Techno-economic analysis of Ecop Technologies’ high-temperature heat pump
This thesis presents a techno-economic analysis of ECOP’s rotational heat pump (RHP), comparing Xenon (Xe) and Krypton (Kr) as working fluids. The goal was to understand how refrigerant choice affects the RHP performance and economics across Europe, given ECOP's plan to transition from Xe to Kr...
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| Tipo de recurso: | tesis de maestría |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2025 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) |
| Repositorio: | UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC |
| Idioma: | inglés |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:upcommons.upc.edu:2117/444555 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/2117/444555 |
| Access Level: | acceso embargado |
| Palabra clave: | Heat pumps Refrigerants Heat -- Transmission Bombes de calor Calor -- Transmissió Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Energies |
| Sumario: | This thesis presents a techno-economic analysis of ECOP’s rotational heat pump (RHP), comparing Xenon (Xe) and Krypton (Kr) as working fluids. The goal was to understand how refrigerant choice affects the RHP performance and economics across Europe, given ECOP's plan to transition from Xe to Kr. In the thermodynamic analysis, heat transfer coefficients and pressure drops for Xe and Kr were evaluated over a 0–200 °C and 70–170 bar range using fluid properties (density, viscosity, thermal conductivity, specific heat) and dimensionless numbers (Reynolds, Prandtl, Nusselt). Results show that Xe achieves higher heat transfer coefficients at low to moderate temperatures and pressures due to its proximity to the critical point along the pseudo-critical line. Beyond this region, at higher pressures and temperatures, Krypton’s more uniform fluid properties enable it to match or slightly surpass Xenon’s performance. Across all conditions, Xe yields lower pressure losses (0.38–2.36 bar) than Kr (0.65–4 bar), especially at lower temperatures and pressures. The economic analysis began with a sensitivity study, identifying electricity price, natural gas price, and Coefficient of Performance (COP) as the primary drivers of the payback period, despite Xe’s refrigerant filling cost being an order of magnitude higher than Kr. Building on these results, 31 countries (mostly within EU) were evaluated for their payback period under four scenarios (Xe vs. Kr, with and without CO₂ costs) at COP values of 3, 4, and 6, using each country’s electricity-to-gas price ratio. Only 15 % of the countries achieve payback under five years at COP 3, rising to roughly half the markets at COP 4 and to nearly 90 % at COP 6. Including CO₂ cost savings triples the sub-5-year market at COP 3 (to ~ 40 %), lifts it above 90 % at COP 4, and ensures all 31 countries meet the five-year threshold by COP 6. Levelized Cost of Heat (LCOH) calculations show the RHP delivers heat at 56.9–63 €/MWh, undercutting natural-gas boilers by roughly 10–15 €/MWh, with refrigerant choice affecting LCOH by less than 1 €/MWh. The findings of this thesis will inform ECOP’s application focus and guide strategic market expansion decisions. |
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