATMO) Europe Summit 2023. ATMOsphere is the publisher of NaturalRefrigerants.com.

“Our heat pumps utilize the thermally stable, high-vapor pressure refrigerant CO₂, oil-free industrial gas [steam] compression and low-temperature heat sources,” said Held.

By the numbers: The company forecasts a three-year payback period for its CO₂ HTHP compared to direct electrical heaters, with systems scaled to commercial size (5‒25MW/1400‒7,100TR).

• Echogen’s HTHP is designed for use in the chemicals, food and beverage, consumer goods and manufacturing industries.
• Compared to natural gas-fired heaters, the company estimates that its CO₂ HTHP offers a 90% reduction in carbon emissions over its potential life cycle and a 50% reduction in energy intensity.

Familiar territory: In 2018, Echogen received a different $3 million DOE grant to develop an electrical energy storage system using a CO₂ heat pump.

A growing segment: The High-Temperature Heat Pump Symposium 2024, held in January in Copenhagen and organized in part by the Danish Technological Institute (DTI), showcased several natural refrigerant HTHPs for the industrial sector.

• MAN Energy Solutions presented its CO₂ HTPH at the event, noting that it could help balance power grid fluctuations with its ability to reduce electricity consumption by 7MW in 30 seconds.
• Arne Høeg, CEO of Norwegian OEM Enerin, presented a study at the symposium on the company’s helium (R704)-based HoegTemp industrial heat pump, which can convert waste heat into steam at temperatures up to 200°C (392°F).
• At the European Heat Pump Summit in October 2023, Emanuele Pingaro, Sales and Business Development Manager at Turboden, spoke about the Italian OEM’s heat pump for the pulp and paper industry, which reaches temperatures up to 170°C (338°F) using isobutane (R600a) and isopentane (R601a).

Quotable: “Echogen is uniquely poised to displace fossil fuel-driven heating processes with our ability to achieve high temperatures plus cooling from an electrically driven heat pump,” said Phil Brennan, Echogen’s CEO. “The earlier this technology gets adopted, the closer we can get to achieving our accelerated climate goals, [with] industrial decarbonization [as] our highest priority.”