Future heat pump for small and medium sized district heating using CO2 and mixtures as refrigerant (CO2MIX4Heat)

The purpose of the project is to help small and medium sized district heating companies in establishing CO2 neutral heat production, with energy efficient technology, by developing two heat pump solutions. The first solution is a super-efficient and price competitive, dedicated CO2 heat pump with air as heat source. It will be a factory built and mass-produced plug and play solution. The heat pump will use non-toxic and environmentally friendly CO2 as refrigerant. The second solution is with zeotropic mixtures of natural refrigerants to reach even higher efficiency than possible for CO2 alone. For both solutions, an air-cooled fin and tube evaporators will be developed. This includes looking at defrosting, fin spacing and optimizing the efficiency.
In the project two functional test rigs and one demonstration unit will be built. One of the research test unit is aimed at CO2 as a refrigerant and the other at zeotropic mixtures. The most optimal CO2 heat pump design found through research will be upscaled to a demonstration unit and installed at a selected district heating company.