R&D PROJECTS

LIFE HEATLEAP

Acronym: LIFE HEATLEAP

Project title: Low-Grade Waste Heat recovery in steel-making industry by coupling of Large Heat Pump and Gas Expander

Project website: https://heatleap-project.eu/

Time period: June 2020 to November 2022

Funder: LIFE Programme (LIFE19 CCM/IT/001334)

Total budget: 6,512,668 EUR

Partners:

  • Turboden S.p.A. (Coordinator)
  • COGEN Europe
  • ORI Martin
  • RINA
  • CSMT

Short description:

Low-grade heat waste (-70 °C) is often widely present in several ENERGY INTENSIVE INDUSTRIES, however it can be hardly valorised using conventional technologies (e.g. Organic Ranking Cycles). Conversely, some innovative technologies (Waste Heat Recovery System-WHRS) are emerging and can provide further energy improvement and CO2 savings.

The overall objective of HEATLEAP is to implement a number of technologies suitable for different EII (Energy Intensive Industries), to test them in a real-scale industrial environment and demonstrate their environmental and economic benefits.

 

Key objectives (in bullets)

The overall objective is to implement the following three innovative technologies suitable for different energy-intensive industries, to test them in a full-scale industrial environment and demonstrate their environmental and economic benefits:

  • Large Heat Pump with up to 7 MWth output, able to supply to District Heating systems temperatures up to 120 C and COP (a measure of energy efficiency) between 5 and 8;
  • Gas Expander, able to recover waste heat from the decompression of Natural Gas from the grid and generate electricity in the range < 1 MWel; and
  • A cloud-based software platform for system monitoring, allowing data acquisition and storage, real-time tracking of system effectiveness with respect to the targets, and data processing with AI algorithms for output forecasting.
  • The project contributes to the implementation of the EU 2030 Climate and Energy Framework, including the EU Heating and Cooling Strategy, Energy Efficiency Directive, Emission Trading System Directive, Fluorinated Gases Regulation, and Air Quality Directive.