AMT Kältetechnik GmbH, an experienced engineering and construction company of industrial and commercial heating and cooling solutions, has won the public bid to build and integrate DryFiciency’s two novel closed-loop heat pump systems capable of reaching temperatures of up to 160 degrees Celsius. 

The heat pump systems will be installed at two industrial sites where they will be implemented in the energy-intensive drying process.

The first heat pump to be manufactured will be installed at Agrana Starch GmbH, a specialist in processing high-quality agricultural commodities such as corn, potatoes and wheat into starch products. This heat pump will include a modified screw compressor from Bitzer Kühlmaschinen GmbH, while the second system to be installed at Wienerberger AG, the world’s largest producer of bricks and number one in the clay roof tiles market in Europe, will include the piston compressor technology from Viking Heat Engines AS.

Both heat pumps have been designed to reach 160 degrees Celsius and operate on the novel and environmentally friendly refrigerant OpteonMZ developed by Chemours and adapted refrigeration oils supplied by FUCHS Europe Schmierstoffe GmbH.

The heat pumps will be assembled within the next few months and installed at the demonstration sites in the spring of 2019. The work will be supervised by AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH and ENERTEC Naftz & Partner GmbH & Co KG.

The public tender was initiated by the members of the DryFiciency project, which is funded by the European Union through the Horizon2020 program and led by the Austrian Institute of Technology. The project aims to develop three high-temperature heat pump systems to transform heat that is currently going to waste into high-temperature energy that can be used in industrial processes. The systems will be demonstrated in air and steam drying processes and improve the energy efficiency by up to 80%, reduce production costs by up to 20% and CO2 emissions by up to 75%.

With 12 to 25% of the national industrial energy consumption attributed to industrial drying in developed countries, drying and dehydration are among the most energy-intensive and wide-spread processes in many industrial sectors due to the use of fossil fuels and minimal or no utilization of waste heat streams. Three manufacturing segments are addressed in the DryFiciency project, namely brick, pet food and starch production. The outcome from the project will also be of major relevance to other energy-intensive industries, such as the pulp and paper industry.

“The technology we are developing is designed to be totally transferable to numerous sectors of energy-intensive industries, such as the pulp and paper industry, food and beverage processing sector and textile and chemical industries,” says Veronika Wilk, coordinator of the DryFiciency project and researcher at the Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT). 

For more information, please contact:

Author: Annemarie Schneeberger, Veronika Wilk

Company: AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH

Contact: dryficiency@ait.ac.at, Tel: +43 50 550 6349

Web address: www.ait.ac.at