Thermal Heat Pumps

Most of the energy production in Norway is based on hydroelectric power. As a consequence of this electricity is normally used for both heating and for electric components. In other countries having thermal power plants using fossil fuels the focus is more on the utilization factor, forcing use of thermal energy for heating. The current situation in Norway is that the annual electrical energy consumption is higher than the production, and the lack of energy will increase the focus on using thermal energy (i.e. waste heat) for heating. Heat pumps in general and absorption based heat pumps and chillers in specific will contribute this trend.

In 1995/96 IFE started developing thermally driven heat pumps. A high temperature compression/ absorption type heat pump is the main subject. IFE has built a 60 kW heat pump designed to upgrade industrial waste heat from a temperature of around 50 °C to a temperature of 95-100 °C, and simultaneously produce chilled water of 5-10 °C. In addition a 300 kW prototype plant was designed and built in a diary at Nærbø in Norway in 2002. The prototype heat pump has been in stable operation for 12000 hours per April 2005.

The main research focus is on further development of the compression/absorption heat pump technology.

Hybrid Energy AS was established in 2004 to deliver this high temperature compression/ absorption heat pump.