Turboden, part of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, has powered what it calls the world’s largest steam-producing heat pump, delivering 12 MWth of superheated steam using low-grade waste heat and CO₂-free electricity with a coefficient of performance 10% above the guaranteed value of 2.
Turboden, an Italian manufacturer of organic rankine cycle (ORC) systems, has announced the launch of what it defined as the world’s largest steam-producing heat pump.
The company, part of Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, said the project consists of a large heat pump (LHP) coupled with mechanical vapor recompression (MVR).
“It is capable of generating 12 MWth of superheated steam at 3.4 bar(a), raising the temperature to 150–180 C. The system recovers low-grade residual heat from the industrial process and upgrades it using CO₂-free electricity,” the company said in a statement. “It performs better than expected, with a coefficient of performance (COP) 10% above the guaranteed value.”
The initial guaranteed COP is 2, according to information published by the company on the website of the Technology Collaboration Program on Heat Pumping Technologies (HPT TCP) of the International Energy Agency (IEA). The low-grade heat sources range from 10 C to 20 C, and the system can operate continuously, producing 20 tons of superheated steam per hour. The working fluid is isobutane.
The new system was installed at a location of the Austrian paper manufacturer Delfort in Tervakoski, Finland. It invested €50 million ($58.8 million) in the project, with support from the Finnish Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment and the European Union’s NextGenerationEU programme.
“One of the key challenges of the project was installing the heat pump in an existing space with a limited footprint. Turboden designed the installation to ensure optimal accessibility, maintainability and performance,” Turboden explains further. “This was achieved through close collaboration between Turboden and Delfort, resulting in a tailor-made factory setup that was fully integrated into the paper mill. In addition, Turboden managed the seamless interaction between the heat pump and the MVR throughout all phases of operation, applying advanced process knowledge and advanced system integration capabilities.”
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