ABSTRACT
Heat pumps have several key advantages: very high eciency as compared to gasheated systems; the possibility to use environmental renewable energy from the air, water or ground; large energy savings of 50%–70% translated in reduced nal and primary energy demand and signicant reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (e.g. CO2). Nonetheless, heat pumps also have some drawbacks: An initial investment is needed (so payback times might be an issue), an electrical connection is required to be present typically and some refrigerants used in a heat pump are toxic or ammable (health, safety, environment [HSE] issues). It is worth noting that the investment costs of a heat pump depend strongly on the application type and location, being inuenced by several key factors: required temperature (higher temperature requires expensive components), required heat capacity (higher capacity needs more expensive installation), number of installations (build a number of small installations or one large installation)
or available space to connect a heat pump to an existing installation (especially in an existing chemical plant).
