1.4 million tonnes of fish per year pass through the Pelagia plant in Norway.
After being filleted, what is left has to be blasted with high temperatures to turn the skin and bones into a fine, dry powder for animal feed.
Now, a new 400kW Stirling heat pump will deliver steam at 5 bar pressure in the fishmeal process. The heat pump can deliver steam, hot water and thermal oil up to 250°C, from temperatures as low as -30°C, eliminating the need for fossil fuels to generate the process heat.
But at Pelagia, the industrial heat pump will use waste heat in the range of 15-90°C, and deliver steam at temperatures between 200–250°C.
Usually, waste heat is generated only after several hours into the operation which can leave heat pumps idle until significant amounts are generated for recycling.
But the HoegTemp heat pump, manufactured by Norwegian company Enerin, extends process time by being able to use seawater as a heat source temporarily.
“In principle, this adjustment could extend the heat pump’s operational hours by approximately 400–500 hours per year, although we are investigating other ways in which wastewater at ambient temperature could be recycled,” said Enerin CEO, Arne Høeg.
The testing of this new technology is part of an initiative called SUSHEAT which is supported by EU research fund Horizon Europe.
Increasingly, industrial heat pumps are being used for process heat in sectors from food to furniture, reducing energy consumption, bills and emissions. You can read more about this in our other heat pump stories.
