By CNR – ITAE
Within GEOFIT project, a novel heat pump will be developed, able to efficiently exploit geothermal energy to provide heat under several climates and conditions. To this aim, a hybrid configuration for a reversible heat pump is being developed: it consists in the coupling of a gas-driven adsorption cycle with a vapour compression cycle. In this way, the temperature lift on the vapour compression cycle that is commonly employed is reduced and the energy consumption of the component is lower. The proposed solution, that is modular and based on commercial components, is suitable for both new installations and retrofitting applications, allowing a high flexibility.
The heat pump will be developed by FAHRENHEIT GmbH and tested in the laboratories of CNR ITAE.
To this aim, a testing rig suitable for thermal and hybrid chillers/heat pump will be employed.
It is capable of providing constant powers and temperatures to the components of the heat pump, thus allowing to replicate the behaviour under realistic conditions. Sensors installed include temperature sensors, flow meters and energy meters. In the framework of GEOFIT project, the testing activity will be focused on defining a complete performance map of the heat pump and testing different control strategies.
Finally, here are some images of the recently carried out first survey to plan the installation of the hybrid heat pump at the demonstration site of Sant’Apollinare (Perugia).
