Heat Pump Application- An Industrial Case Study

The economics of heat pumping across a distillation column is usually dependent on the amount of additional compressor work required to lift thermal energy from a low source temperature to a high sink temperature. A reduction of this work improves the heat pump economics. This paper presents the results of a heat pump study conducted by TENSA Services and sponsored by the U. S. Department of Energy. The objective of this study was to determine the potential of heat pump systems in industrial plants. During the course of this study, it was discovered that by carefully applying pinch technology and by making some process modifications, the compressor work can be reduced significantly