Objectives

Development and testing of affordable flexible tri-generation systems able to cover heating, cooling and electricity demands with a large share of renewable sources. The systems developed are:

• Solar-ice system using a supercooling ice-slurry heat pump with solar as main heat source
• Dual source/sink heat pump system using ground and air as heat sources/sinks

Development and testing of special heat exchangers for the different heat sources and refrigerants, able to improve the performance of the heat pumps. Three heat exchanger types will be developed:

• An always free-of-ice evaporator, the so-called supercooler, for an ice-slurry heat pump
• Tri-partite gas cooler for simultaneous domestic hot water and space heating provision for a CO₂ heat pump
• A dual source/sink heat exchanger for ground/air renewable heat sources.

Development and testing of three natural-refrigerant based reversible heat pumps able to provide heating and cooling with multiple heat renewable sources. Three heat pumps will be developed:

• A transcritical CO₂ heat pump with a  tri-partite gas cooler and a supercooler evaporator
• A propane heat pump with a dual source/sink heat exchanger for dual ground/air use
• A propane heat pump with a supercooler evaporator

Development of two advanced controls:

• A heat pump self-diagnosis algorithm to increase reliability and facilitate maintenance
• An advanced energy management system based on model predictive control

Understanding and improving stakeholders’ acceptance of TRI-HP systems

• Analyse and identify the interest and needs of end-users and installers
• Understand and determine other stakeholder’s acceptance