Prediction of Stirling-Cycle-Based Heat Pump Performance and Environmental Footprint with Exergy Analysis and LCA

Umara Khan, Ron Zevenhoven, Lydia Stougie and Tor-Martin Tveit
Additional contact information
Umara Khan: Faculty of Science and Engineering, Åbo Akademi University, 20500 Turku, Finland
Ron Zevenhoven: Faculty of Science and Engineering, Åbo Akademi University, 20500 Turku, Finland
Lydia Stougie: Department of Engineering Systems and Services, Delft University of Technology, 2628 BX Delft, The Netherlands
Tor-Martin Tveit: Olvondo Technology, 3080 Holmestrand, Norway

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 24, 1-12

Abstract: The use of Stirling-cycle-based heat pumps in high-temperature applications and waste heat recovery at an industrial scale is of increasing interest due to the promising role in producing thermal energy with zero CO 2 emissions. This paper analyzes one such technology as developed by Olvondo Technology and installed at the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca in Sweden. In this application, the heat pump used roughly equal amounts of waste heat and electricity and generated 500 kW of steam at 10 bar. To develop and widen the use of a high-performance high-temperature heat pump that is both economically and environmentally viable and attractive, various analysis tools such as exergy analysis and life cycle assessment (LCA) can be combined. The total cumulative exergy loss (TCExL) method used in this study determines total exergy losses caused throughout the life cycle of the heat pump. Moreover, an LCA study using SimaPro was conducted, which provides insight into the different emissions and the overall environmental footprint resulting from the construction, operation (for example, 1, 8, and 15 years), and decommissioning phases of the heat pump. The combined results were compared with those of a fossil fuel oil boiler (OB), a bio-oil boiler (BOB), a natural gas-fired boiler (NGB), and a biogas boiler (BGB).

Keywords: Stirling-cycle-based heat pump; exergy analysis; total cumulative exergy loss (TCExL); life cycle assessment (LCA); sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/24/8478/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/24/8478/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:24:p:8478-:d:703214

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().