York heat pumps in Hamburg wastewater project
17th May 2023GERMANY: Johnson Controls will install four 15MW heat pumps using R1234ze(E) refrigerant at Hamburg’s Dradenau wastewater treatment plant to recover heat for the city’s district heating network.
The project is among the first large-scale heat pump projects in Germany and is expected to supply heat to more than 39,000 residences. It is part of a collaborative project between Hamburg Wasser and Hamburg Energiewerke. The heat pumps are expected to save around 66,000 tons of CO2 annually when they come online in 2025.
The York Titan OM water-to-water heat pumps will extract heat from treated wastewater that leaves the plant each day and feed it into the central district heating system of Hamburg Energie, part of the Energiepark Hafen (the city’s Port Energy Park) heating network.
“Wastewater is a valuable resource that we have been using for climate-friendly energy generation for some time and the potential of which we are continuing to exploit,” explained Ingo Hannemann, technical MD of Hamburg Wasser.
“For Hamburg’s heat supply, we will be relying on a modular energy system in the future. At our Port Energy Park, we will generate the majority of climate-neutral heat from industrial processes, waste recycling and Hamburg Wasser’s wastewater treatment plant,” added Hamburger Energiewerke spokesperson Christian Heine.
The heat pumps will be supplied from Johnson Controls’ factory in Nantes, France, one of the company’s primary locations for the manufacturing of large-scale refrigeration and heat pump equipment for the EMEA region.
In addition to the project with Hamburg Water, Johnson Controls also supplies similar heat pumps to utility companies including EnBW Stuttgart, Stadtwerke Rosenheim and Vienna Energy.