Colloquia

Summary

Heat pumps for domestic application are mainly categorized into two types; a low and a high temperature lift. The low-temperature lift heat pump is mainly suitable for space warming of new dwellings with good insulation. For older dwellings and for warm tap water a high-temperature lift heat pump is desired. Vapor compression Rankine cycle is the workhorse for a low-temperature lift application. Research into utilizing working fluids such as Propane is still ongoing for a high-temperature lift application. Microgen Energy Corporation and the University of Twente are collaborating in developing a high-temperature lift heat pump based on the Stirling cycle that uses zero GWP and a non-flammable working substance. This heat pump is compact, makes less noise, and has a fast response time. The main objective of this thesis is to characterize a prototype of this heat pump in a well-defined lab condition. The presentation will delve into the details of the test rig, and experimental results and discuss the perspective of this heat pump in the Dutch heating technology landscape.