Wienerberger is the world’s largest producer of bricks and the market leader in clay roof tiles in Europe as well as concrete pavers in Central-Eastern Europe and pipe systems in Europe. The company is headquartered in Vienna and operates ca. 200 production sites in 29 countries. 

The DryFiciency project is the next important step towards green brick production. A novel closed loop compression heat pump system was developed and integrated into a brick drying process of at the production site of Uttendorf, Upper Austria, and demonstrated first-time in industrial environment at heat supply temperatures of up to 160°C.

 

DESCRIPTION OF HEAT PUMP ASSISTED BRICK DRYING PROCESS:

The bricks are dried in a continuous process in a tunnel dryer. Air that flows counter-currently to the bricks is used as drying agent. The moisture content of the bricks is reduced from 28% (at the time of entering the dryer) to 2%. The drying air in the tunnel is heated by internal heat exchanger surfaces, which are supplied with water with 90°C by a heat recovery cycle. The heat pump also uses the heat recovery cycle as its heat source. The evaporator is integrated before the heat exchangers. The heat pump provides hot air via an intermediate circuit, heat supply temperatures up to 160°C can be reached there. The hot air is fed into the outlet zone of the tunnel dryer, where the highest temperatures are required. The heat pump acts as a booster for the heat recovery cycle.

DESCRIPTION OF HEAT PUMP DEMONSTRATOR

The DryFiciency heat pump demonstrator placed in a container indoors has a heating capacity of around 400 kW. It replaces a natural gas burner and shall lead to end energy savings of up to 84% and reductions in CO₂ emissions of about 80%. It has been realized as twin-cycle configuration with two refrigerant cycles. This configuration is more efficient when dealing with a wide operating range. It also offers advantages in terms of start-up behavior and approval due to the lower refrigerant charge per circuit. The heat pump prototype is equipped with novel piston compressors (HBC 511) developed by Viking Heat Engines (now Heaten AS), based on a proven, heavy-duty design in collaboration with the world’s largest engine design company, AVL. They are engineered to operate at very high pressures and internal temperatures (>160°C) and are compatible with all common refrigerants of the 3rd and 4th generations e.g. HFOs like OpteonMZTM from Chemours as used in this heat pump demonstrator for brick drying. The piston compressors have an internal oil circuit with oil filter and preheater and show very low internal friction through exclusive use of low-friction bearings. They also have an efficient integrated water-cooled synchronous motor (PMM) and reach a high isentropic and volumetric efficiency over a broad range of operating conditions by utilizing a variable speed operation. For their lubrication, a novel lubricant is provided by FUCHS.

MONITORING

The DryFiciency heat pump demonstrator for brick drying has started its trial operation in autumn 2019 and was operated for more than 4,000 hours. Extensive monitoring of the operation was performed to evaluate its efficiency and other important process parameters, as well as the stability of refrigerant and lubricant when exposed to high temperature levels.

DEMONSTRATION

Within DryFiciency, demonstrations in industrial drying have been pioneered as the drying processes are very energy intensive and offer huge potential for energy efficiency. The DryFiciency high temperature heat pump demonstrator installed at the Wienerberger brick production facility in Uttendorf, Austria replaces a natural gas burner and has been shown to lead to energy savings of up to 80 per cent and reductions in CO₂ emissions of about 80 per cent.

You can see the DryFiciency heat pump technology in action here:

 

If you want to know more about the DryFiciency heat pump technology, please contact the project coordinator.