Decarbonization Goals and the Potential of Oil-free Technology
Many organizations today are working to identify ways to meet decarbonization goals, reducing their dependence on carbon- rich fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas, oil, and propane. Their goal: to dramatically reduce their emissions of the greenhouse gases implicated in climate change, while, hopefully, also decreasing their energy costs and bolstering organizational reputation at the same time. Heating buildings consumes the largest amount of energy and produces the highest CO₂ emissions. So, the focus is on planning for a resilient and efficient system that can provide affordable heat for all. To minimize investments, energy demand must be reduced by applying energy efficiency measures to buildings and optimizing the performance of technical building systems. There is also a need to establish efficient, decarbonized heating supply systems that put a focus on supply-side renewable energy. The nature of renewable primary energy supply will force the demand and supply sides to become much more integrated. This will in turn call for new applications and technologies like demand-side flexibility and thermal or electrical energy storage. As an example of the potential, in the Heat Roadmap Europe (HRE) studies 1 and 2, it has been shown that increasing district heating to cover 50 percent of the total heat demand, together with a 40 GW heat pump capacity, can address up to 15 percent of total heat demand. In periods with a surplus of renewable electricity, heat pumps are
supposed to continue operating and using thermal storage to capture excess heat due to unused compressor capacity. Heat pumps can be introduced effectively on a mass scale as decentralized zero carbon heat suppliers. Smaller heat pumps can boost flow temperatures for apartments or multi-apartment buildings, while large heat pumps can supply heat to the grid via ground source. Modeling suggests that, when used in electric heat pump applications, oil-free, magnetic bearing centrifugal compressors can provide up to 40 percent greater energy efficiency and lower resulting emissions compared to constant speed positive displacement screw compressor-based heat pumps, driving significant operating cost savings and substantial reduction in carbon footprint. When compared to variable speed positive displacement screw compressors — a more efficient heat pump technology, modeling suggests that a significant 15-20 percent reduction in emissions and 10-15 percent reduction in energy costs can be realized. And, when replacing or as an alternative to a high efficiency condensing boiler, the operating costs can be reduced by 35 percent and the CO2 emissions by 59 percent. This emissions reduction estimate increases as renewables are integrated into the power grid. These comparative improvements can further increase over time because oil-free, magnetic bearing centrifugal compressors
maintain performance over the long term, whereas the performance of positive displacement screw compressor-based heat pumps can degrade as much as 10 percent in the first five years and 20 percent within the first ten. This degradation process is driven by a combination of the mechanical degradation of the positive displacement compression sealing process as well as oil- driven heat transfer degradation. In short, this is an innovation that will be of significant interest to heat pump designers, manufacturers, energy management consultants, and, especially, any commercial or industrial facility interested in decreasing their carbon footprint, increasing energy efficiency, and reducing heating costs.
Made with FlippingBook Publishing Software