ENPRO – Renewable process heat – Integration of solar heat and heat pumps in industrial processes

There are efforts, both at national and at European level, to increase energy efficiency in industrial processes and the share of renewable primary energy sources therein. Renewable technologies, such as solar heat and heat pumps, are in some cases used to supply heat to industrial processes. However, there are still significant barriers preventing the use of both technologies in industrial applications at present. The reasons for these barriers are mainly high investment costs, lack of experience or skepticism regarding the reliability of these technologies, lack of planning guidelines and integration concepts, as well as lack of users’ knowledge of technological developments, such as high-temperature heat pumps.

Intending to reduce these barriers, the “EnPro” project will develop appropriate guidelines for manufacturers, users and planners, in order to integrate the considered technologies efficiently and cost effectively in industrial processes. The composition of the consortium was deliberately chosen so that skills and resources of the working group supplement ideally for the purposes of an efficient fulfillment of the projects objectives.

A total of ten case studies for Austrian companies from the food, paper, metal production and processing industry, laundries and insulation industry are carried out within the project.

The choice of sectors ensures high potential for application of solar heat and heat pumps and guarantees a high degree of replicability. On this basis the identified potential processes will get classified, in order to create generalized integration schemes or concepts and corresponding technical-economic assessments in the different sectors. The results and supporting integration measures are communicated to the user with different dissemination activities, such as a symposium, Wiki-Web applications and publications.

Leitfaden und Berechnungstool für die Integration von Solarthermie, Wärmepumpe und deren Kombination in industrielle Prozesse:
Leitfaden
Download Berechnungstool