MAN supplies Europe’s largest river water heat pump

GERMANY: MAN Energy Solutions is supplying Europe’s largest heat-pump system to a district heating system in Cologne, drawing energy from the river Rhine.

The 150MW closed-loop ammonia heat-pump system for RheinEnergie includes a building housing three 50MW heat pumps, the district-heating pump station, and a significant portion of the river-water and district-heating pipelines on-site. The contract also includes all key components, such as compressors, condensers, heat exchangers, the control system, and the electrical infrastructure.

The system will extract thermal energy from the river water and raise the temperature of the district heating water to up to 110°C.

Described as Europe’s largest fluvial heat pump system, it is expected to cut around 100,000 tons of CO2 in supplying heat to approximately 50,000 households in the Cologne metropolitan area.

The three 50MW integrally-geared ammonia compressors will be manufactured and tested by MAN Energy Solutions in Berlin and Oberhausen. The system also enables rapid power-balancing within the electrical grid, supporting the integration of fluctuating renewable-energy sources.

RheinEnergie is investing around €280m in the project. MAN Energy Solutions is acting as engineering, procurement and construction contractor.

Construction is scheduled to begin in 2026 and commissioning is planned for 2027.

“Our EPC team at the Augsburg site already has extensive experience with projects and plants worldwide, which will now enable us to supply RheinEnergie with this complete solution from a single source,” said Alexander Stöckler, MAN’s head of sales, tendering & project management, power segment. “We are creating a blueprint that can also be transferred to other large-scale heat-pump projects in Germany, Europe and worldwide.”