Trigeneration systems based on heat pumps with natural refrigerants and multiple renewable sources

TRI-HP will provide the most appropriate knowledge and technical solutions in order to cope with stakeholder’s needs, building demand characteristics, local regulations and social barriers.

Objectives

• Development and testing of affordable flexible tri-generation systems able to cover heating, cooling and electricity demands with a large share of renewable sources. The systems developed are:
  •     Solar-ice system using a supercooling ice-slurry heat pump with solar as main heat source
  •     Dual source/sink heat pump system using ground and air as heat sources/sinks
     
• Development and testing of special heat exchangers for the different heat sources and refrigerants, able to improve the performance of the heat pumps. Three heat exchanger types will be developed:
  •     An always free-of-ice evaporator, the so-called supercooler, for an ice-slurry heat pump
  •     Tri-partite gas cooler for simultaneous domestic hot water and space heating provision for a CO2 heat pump
  •     A dual source/sink heat exchanger for ground/air renewable heat sources.
     
• Development and testing of three natural-refrigerant based reversible heat pumps able to provide heating and cooling with multiple heat renewable sources. Three heat pumps will be developed:
  •     A transcritical CO2 heat pump with a  tri-partite gas cooler and a supercooler evaporator
  •     A propane heat pump with a dual source/sink heat exchanger for dual ground/air use
  •     A propane heat pump with a supercooler evaporator
     
• Development of two advanced controls:
  •     A heat pump self-diagnosis algorithm to increase reliability and facilitate maintenance
  •     An advanced energy management system based on model predictive control
     
• Understanding and improving stakeholders’ acceptance of TRI-HP systems
  •     Analyse and identify the interest and needs of end-users and installers
  •     Understand and determine other stakeholder’s acceptance

Partners:

• Fundacion Tecnalia Research & Innovation
• Cadena Systems AG
• Fundacio Institut de Recerca de L'energia de Catalunya
• Alfa Laval Lund Ab
• Industrielack AG
• Isoe GMBH
• Norges Teknisk-Naturvitenskapelige Universitet Ntnu
• Teknologisk INSTITUT
• Hochschule Karlsruhe-Technik Und Wirtschaft
• Federatie Van Verenigingen Voor Verwarming en Luchtbehandeling in Europa Vereniging
• Grvefc SL

Start date: 1/03/2019 - End date: 28/02/2023