EPFL's District Heating Heat Pump - Performance Analysis for DIfferent Working Fluids

The present case study is multi-criteria performance analysis of EPFL’s heat pump for different working fluids. The heat pump is based on a 2-stage vapour compression cycle which is modelled using the software Belsim VALI for 7 low-GWP refrigerants. The simulation of the heat pump over different typical periods allowed to estimate the yearly mean COP of the heat pump. R-600a, R-600 and R-717 are the refrigerants showing the higher thermal efficiencies (COP = 5.5-5.7) and thereby also the higher environmental and economical performances. According to the TEWI indicator, the leakages of low-GWP refrigerants are negligible compared to the CO2-eq. emissions from the electricity generation. The decrease in the isentropic efficiency when the heat pump does not work at its maximum capacity strongly affect the COP. Therefore it is recommended to implement a heat storage system to increase the number of operating hours without isentropic efficiency decrease.