Tienen sugar refinery: 4 MW heat pump recovers evaporation heat for steam
Belgian sugar-refining installation: the November 2025 IEA HPT card records commissioning operation and subsequent compressor operation at full capacity. Annual benefits remain estimates.
Engineering data
- Case type
- Public-source case — figures from published reports, papers, or vendor materials
- Data status
- Public-source case
- Data source
- Raffinerie Tirlemontoise, 19 Feb 2025: https://www.raffinerietirlemontoise.com/en/news/2025-02-european-first-raffinerie-tirlemontoise-introduces-innovative-industrial-heat-pump — SPIRIT DS2 design/testing poster: https://spirit-heat.eu/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/DS2-poster-1.pdf — Reviewed 2 Nov 2026. — IEA HPT Project 68, demo13, November 2025 (supplier-provided, not third-party validated): https://heatpumpingtechnologies.org/content/uploads/sites/81/2025/12/demo13spiritgea20251112.pdf
- Reviewer / date
- Editorial (Open Thermal AI) · 2026-11-02
- Industry
- Food
- Source temperature
- 75°C
- Sink temperature
- 138°C
- Temperature lift
- ≈ 63 K
- Heating or cooling duty
- 4000 kW
- Architecture
- Closed n-pentane heat pump with a GEA screw compressor; steam-to-steam heat recovery.
- Result status
- The November 2025 IEA HPT card reports part-load commissioning followed by full compressor capacity after modifications; heating COP still awaited validation.
- Key risk
- Owner quotes COP 3–5, but the later IEA HPT card still marks COP pending validation. Commissioning operation is not long-term acceptance; carbon savings are estimates.
- Existing system
- Fossil-fired steam for multi-effect sugar evaporation.
- Refrigerant
- R601
- COP
- Not disclosed
- Annual energy / emissions savings
- Owner forecast: 3,000–3,500 t/year CO₂ avoided; not a published metered annual outcome.
- Estimated payback
- Not disclosed in the sources reviewed.
Project background
The SPIRIT demonstration connects heat-pump development with an existing sugar production process.
Narrative inputs
Latest case card: 75°C vacuum steam, 138°C steam output and up to 4 MW heating. The earlier SPIRIT design poster also specifies a 114°C secondary campaign.
Heat pump solution
A closed R601 circuit upgrades evaporation heat, rather than directly recompressing process vapor. The case card describes gas detection, ventilation and anti-static measures for the pentane installation.
COP & savings
The case card describes oil, valve and vacuum-line improvements, then full compressor operation. Its operating-hours field remains “in commissioning”; the earlier 2,000-hour test target is not a completed record.
Investment / ROI notes
Investment and payback are undisclosed. Evaluate each campaign separately before combining annual heat, electricity and carbon totals.
FAQ
What should I check at my own site?
Record source and demand temperatures, simultaneous loads, backup duty and electricity use across the full system. Recalculate costs with local tariffs; this reference is not a performance guarantee.