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EVENT REPORT: ICR 2019 – 25th IIR International congress of refrigeration

Montreal 24.-30.8.2019

18 September 2019|Views: 4890|Tags:
The ICR conference is the world’s leading event for research and industry in the HVACR sector taking place every four years. 850 participants from 45 countries participated in the 25thIIR Congress on Refrigeration held in Montreal from 24th to 30th August 2019. In total, 534 oral presentations based on manuscripts were given in 9 workshops which covered all topics relevant for refrigeration including also (high temperature) heat pumps and energy recovery. Additionally, 72 posters were presented. DryFiciency project work and results were presented by representatives of the two scientific project partners AIT and SINTEF in the framework of three oral presentations: two presentations were held in the technical session on “Industrial Heat Pumps”, one oral presentation was given in the framework of Workshop 4 “Successful Applications of Industrial Heat Pumps. Presentation by Veronika Wilks (AIT) “Decarbonization of industrial processes with heat pumps” (abstract): To counteract climate change the efficient use of energy in industry becomes increasingly important. Heat pumps enable decarbonized industrial processes by replacing fossil fuels with electricity. DryFiciency develops and demonstrates high temperature heat pumps using OpteonMZ as refrigerant to supply hot water up to 160°C. Heat pumps will be installed in drying processes for starch and bricks in two Austrian companies in spring 2019. We present design considerations for high temperature heat pumps, as well as the expected CO2 reductions and primary energy savings. Calculations are based on numerical process simulation. At the two demo-sites CO2 emission reductions up to 40-90% and primary energy reduction from 20-80% can be achieved compared to natural gas. Similar considerations are presented for larger roll-out in EU. Heat pumps improve the energy efficiency of industrial processes significantly. The demonstrators are an important step in the development of viable industrial solutions. Presentation by Christian Schlemmingers (SINTEF) "Turbo-compressor for R-718: Simulation and verification of a two stage steam compression cycle" (abstract): Water (R-718) is a safe and energy-efficient refrigerant. Mechanical vapour recompression (MVR), an open-loop heat pump using R718, can significantly reduce the energy consumption for steam-heated processes like drying, pasteurization, evaporation or distillation. However, the existing compression technology is not cost-efficient, especially in the capacity range from 500 kW to 4 MW. Therefore, a novel two-stage turbo-compressor system, developed for application in industrial superheated steam drying and based on mass-produced automotive turbocharger technology, was developed. Its performance was evaluated in a test facility, showing that it is possible to compress superheated steam from atmospheric pressure up to 3 bar, delivering 300 kW at 133°C, with a COP of 5.9, an isentropic efficiency of 74% and a Carnot efficiency of 48%. With an estimated investment cost of 150 €/kW installed heating capacity, the system clearly has the potential of being a cost-effective solution for heat recovery in steam-heated industrial processes.