General project

PUSH2HEAT: Pushing forward the market potential of heat upgrade technologies

PUSH2HEAT is a project funded through the Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Programme under the Grant Agreement No. 101069689.

The State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SEBI) funded the participation of OST under SBFI No. 22.00303.

The 4-year project kicked off on 1 October 2022 and runs until 30 September 2026.

The PUSH2HEAT project aims to overcome the barriers to the deployment of heat pump technologies for heat upgrading in the industrial sector

Increasing the energy efficiency of European industry is crucial to achieving Europe's climate goals. Waste heat recovery and heat upgrade are the first steps towards saving energy and decarbonizing the industrial sector. However, even though different heat pump technologies for heat upgrade exist, technical, economic and regulatory barriers prevent them from being used.

The PUSH2HEAT project will address this challenge.

Four different heat upgrade technologies (whose supply temperatures range from 90 °C to 160 °C) will be scaled-up to optimize their efficiency and economic performance. In addition, it will focus on integrating them into the relevant industrial sectors, such as the food, paper, and chemical industries. The four technologies will then be demonstrated in four selected industrial sites.

"The industry's potential for industrial decarbonization through high-temperature heat pumps is huge. Considering the applications up to 200 ºC, heat pumps could potentially deliver 730 TWh/a; this is 37% of the process heat industry, with a corresponding CO₂emission reduction potential of 146 Mt/a. The real market, however, is still limited. Therefore, we will identify how to overcome the existing barriers by scaling up four heat upgrade technologies and assessing the difficulties and solutions encountered." – Said Maider Epelde, coordinator of the PUSH2HEAT project.

The project will also demonstrate which business models can help push the use of heat upgrade systems. Its final goal is to increase the market potential of waste heat valorization.

Project coordinator:

Fundación Tecnalia Research and Innovation from Spain coordinates PUSH2HEAT.

The project consortium gathers heat upgrade technology manufacturers, industrial end-users, business-oriented companies, and representatives of the heat pump industry.

Project partners:

TECNALIA VENTURES SL, Spain
UNIVERSITAT POLITECNICA DE VALENCIA, Spain
BS NOVA APPARATEBAU GMBH, Germany
EUROPEAN HEAT PUMP ASSOCIATION, Belgium
SPH SUSTAINABLE PROCESS HEAT GMBH, Germany
VLAAMSE INSTELLING VOOR TECHNOLOGISCH ONDERZOEK N.V. (VITO), Belgium
FRAUNHOFER GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FORDERUNG DER ANGEWANDTEN FORSCHUNG EV, Germany
POLITECNICO DI MILANO, Italy
QPINCH, Belgium
ENERTIME SA, France
ENERGIE CIRCULAIRE, France
TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAT BERLIN, Germany
SCHOELLER TECHNOCELL GMBH & CO KG, Germany
FUNDACION CARTIF, Spain
CORPORACION ALIMENTARIA PENASANTA SA, Spain
BONO ENERGIA S.P.A., Italy
CARTIERE DI GUARCINO SPA, Italy
OST - OSTSCHWEIZER FACHHOCHSCHULE, Switzerland

Main roles of OST are:

WP Leader of WP5 (Heat upgrade systems, exploitation, life cycle & impact assessment)
Task Leader of T5.1 (Business models and contractual agreements)
Task Lead T2.6 (Technoeconomic map of heat pump technologies)
Task Lead T4.4 (Guidelines & evaluation tool for heat upgrade technology design & integration)

For more information, contact Dr. Cordin Arpagaus, Senior Research Engineer at the Institute for Energy Systems (IES), at cordin.arpagaus@ost.ch

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