Smart CO2 Heat Pump

The objective of the project is to develop an energy efficient heat pump unit using the natural refrigerant CO2, in the capacity range from 20 to 200 kW. Users will be multifamily houses and smaller industrial, service, retail, and governmental/public buildings. For those customers, apart from efficiency and price, the flammability and the toxicity of the refrigerant are very important factors, and CO2 fits perfectly to those criteria. In this capacity range, the number of installations is large, and the market potential extensive counting several million installations in the EU. Apart from new installations, the need for replacement of fossil fuel boilers to minimize the gas dependency leads to the emergence of a new market.

Heat pump solutions with non-toxic and non-flammable natural refrigerants in this capacity range are non-existing, and the project aims at closing this capacity gap and supply efficient and price competitive solutions. At present, the heat pump units available in this market segment use the inefficient and environmentally problematic HFO refrigerants that are slightly flammable and contribute to increasing the TFA and PFAS pollution of our drinking water.