Green alternatives for gas-powered manufacturing processes

High temperature industrial heat pumps have the potential to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in industries that require temperatures between 100 and 180 degrees Celsius. Such technology represents low-hanging fruit aiming to reduce both greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption. Research anticipates that new heat pump technologies will enable reductions in industrial energy consumption of between 40 and 70 percent, facilitated by the recovery of low-temperature waste heat.

The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) has reported that industrial heat pumps can cut the energy use associated with industrial process heat by up to one third and enable CO2 savings of between 30-43 million tons per year. The European Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ECEEE) has also reported that based on average Austrian energy prices, cost reductions in the range of 12–50 % can be achieved.

Programme

• 13:00 – 13:15 Welcome drink & registration (Thor Central)

• 13:20 – 14:15 Setting the scene around industrial high-temperature heat pumps (Thor Central)

  • Optimal size, reliability, design & operation – Johan Van Bael, Project Manager at EnergyVille/VITO

    Johan is project manager and activity leader of optimization of thermal systems at EnergyVille/VITO. Johan has extensive experience on thermal networks, thermal energy storage & thermal conversion systems. He’ll give an overview of the role and current state-of-the-art of industrial heat pumps. Finally, he’ll explain the 4 technologies that will be developed and demonstrated in European industrial cases in the European project Push2heat.

  • R&D perspective on the potential of high temperature heat pumps – Alessia Arteconi, Associate Professor at EnergyVille/KU Leuven

    Alessia is a research expert around the design and control of heat pumps. She will talk about KU Leuven’s research activities on high temperature heat pumps. Moreover, she will inspire you with new evolutions in the development of sustainable and efficient heat pump systems for industrial applications.

  • How to integrate heat pumps in industrial processes using Pinch methodology – Rossen Ivanov, General Manager EMEA at Armstrong

    Mr. Ivanov will address the topic of “Circularity of waste heat – how to integrate heat pumps in industrial processes using Pinch methodology”. Pinch methodology allows to identify and quantify hot and cold streams within an industrial plant and to overlap them to maximize direct heat recovery. Heat pumps are then used to upgrade the excess of low-grade waste heat to the temperature levels that are useful for the process.

  • An overview of the potential of industrial heat pumps – Kjell Van Lint, Business Line Manager at Atlas Copco

    Kjell will talk about Atlas Copco’s roadmap towards adopting new technology solutions to accelerate the energy transition. Next to this, he’ll also share some real-life practical cases of heat pump & energy recovery solutions.

• 14:20 – 14:45 State-of-the-art around heat exchanger design & optimisation (Thor Central)

  • Revolutionizing Compact Heat Exchanger design – Tine Baelmans, Professor at EnergyVille/KU Leuven

    Tine Baelmans is a seasoned heat transfer specialist and teaches in the field of thermal and fluid engineering. According to Tine, the design of heat exchangers can still be substantially improved. However, detailed numerical simulations and subsequent optimization of full heat exchanger configurations is still too time-consuming and expensive. A smart combination of physics-based, but simplified models with modern optimization techniques accelerates the design phase and leads to innovative designs.

  • Advanced heat exchanger design and optimisation with innovative additive manufacturing – Yves De Vos, Innovation Engineer at Bosal

    As an engineer in the Innovations / Energy department at Bosal, Yves will inform you about the current AND future (manufacturing) opportunities and challenges of heat exchanger plates. He’ll share some of the experimental evaluations of new compact heat exchangers.

• 15:00 – 16:00 Innovations in additive manufacturing and visit to the Thermo Technical Lab (EnergyVille building)

  • Innovations in 3D-printing of conductive materials –  Marleen Rombouts, Research Scientist at EnergyVille/VITO and Jo Verwimp, Project Engineer at EnergyVille/VITO

  • Tour through the Thermo Technical Lab – Johan Van Bael, Project Manager at EnergyVille/VITO

• 16:10 – 17:10 Advanced Manufacturing lab Sirris (FacThory building)

  • Opportunities around 3D printing – Olivier Rigo, Additive Manufacturing Program Manager at Sirris

    As an expert in the optimization of new production techniques, with a primary focus on improving 3D metal printing, Olivier will share his industry focussed experience with respect to quality assurance for additive manufacturing and how to control complex AM parts in shape and dimensions.

  • Tour through Laser texturing dept Sirris – Olivier Malek, advanced manufacturing specialist at FacThory/Sirris

    Olivier specializes in adding new, advanced and sustainable surface functionalities to high-value components, such as coatings and textures via ultra-short pulsed laser machining. He’ll also dive into biomimetic surfaces for making products easier to recycle.

• 17:15 – 17:50 State-of-the-art around heat pump & heat exchanger manufacturing (Thor Central)

  • Optimal design of heat exchange components & systems – Maarten Blommaert, Professor at EnergyVille/KU Leuven

    Heat exchangers, even compact ones, are still mostly produced using classical methods based on mechanical production techniques. This limits the design freedom of, for example, the conductive fin structures that increase the surface area for transferring thermal energy inside the heat exchanger. The choice of material also plays a crucial role, but surprisingly, highly conductive materials are not always the answer. Maarten is an expert in optimal thermal components (heat exchanger optimal design) & systems (optimal design algorithms & upscaling)

  • Large scale industrial heat pump manufacturing – Piet Van der Biest, Head of Power Generation and Transmission Projects at Siemens Energy

Piet will provide you with an overview of some (upcoming) references of the application of Siemens heat pumps in industrial manufacturing environments. Also a detailed explanation of the manufacturing specifics of some core components of a few of Siemens’ industrial heat pump products will be provided. Last but not least, the main challenges & learnings of the design & manufacturing engineering of QWARK3 will be shared.

• • Laser based micro machining – Sylvie Castagne, Professor & Head of the Manufacturing Processes and Systems division at KU Leuven

    Sylvie is also a member of the Leuven.AM Institute for Additive Manufacturing and the LIMNI Institute for Micro- and Nanoscale Integration. Her research focuses on precision machining, micro- and nanoscale machining, and laser machining. She’ll also talk about improving heat transfer in cooling channels using femtosecond laser texturing.

• 17:50 – 18:10 Closing Remarks, acknowledgements (Thor Central)

• 18:10 – 19:00 Networking reception (Thor Central)

Details

• Date: April 24th, 2024
• Time: 13:00 – 19:00
• Location: Thor Park Genk
• Price: Free of charge (a cancellation fee applies)