As far as I can tell the good ol' USA is far, far behind the "Old World" (not just Denmark) on the high-temperature heat pump (HTHP) front. I guess there are a few ammonia (R717)-based higher temp HP systems here, but very few CO2 (R744). As of six months ago, there was a lot of press around the AtmosZero r744 air-steam HP for New Belgium Brewery, and a video from late June shows it going in. Dark since. Hope it didn't "blow a gasket." Maybe to complement my tours of rejected solar farm sites, Fort Collins breweries might be worth a visit.
It appears a fair number of projects are combining these HTHPs, providing HW at around 100C, with geothermal and district heating. So, drilling 1000-2000 meters into 30-60C rock or aquifers, creating an open loop (extraction-injection "doublet") and then using an HTHP to boost that temp to 90C or steam for existing district heating systems. While the "thermal energy networks" we love use much lower temps and can be "more efficient" there are cost and time efficiencies to maintaining the existing heating temps in an existing district system. And if the HP is lifting from 60C it can have a high COP even w/high condensing temps.
I get a vibe, that whatever refrigerant they are using, the Euro HP manufacturers are reluctant to jump through a dozen hoops to serve the US market. UL instead of ETL, 60 Hz, EPA, AHRI, ASHRAE, varying state codes, and of course providing fittings in inches and documentation in gpm, ft/in, Btus, tons. (About those "non-tariff barriers?") All for a market with a lousy spark spread and electrification culture wars. And that was before tariff guy madness.
An interesting pod could focus on the resistance of American institutions to alter regs to allow or encourage HC refrigerants and the maybe kinda sorta influence of petrochemical makers of HFCs & HFOs on that.
I wonder if these steam-boiler-competing technologies survive in the presence of large scale healthy-forest-fueled combined cooling, heat and power systems with biofuel/biogas production.
Of course, here in California we do our studies in TAC terms, including specifically in our investments in our forests. Shoot, Uncle Sam was keeping books for the Naional Forests work, funded in the previous administration, in TAC terms. Of course Uncle Sam is now passed out in the gutter, so now Sam is providing the dollars needed for the work while all the partners---tribal, State, enviro chariities, private investors--happily grow their TAC balance sheets.
Of course, we're also in California, so we have people who understand that the core of CCHP systems is the delivery of district thermal services from large scale bioilers located on the water, connected to the grid, and fueled out of a carbon-capturing system.
I am Hunting for a Point Here. Point Hunter. Hunters Point, and Bayview, with plenty of steam to brew good beer and maybe even restore Swensens' to its ancient Glory.
Only in San Francisco. With a little help from its friends in Loyalton. Who need to compare, e.g., heat pumps in single family dwellings to heat pumps in carbon-efficient cold-climate dwellings to district thermal services from a modern-technology Loyalton "Cogen", optimized for the Forests needs, in efficient housing.
As far as I can tell the good ol' USA is far, far behind the "Old World" (not just Denmark) on the high-temperature heat pump (HTHP) front. I guess there are a few ammonia (R717)-based higher temp HP systems here, but very few CO2 (R744). As of six months ago, there was a lot of press around the AtmosZero r744 air-steam HP for New Belgium Brewery, and a video from late June shows it going in. Dark since. Hope it didn't "blow a gasket." Maybe to complement my tours of rejected solar farm sites, Fort Collins breweries might be worth a visit.
On NaturalRefrigerants.com there are product & installation announcements for all kinds of HTHP arrangements. Many are using hydrocarbon refrigerants, which have been frowned on in the US. I can't find the link now but I recall one company listed different specific HC formulations for say 0C lifted to 70C, 30C to 150C, etc. One recent example: https://naturalrefrigerants.com/news/takedas-butane-water-high-temperature-heat-pump-has-commenced-operation-at-its-vienna-manufacturing-facility/
It appears a fair number of projects are combining these HTHPs, providing HW at around 100C, with geothermal and district heating. So, drilling 1000-2000 meters into 30-60C rock or aquifers, creating an open loop (extraction-injection "doublet") and then using an HTHP to boost that temp to 90C or steam for existing district heating systems. While the "thermal energy networks" we love use much lower temps and can be "more efficient" there are cost and time efficiencies to maintaining the existing heating temps in an existing district system. And if the HP is lifting from 60C it can have a high COP even w/high condensing temps.
I get a vibe, that whatever refrigerant they are using, the Euro HP manufacturers are reluctant to jump through a dozen hoops to serve the US market. UL instead of ETL, 60 Hz, EPA, AHRI, ASHRAE, varying state codes, and of course providing fittings in inches and documentation in gpm, ft/in, Btus, tons. (About those "non-tariff barriers?") All for a market with a lousy spark spread and electrification culture wars. And that was before tariff guy madness.
An interesting pod could focus on the resistance of American institutions to alter regs to allow or encourage HC refrigerants and the maybe kinda sorta influence of petrochemical makers of HFCs & HFOs on that.
I wonder if these steam-boiler-competing technologies survive in the presence of large scale healthy-forest-fueled combined cooling, heat and power systems with biofuel/biogas production.
Of course, here in California we do our studies in TAC terms, including specifically in our investments in our forests. Shoot, Uncle Sam was keeping books for the Naional Forests work, funded in the previous administration, in TAC terms. Of course Uncle Sam is now passed out in the gutter, so now Sam is providing the dollars needed for the work while all the partners---tribal, State, enviro chariities, private investors--happily grow their TAC balance sheets.
Of course, we're also in California, so we have people who understand that the core of CCHP systems is the delivery of district thermal services from large scale bioilers located on the water, connected to the grid, and fueled out of a carbon-capturing system.
I am Hunting for a Point Here. Point Hunter. Hunters Point, and Bayview, with plenty of steam to brew good beer and maybe even restore Swensens' to its ancient Glory.
Only in San Francisco. With a little help from its friends in Loyalton. Who need to compare, e.g., heat pumps in single family dwellings to heat pumps in carbon-efficient cold-climate dwellings to district thermal services from a modern-technology Loyalton "Cogen", optimized for the Forests needs, in efficient housing.