Project targets industrial heat pumps

BELGIUM: A new EU project funded by Horizon Europe aims to make heat pumps the lead heating technology for industry by 2030.

The EU-funded SPIRIT project, which kicked off today, will address the decarbonisation challenge by demonstrating three full-scale, 0.7MW-4MW, high-temperature heat pump technologies in Norway, Belgium and Czech Republic.

It will investigate how their technical and economic performance can be improved and it will show how waste heat can be used to produce steam. The project will also study the heat pump operational integration with solar thermal systems.

The €11m project will also look at innovative business models and contractual agreements, and how they can increase the impact of industrial heat pumps.

What’s more, the 17 project partners will spread awareness on the barriers and benefits of upgrading heat technology in industry, with a view to reducing energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions. 

The project will be coordinated by the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO). The project partners, which include the European Heat Pump Association, GEA Refrigeration and Mayekawa, represent a wide range of expertise from design to manufacturing and research.

The ultimate goal of the project, which will run for 3.5 years, is to enable industrial heat pumps to become the reference technology for covering industrial heat demand for temperatures up to 160°C by 2030.