High-Temperature Heat Pumps Task 1 – Technologies

Industries are using a considerable share of their final energy consumption on process heating, which is often based on fossil fuels and accordingly accounting for a large share of their greenhouse gas emissions. Decarbonizing the process heating by electrification and energy efficiency is a top priority for industries with respect to reaching their climate ambitions towards 2030 and beyond. Industrial heat pumps can provide industrial process heating, based on potentially emission free electricity and at highest efficiencies, which is making them a key technology for decarbonizing industrial process heating. For heat supply temperatures below 100 °C, they are already a well proven technology and being implemented in industries. With fuel prices and carbon taxes that are becoming more beneficial for industrial heat pumps, their range of application as the preferred technology is emerging to temperatures well above 100 °C. For the large share of process heat requirements above 100 °C, there is currently a limited number of technologies available, while various technologies are under development.

Enabling a large variety of industries to convert their process heat supply to high-temperature heat pumps with supply temperatures above 100 °C requires a common understanding of the technology, its potentials and its perspectives for a variety of stakeholders. This report aims at supporting the overall development of high-temperature heat pumps by providing an overview of the current state of the art and future perspectives towards 2030 on a global level.