ROTATION HEAT PUMP – the refrigerant free highly-efficient heat pump for industrial use

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The Austrian tech company ecop Technologies GmbH concentrates on R&D and manufacturing of an innovative Rotation Heat Pump. The Rotation Heat Pump uses a disruptive technology, patented several times, with a completely new physical approach based on a 1-phase thermodynamic cyclic process instead of the thermodynamic 2-phase compression process of conventional heat pumps. This, for the first time, enables high-scale industrial use that existing conventional heat pumps cannot provide because their process is not suitable for high temperatures and fluctuating conditions of industrial settings. Furthermore, they usually require as working fluids refrigerants with a high global warming potential (GWP), while the Rotation Heat Pump uses an inert gas with GWP zero, widely available, inexpensive and not posing any security issues. The objective of this innovation project is to bring the Rotation Heat Pump to the market. Transfer from TRL7 to 8 of the currently existing 700 kW technology includes enlarging the temperature range to 150°C, fine-tuning the control system, raising energy efficiency and reducing production costs. In parallel, the optimized Design of a cost optimized Rotation Heat Pump will be conducted. Additional demo plants – one already existing in district heating – shall demonstrate further important use cases like industrial drying. Implementing a profound communication strategy and partnering with system integrators at EU level will pave the way to commercialization. Impacts mare of high importance for a low carbon and efficient energy system and circular economy approaches in line with the respective EU policies: The Rotation Heat Pump enhances energy efficiency of (district) heat nets by 40% and allows highefficient usage of waste heat potentials (in many sectors e.g. for industrial drying). Future applications will for instance enable Power-to-Heat storage systems for boosting renewables.