Guest Bio
Drew Turner is the Global Head of Sector Integration at Danfoss.
Episode Summary
Drew Turner, global head of sector integration at Danfoss, joins John Sheff, Danfoss’ former director of public and industry affairs, to discuss the latest in heat pump and heat recovery technologies and their role in decarbonization.
Main Points
- Every chiller is a heat pump and every heat pump is a chiller. Any mechanical system where you’re moving refrigerant, rejecting heat and absorbing heat is in effect a heat pump.
- We’re trying to help move the industry in the direction of making use of both all the time. A heat pump in that case is most frequently going to be a water-to-water pump where you’re absorbing heat in the evaporator in a waterside system or a hydronic system and then rejecting the heat through the condenser on the other side.
- The push toward heat pumps and the electrification of heating is really driven by the integration of renewables into the power grid.
- If you’re going to benefit from the decarbonization based on integrating renewables into the power grid, then electrifying heating should take place as well to increase that decarbonization potential with heat pumps.
- Going from fossil fuel source heating to heat pump systems is a much more efficient form of obtaining that heat because all you’re doing is moving heat and boosting the temperature, as opposed to transforming energy through the burning of fossil fuels to get that heat.
- As you integrate in more renewables into the power grid, the decarbonization potential goes up about 3% for every 10% increase in power generation that comes from renewables.
- Electrification is challenging in commercial buildings due to the scale of the cooling system and the heating system and the constant load on both sides.
- Energy storage will become more critical if you’re going to get 100% of your heat from recovered cooling.
- If you’re going to optimize a building to be net zero eventually, getting 100% of your power from renewable sources and therefore fully decarbonized, then you have to have that perfect balance of cooling loads and heating loads. To get that perfect balance, you have to integrate either cold storage or heat storage or both.
- Air-to-water heat pump technology is improving in both the capability of the technology to operate efficiently at high differential temperatures and pressures as well as lowering down that minimum point of the operating temperature. Absorbing heat in very cold climates is really the focus of the improvements of the technology.
- Data centers can benefit from heat pump and heat recovery technology: with comfort cooling as the heat source or a heat pump or heating load system and then, optimally, critical facility cooling systems that operate at very high cooling temperatures as a recovered heat source for a heat pump system. The system gains 20 to 40% higher efficiency because of that higher temperature recovered heat.
- Dual fuel systems, or hybrid systems, using heat recovery chillers in a combination with a very efficient boiler, can still reduce carbon footprint without going completely electric.
- Danfoss has been advocating a comprehensive approach to decarbonization and electrification on both the supply side and demand side.
Links
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For more information and additional episodes of the EnVisioneering Exchange podcast, visit https://www.danfoss.com/en-us/about-danfoss/insights-for-tomorrow/envisioneering-exchange/
