Study on Performance of High Temperature Heat Pump System Integrated with Flash Tank for Waste Heat Recovery Employed in Steam Production

In traditional industrial applications and MEE/MSF desalination system, steam production is usually the technical basis for heating, processing or fresh water accumulating. However, steam boilers are environment unfriendly thus being prohibited of usage in urban areas. High temperature heat pump (HTHP) integrated with flash tank is promising substation of boiler to be employing in steam producing. The large amount of industrial waste heat could also be recovered in this way. In this article, theoretical model is proposed to predict and investigate the capacity and efficiency of a steam production HTHP system using industrial waste heat, while a testbed is also built to validate the simulated results and to evaluate performance of the system. The influence of the operating conditions on the heating capacity, compressor efficiency and steam prices are also illustrated. The results show that the COP increase from 3.06 to 10.95 with the increase in evaporating condition and decrease in steam pressure significantly. The specific price of steam is 189 to 88 RMB/t at 200 kPa steam pressure, and 126 to 49 RMB/t at 110 kPa.