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Some time ago a member asked if a heat pump can be used to boil water. There was quite a lot of technical discussion but it was not completely clear to me if this could be done or not. So my question is this: If the correct design challenges were addressed can a heat pump be designed to boil water ? Is the answer definitely yes or definitely no ? Thanks in advance.
Are you wanting to boil the water at 100 degC / atmospheric pressure?
Are you wanting to use just the discharge superheated vapour or to try and condense refrigerant at around 100 degC?
I am wanting to know if you can achieve temperatures capable of producing steam to run an electrical turbineQuote:
Originally Posted by seanf
So what temperature are you wanting to achieve? Are you talking about 300 degC range, or lower or higher?
I was thinking around 120 deg C
If I think about the normal refrigeration systems I've seen. You could get 120 degC out of the compressors discharge gas temperature, but then youd need to have another heat exchanger to lower the gas temperature further to be able to condense the refrigerant. You could end up with a large amount of heat at temperatures below 120 degC.
From what I hear about high temperature heat pumps, the compressors, valves and components dont like the high working temperatures. You might need to look at using parts outside of whats used in the everyday refrigeration.
To try and have the refrigerant condense up at 120 degC, Im thinking youd probably need to look for a refrigerant outside of the ones used in everyday heatpumps and refrigeration plant.