A heat pump prototype coming out of Switzerland looks like a nest of pipes, valves, and gauges.
But efficiency trumps aesthetics for this contraption. And thanks to an ingenious blend of refrigerants, the research team has improved performance by up to 25%, according to a lab report.
"Just as we predicted," lead professor Stefan Bertsch said in the summary. He works at Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences, which partnered with ETH Zurich on the research.
Heat pumps are innovative units that can both heat and cool your home while saving up to a grand each year on energy expenses. They have clear advantages over traditional furnaces, with tax credits available to help with the purchase, the U.S. Department of Energy revealed.
In short, they work by utilizing energy stored in waste heat, ambient air, or the ground. To make heat, they evaporate a refrigerant, sending the gas through a compressor, raising its temperature.
Now the experts are using a mixture of two refrigerant components.
They think the tech holds promise for generating process heat for the food, chemical, and pharmaceutical industries. Process heat is often used in manufacturing settings, from pasteurizing milk to steelmaking. It typically relies heavily on fossil fuels and is therefore a potent polluter, according to the Energy Department.
The Swiss experts' system is reliable, cost-effective, and able to provide heat of up to 392 degrees Fahrenheit, which can be used in industrial settings, according to the team's findings.
The breakthrough comes down to blending. A computer analyzed 200 million molecules to find the right solution.
"Instead of a single refrigerant, we use a blend. This allows a heat pump to use different heat sources and generate different temperature profiles," ETH professor André Bardow said in the summary.
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As a result, the refrigerant mix can be changed to meet the job demand instead of redesigning the entire pump setup. It's a much simpler and cheaper solution. The mix includes a traditional refrigerant and "one further component," per the experts.
The tech could be a big win for the planet if it helps expand heat pump use in both home and industrial settings. Cell Press reported that heat pumps can reduce air pollution for home use by up to 36%-64%, depending on variable conditions. While the switch can't guarantee pristine weather in your neighborhood, it can limit the amount of heat-trapping fossil fumes that experts at NASA have linked to increased risks of severe weather. Worsening weather is impacting insurance premiums and coverage availability.
After these initial lab successes, the researchers hope to build a pilot plant to complete more tests. They'd also like to partner with a manufacturer and identify more applications that need sub-400-degree heat.
"In principle, you can have any number of different profiles for industrial processes, as long as the temperatures don't exceed 200 degrees [392 degrees Fahrenheit]. That's the major advantage our technology offers," Bardow said in the ETH report.
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