In a Case Study Session dedicated to Heat Pumps at the 5^th annual ATMOsphere Europe conference held in Brussels Oct. 15-16, industry leaders such as ait-deutschland, KNVvK & NVKL, and Fraunhofer presented their technology, experiences and research using hydrocarbons in heat pumps. During the Market Trends Session, Mayekawa announced its latest industrial HP prototype delivering hot water up to 120°C.

R290 air-to-water heat pumps for building renovation market

In his presentation, Joachim Maul, R&D Director of ait-deutschland, described an R290 (propane) heat pump delivering hot water up to 70°C, suitable for renovation markets as a substitute to gas or oil boilers. According to Maul, given its thermodynamic properties, propane is a good refrigerant for outdoor air-to-water heat pumps, as it is able to deliver high water temperatures at low ambient temperatures and has a long history of use.

In regards to safety, Maul highlights that the company uses only R290 approved components.

"The safety concept was approved by VDE and TüV from the very beginning and we performed several test to show that in case of a leak nothing happened. No ignition in the case of leakage of the propane, at any point in the refrigerant cycle,” said Joachim Maul, ait-deutschland.

New-generation propane heat pumps were introduced to market a few years ago. According to Maul, since then the market for HP technology as a whole has seen steady growth, with an installation base of roughly 5.4 million in the EU between 2005 and 2012.

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