ecop has developed a heat pump for industrial use – ideal for waste heat recovery in energy-intensive industries and for district heating supply – with high efficiency and flexibility in terms of temperature range and performance, as well as 100% environmentally friendly operation with a noble gas as working medium and the absence of toxic and flammable refrigerants. It is the result of more than 15 years of R&D activities with a unique operating principle protected by 68 granted patents.

The unit can generate temperatures up to 150°C, is flexible for different temperature levels – and always very effective. It has an output thermal capacity of 700 kW, fits into a standard container and is easy to integrate.

ecop’s Rotation Heat Pump is a highly innovative technology concept that combines the advantages of heat pump technology with a centrifuge. The product’s operation is based on a single-phase (there is no phase change of the working fluid) thermodynamic cycle (known as a left-turn Joule process or Brayton process) instead of the two-phase thermodynamic processes (Rankine process) used in conventional compression heat pumps.

The principle of operation can be described by the following main steps:

1. the heat pump has a working fluid (noble gas mixture) encapsulated in a rotor (2 m diameter) that rotates at up to 1,800 rpm.
2. the speed of rotation results in centrifugal forces which increase with increasing distance from the axis of rotation.
3. the centrifugal force compresses the working fluid at the heat exchanger. This compression increases the temperature of the working fluid (without changing its physical gaseous nature) and transfers heat to a liquid sink medium (water) via the heat exchanger.
4. the temperature of the working fluid decreases as it expands and flows against the centrifugal force. When the working fluid reaches the low-pressure heat exchanger, it absorbs heat again via the near-axis heat exchanger at the source.

This cyclic operation results in a highly efficient and linearly controllable thermodynamic process that has the following outstanding features and advantages over conventional heat pump technology:

1. higher achievable temperatures
2. higher compression efficiency
3. excellent overall efficiency at all temperature levels
4. higher thermal flexibility of the working fluid (inert gas)
5. environmentally friendly (low carbon, no F-gases)

The technology has been certified, evaluated and integrated into research projects by external partners (e.g. TÜV Süd, Fraunhofer Institut, AIT). ecop has received several awards (e.g. European Environmental Award of the European Commission).