https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c17p44w87rno
“The pipe that will supply the heat pump, drawing water from the River Rhine in
Germany, is so big that you could walk through it, fully upright, I'm told.
"We plan to take 10,000 litres per second," says Felix Hack, project manager at
MVV Environment, an energy company, as he describes the 2m diameter pipes that
will suck up river water in Mannheim, and then return it once heat from the
water has been harvested.
In October, parent firm MVV Energie announced its plan to build what could be
the most powerful heat pump modules ever. Two units, each with a capacity of
82.5 megawatts.
That's enough to supply around 40,000 homes, in total, via a district heating
system. MVV Energie aims to build the system on the site of a coal power plant
that is converting to cleaner technologies.
The scale of the heat pumps was determined partly by limits on the size of
machinery that could be transported through the streets of Mannheim, or
potentially via barges along the Rhine. "We're not sure about that yet," says
Mr Hack. "It might come via the river."
One person well aware of the project is Alexandre de Rougemont, at Everllence
(formerly MAN Energy Solutions), another German company that also makes
extremely large heat pumps. "It is a competition, yeah," he says. "We're open
about it."
Heat pumps soak up heat from the air, ground or, in these cases, bodies of
water. Refrigerants inside the heat pumps evaporate when they are warmed even
slightly.
By compressing the refrigerant, you boost that heat further. This same process
occurs in heat pumps designed to supply single homes, it just happens on a much
larger scale in giant heat pumps that serve entire city districts.
As towns and cities around the world seek to decarbonise, many are deciding to
purchase large heat pumps, which can attach to district heating networks.
These networks allow hot water or steam to reach multiple buildings, all
connected up with many kilometres of pipe. Ever bigger models of heat pump are
emerging to meet demand.”
Via Kenny Chaffin.
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*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
