HCFO-1233zd high-temperature heat pump used for district heating in Berlin
The project aims to prove that it is possible to use large-scale heat pumps for urban district heating in a way that not only helps to achieve Berlin’s net zero goal by 2050 but can also make economic sense. The high-temperature heat pump uses HCFO-1233zd, according to Cooling Post, to efficiently utilize waste heat, which would otherwise go unused, together with electricity from 100% renewables. It will generate CO2-free heat for the urban infrastructure it is embedded in.
Before the end of 2022, at Potsdamer Platz in the German capital Berlin, this novel high-temperature industrial heat pump will start supplying the city’s district heating system with net-zero heat. This is a pioneering project on the way to decarbonizing heat. HCFO-1233zd is a non-flammable ultra-low GWP refrigerant (4.5 AR4 F-gas, 3.88 AR6) offering a good balance of technical and safety properties.
Since 1997, a cooling plant close to Potsdamer Platz Berlin has been supplying cooling to around 12,000 offices, 1,000 housing units, and numerous cultural institutions in the area. In doing so, it produces considerable amounts of waste heat that have so far been dissipating into the air through cooling towers. But by installing a high-temperature heat pump with a thermal capacity of up to 8 MW, this waste heat will be put to good use. The large-scale heat pump will flexibly deliver flow temperatures between 85 and 120 °C, according to the demand in the district heating network. Around 30,000 households will be supplied with hot water in summer and 3,000 households with heat in winter. In total, the system saves around 6,500 tons of CO2 in the city’s heating system.
The project is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and is intended to drive forward the transition to clean energy in Berlin.
Sources
Berlin's high temperature heat pump ready to roll - Cooling Post
New heat pump to produce heat in a climate-friendly way – Berlin.de
Making the Most of Waste Heat | null | Siemens Energy Global (siemens-energy.com)