Techno-economic comparative analysis of solar thermal collectors and high-temperature heat pumps for industrial steam generation

• Published in: Energy conversion and management 2023-02, Vol.277, p.116623, Article 116623
• Main Authors: Saini, Puneet, Ghasemi, Mohammad, Arpagaus, Cordin, Bless, Frédéric, Bertsch, Stefan, Zhang, Xingxing
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: High-temperature heat pump; Parabolic trough collector; Solar fraction; Techno-economic analysis
• ISSN: 0196-8904; 1879-2227; 1879-2227
• DOI: 10.1016/j.enconman.2022.116623

•Techno-economic comparative analysis is carried for parabolic trough collector and steam generating heat pumps with focus on industrial boundary conditions.•A novel comparative indicator based on solar fraction is introduced to compare the results to find economic strong hold of analysed technologies.•Parabolic trough collectors are an effective technology to reduce the emission in low to medium irradiation locations.•There is a significant potential of combining both technologies to leverage the advantages for fully decarbonised industrial systems. Industrial heat production is responsible for around 20% of total greenhouse gas emissions in Europe. To achieve the climate change goals defined in the Paris Climate Agreement, the EU commission has shifted its focus on sustainable means to generate heating. Moreover, global dependencies are leading to a re-organization of natural gas supplies. Therefore, there is a need for less vulnerable and less price-volatile solutions for heating. This paper focuses on two decarbonization technologies for industrial process heat supply: a) electricity-driven steam-generating high-temperature heat pumps (HTHP), a technology that is more efficient than fossil fuel boilers in generating steam, and b) solar parabolic trough collector (PTC), which can produce heat economically and at a minimal carbon footprint compared to other technologies. The main aim of this paper is to evaluate the levelized cost of heat (LCOH) of these technologies to fulfill a comparative techno-economic analysis. A maximum PTC collector's solar fraction limit (SFlimit) is defined to indicate when the LCOH for these two technologies is equal. This allows for distinguishing between the economic stronghold of each technology. The evaluation is carried out through the annual energy simulations using TRNSYS and Excel spreadsheets for HTHPs, while TRNSED and OCTAVE are used for the solar thermal part. Boundary conditions for European geographical constraints have been applied to establish use cases for the analysis. The result shows that the design of a PTC system with optimal SF can reach cost parity with HTHP for most of the analyzed locations. The developed methodology serves as a valuable guide to quickly determine a preferred lower carbon heat solution, thus easing the decision-making for industries.