FutraHeat has designed a heat pump that can operate at reduced speeds without oil, recover waste heat from as low as 70 C, and deliver high-grade heat up to 150 C. The electrically powered heat pump utilizes waste heat from all sorts of industrial processes, including drying, distillation, and brewing.
The core of the heat pump is FutraHeat's TurboClaw compressor, which the manufacturer describes as a cost-effective, zero-carbon solution to industrial process heating.
UK-based startup FutraHeat is developing a high-temperature heat pump that uses waste heat from industrial processes to generate steam. The heat pump is electrically powered and can operate with zero CO2 emissions when powered by electricity from renewable sources.
“The heat pump utilizes waste heat from all sorts of industrial processes, including drying, distillation, and brewing, among others,” FutraHeat's CEO and founder, Tom Taylor, told pv magazine. “We can also take heat recovered from the ground, water, or air by a lower temperature heat pump and increase this to more practical temperatures.”
The core of the heat pump is FutraHeat's TurboClaw compressor, which the manufacturer describes as a cost-effective, zero-carbon solution to industrial process heating. “TurboClaw isn’t itself a steam compressor, although we have built such a machine and plan to commercialize this too in the future, but uses Honeywell’s Solstice R1233zd, ultra-low-global-warming-potential (LGWP) refrigerant in a closed loop system, which then generates steam via a heat exchanger,” Taylor explained. “The compressor itself is driven by an electric motor which directly spins TurboClaw up to a modest 20,000 rpm, ‘concentrating’ low-grade recovered heat up to higher, useful temperatures.”
US conglomerate Honeywell developed its refrigerant as a replacement for R-123, which has been phased out in several countries because of environmental concerns. “Honeywell’s Solstice Solstice R1233zd has a global warming potential of 1 and can operate up to temperatures in excess of 150 C,” Taylor said. “Its properties, such as density, make it a particularly good match for TurboClaw.” The refrigerant is based on hydrofluoro-olefin technology and, according to the manufacturer, offers similar efficiency to R-123 in low-pressure centrifugal chillers to cool large buildings and infrastructure.
The two companies claim the heat pump can operate at reduced speeds without oil, which lowers manufacturing, operating and heating costs. It can reportedly recover waste heat from as low as 70 C, and deliver high-grade heat up to 150 C. “Because of the advantages of TurboClaw we estimate that we can produce our heat pumps more cost effectively than others and deliver a quick return on investment in our target applications,” Taylor said, noting that payback time is estimated between two and three years.
Futraheat recently received a GBP 500,000 ($607,821) grant from Innovate UK to build a 300 kW TurboClaw demonstrator. “We expect it to be available for demonstration in September,” Taylor said.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
More articles from Emiliano Bellini
Please be mindful of our community standards.
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.
Legal Notice Terms and Conditions Privacy Policy © pv magazine 2022
This website uses cookies to anonymously count visitor numbers. View our privacy policy. ×
The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this.