AN OVERVIEW OF HEAT PUMPS IN ASIA/OCEANIA REGION

Transcription

1 - 1 - AN OVERVIEW OF HEAT PUMPS IN ASIA/OCEANIA REGION Makoto Tono, Director, Technical Research Dept., Heat Pump & Thermal Storage Technology Center of Japan NIHONBASHI KAKIGARACHO CHUO-KU, TOKYO , JAPAN Abstract: This report shows the current status of energy consumption in Asia and Oceania whose energy demands have been growing rapidly and introduces the IEA publication, Energy Technology Perspective 2010 (ETP 2010) which summarizes roadmaps about energy issues. ETP 2010 states that energy conservation is one of the key solutions to reduce CO 2 emission. Some equipment are picked out to show heat pump trends including air conditioners in this region where includes variety of climate zones and economic situations. Also policy trends against global warming and labeling systems to show heat pump efficiencies in this region are reported. Other features in this report are trends of research and development of heat pump technology and management points about refrigerants in Japan Key Words: Asia and Oceania, Heat Pump Technology, Energy Saving 1 INTRODUCTION Heat Pump Thermal Technology Center of Japan (HPTCJ) has been working on an establishment of the Asian Heat Pump Network to share heat pump related information and to discuss and exchange ideas about heat pump surrounding issues since we do not have any summary to cover from policies to efficiency criteria and/or statistics showing a demand of heat pump equipment including air conditioners throughout Asia and Oceania at present. This report had to refer to statistics from Japan Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Industry Association (JRAIA), industry journal JARN and country reports from Asian nations. In addition, IEA publications and documents from The Energy Conservation Center, Japan are also referred. As an available technology, roles of heat pump technology had better be disseminated and deployment of heat pumps should be accelerated in entire Asia and Oceania where variety of climate zones exist and the energy consumption has been increasing rapidly. The energy security and the climate change are pair of problems that should be solved simultaneously considering the economical development on the other hand. This can apply not only in Asia and Oceania but also in all over the world. 2 CLIMATE CHANGE Firstly we should focus on mushrooming energy consumption in Asia. As Figure 1 indicates how outstandingly Asia has been and will be consuming energy in comparison to rest of the world. Figure 2 shows its breakdown by countries in Asia. China and India will be two major consumers. More developed their economies are, more energy they demand. More energy they demand, more seriously the global warming becomes. The global warming has become well-known. However, we need to get citizens of emerging and developing countries in Asia and Oceania to be more aware of seriousness the global warming and encourage those governments to be more serious about countermeasures against the global warming. The renewable energy has been discussed in Japan since December 2008 when The EU Directive for Renewable Energy became effective. Heat pump technology is already available at present in a situation when the global warming is getting more and more serious

2 - 2 - and the use of this very technology helps us gain both economical benefit and energy conservation. Now we would like to see the current status of heat pumps and their future trends in Asia where consist of developed, emerging and developing countries. How can we achieve both of economical developments and taking countermeasures against the global warming? This is the very issue that Asia confronts. Given the fact that heat pump systems are composed of various devices, it should be minded that we have issues about working fluid, more specifically, Global Warming Potential that refrigerants contain. We need to develop alternative working fluid while establish a refrigerant management system how to prevent from leaks, how to recycle and destroy refrigerants for the time being. Asia is known as the world s manufacturing plants. To build up a sustainable society in Asia where functions as a huge world s factory, we need to recycle and reuse materials for creating a recycle-oriented society so that we can gain both stable production and energy conservation. We are convinced that heat pumps can lead the world in this regard by developing higher efficient equipment and expansion of heat pump applications. Figure 1; Forecast of World s Primary Energy Consumption TOE (unit; 1million ton) TOE - 1million tons Japan India China Figure 2; Forecast of Asia s Primary Energy Consumption

3 - 3-3 DEVELOPMENTS IN MARKET & TECHNOLOGY 3.1 Space Conditioning Unitary air conditioners and heat pumps (RACs & PACs) Figure 3; Annual Shipments of Room Air-Conditioners Figure 3 presents the shipment statistics of heat pump Room Air-Conditioner in households since The number kept growing until 2008 and reached 40 million units in entire Asia. We experienced slight turndown in 2009 due to the world-wide recession but it is expected to recover and grow steadily after Asia occupies 66 % share of the entire world. As mentioned earlier, there are a wide range of climates in Asia from the tropics to sub-frigid zones and space cooling air conditioners and heat pumps are widely used. As Figure 3 shows, shipment numbers in China surges and reached 24.7 million units in 2009 which is 60 % share of entire Asia. 100 % of room air conditioners in Japan adopt heat pump systems and the shipment numbers have been steady around 7 million and this stability is expected to continue for the time being. Among developing countries, Indonesia expands a shipment number rapidly and achieved 1million units. COP very much depends on efficiency of compressors and 100 % of compressors in Japan adopt an inverter system which is superior in terms of efficiency of part load. When it comes to package air conditioners, Asia has 30 % share as Figure 4 indicates. As demand for package air conditioners relies on economic situation, we experienced a turndown in The shipment number has been around 4 million units in entire Asia since The distinct feature is 80% of them are occupied by China, South Korea and Japan. Unitary heat pumps are majorly used in the US and they are categorized as package air conditioners in world data in Figure 4. However it should be noted that unitary heat pumps are not exactly the same as package air conditioners.

4 - 4 - Figure 4; Annual Shipments of Package Air-Conditioners Considering a long lifetime of package air conditioners, key issues for improvements of package air conditioners are to develop more efficient part load, to extend available outside temperature range so that we can expand the share in cold climate. We already have had air source heat pumps developed that can be operated in cold climate around -20 to -25 C. For commercial buildings, a total energy management system to cover whole building should be considered, for instance, by introducing energy efficient electric appliances like LED lights and combining with other energy technologies such as photovoltaic power generation and thermal storage technologies. When considering energy conservation in building, entire building-surrounding energy should be included Electric chillers and heat pumps Water- and air-source electrically-operated chillers are mainly used as central heating and air conditioning in buildings and for cooling in industries, and classified according to types of compressors into reciprocating, scroll, screw and centrifugal types. Their demand strongly depends on investment amounts made for facilities by owners. We cannot say the exact number due to lack of data in Asia and Oceania region, but the shipment number would be estimated about 100,000 units in entire of this region in Absorption chillers are notably reducing their share. Shipment number of chiller systems in China was around 80,000 units in 2007, but it dropped around 70,000 in 2009 due to the recession when Japan also experienced turndown with less than 9,000. Air source type chillers dominate a Japan market. To comply with requests from Japan market, for example, system control function and better cost performance, modulate chillers have become available and are getting popular. In addition, research and development for higher efficient technology has brought innovation to layout of heat exchangers and inverter controllable compressor drivers for part load operation. The chillers with those functions are growing their popularity. Some achieved over 7.5 of IPLV which accomplishes 50 % improvement compared with 6 years ago. Figure 5 is an image of a modulate chiller.

5 Ground source heat pumps Figure 5; Modulate Chiller It is noteworthy that shipment number of ground water and geothermal heat pumps is surging in China. It grew up to 80 million m 2 in 2007, and 110 million m 2 in 2008 on application area basis owing to economic growth, urbanization and government incentives (Figure 6). The breakdown of heat sources in China are ground water 42 %, geothermal 32 % and water or waste water 26 %. China made the Thermal Response Test (TRT) manual for growing demand of large scale heat pumps and the TRT has become a government-mandated test for facilities of larger than 5,000 m 2. Author was impressed by a huge scale of commercial building with more than 1,000 underground mounted double U-tubes of geothermal heat exchangers when witnessing it at Beijing in Figure 6; China GSHP Evolution In South Korea, deployment of geothermal heat pumps is growing rapidly after 2004 and reached 80 MWt in 2009 under the New Renewable Energy Promotion Law which consists of the support program for Pilot projects, the financial support program, the mandatory program for public sector and the support for local areas. 3.2 CO 2 Heat Pump Water Heater Japanese government greatly expected energy conservation potential of the Eco-Cute, a nickname of a domestic water heater with CO 2 refrigerant and had introduced the Eco-Cute subsidy program for those who purchased the Eco-Cute between 2001 and The accumulated total shipment number of the Eco-Cute became over 2.8 million units because of introduction of the JRAIA standard of Annual Performance Factor (APF) which encouraged manufacturers to improve annual energy efficiency, applications on tanks capacity or size, applications for deployment in cold climate, cost reduction and promotional

6 - 6 - activities on top of the subsidy from the government (Figure 7). Its annual shipment numbers have hit 0.5 million since The amount of the subsidy was 40,000 JPY per unit in 2010, the last year when the subsidy payment was made. Now that the government incentives end, it is uncertain whether we can keep the shipment number from now on as it was. However, the Eco-Cute has kept improved in compressors, heat exchangers and heat insulation of tanks. Some of them hit APF 3.9 as a result of the continuous improvements which also brought a more economical energy cost from one fifth to one sixth compared with conventional combustion water heaters. The Eco-Cute has made it happen to bring both economical efficiency and eco-friendliness, which is no doubt ideal and literally what is needed from all over the world. Figure 7; Annual Shipments of CO 2 Heat Pump Water Heater (Eco-Cute) in Japan 3.3 Application for Industries We start paying attention to application of heat pumps in industry sector following the application in building sector. Heat pumps have been put into industrial operation such as cooling, heating in relatively low-temperature range, air conditioning and refrigerating. It is also an existing heat pump technology to recover waste heat from industry processes. More environmentally-conscious a society becomes, more improved application in industry sector is applied. Some of the improved applications developed as commercial products and launched to the market. In industrial processes, we can extract relatively high temperature heat and reuse it over and over again. Figure 8, a high hot air heat pump with CO 2 refrigerant is able to supply between 80 C and 120 C heat which could be potentially usable for a wide range of processes from a drying process in plastic industries to a painting process in automobile industries. On top of the applications in industrial processes, applications in agricultural and fishery industries are increasing. In fact, heat pumps for greenhouse cultivation are already in practice. Figure 8; High Hot Air Heat Pump

7 - 7-4 REGULATORY POLICIES & MEASURES 4.1 What Asia Should Do As deployment of heat pumps is expanding rapidly in Asia and Oceania, every nation in this region is requested to make regulatory policies and measures for energy conservation and prevention of global warming. More specifically, every nation needs to set mandatory targets to meet then gradually increase the target levels. Besides it needs to establish transparent and user-friendly labeling systems. There is no doubt this huge market can contribute to solutions of environmental problems. The important points in heat pump related policies are to encourage promotion of this already available heat pump technology, to raise target requirements like a COP value and to develop transparent and easy labeling systems to show a level of energy conservation. Figure 9 is the Blue map scenario published in ETP2010 by IEA which says the most effective way to reduce CO 2 emission will be improvement of energy efficiency which would be led by implementing policies and measures mentioned above. Figure 9; IEA Key technologies for reducing CO 2 emission: ETP Policy Development In Japan, the third revised version of The Strategic Energy Plan of Japan, endorsed by the Cabinet in June, 2010 sets a target of 30 % reduction of CO 2 emission by 2030 compared with the 1990 level. To meet this ambition, it says we should have the residential sector halve its emission by best mixture of energy sources including renewables, dissemination of energy-saving devices and promotion of Net Zero Energy Houses (ZEH) and Net Zero Energy Buildings (ZEB). The cabinet order of the Act on Sophisticated Methods of Energy Supply Structures which has been effective since August 2009 defines aerothermal, hydrothermal and geothermal heat as being renewable energy sources. In the optimal case of introduction, the ratio of renewable energy in primary energy supply is projected to be 9.0% in 2020 and 11.6% in 2030 according to the Outlook of long-term energy demand [Recalculation] released in August This has become the worldwide trend to extend renewable energy portion and heat pumps should be paid utmost attention in this regard. In South Korea, as is mentioned in the geothermal topic, the financial support based upon the New Renewable Energy Promotion Law and the certification program of VRF on voluntarily basis are noteworthy.

8 Revise of Criteria and How to Label It Japan s Top Runner program is the ultimate one which introduces mandatory fleet-average energy efficiency requirements set at the level of the most efficient product on the Japanese Market at the time the requirement was formulated. Other countries set a minimum target of efficiency. Those have led overall improvement of efficiencies in entire heat pump markets. On the other hand, when it comes to more realistic labeling way of energy efficiency, APF or SPF (Seasonal Performance Factor) should be considered, but it is likely to take time to adopt it for many countries other than Japan where has adopted APF. It should be important to set a transparent labeling system from the consumers point of view. Labeling by ranks or stars etc could help consumers understand how energy-effective the labeled equipment is and become environmental-conscious, which accelerates an energy conservation world. 4.4 Fair Labeling for Comparing Efficiencies among Equipment It is a must to establish the criteria to be complied for fair competition among heat pump equipment and/or other technologies. Moreover, we must set up a fair examining organization which decide a tolerance figure and check whether each equipment really shows the declared value. 4.5 Energy Conservation Standards China The minimum requirement of energy standard has been applied since 2010 and non-inverter type units that do not reach level C 3.2 have been rejected (Figure 10). Inverter type units are highly likely to increase due to adoption of a severer standard and the governmental incentive policy, such as High efficiency product subsidy program. Consumers have become more aware of energy conservation accordingly, which is now pushing more inverter type units to be launched on the market. SEER standard GB21455 covers inverter type RA since For non-inverter type of 4.5kW or less Figure 10; Minimum Requirement, Chinese EER Program Figure 11; Labeling India India has adopted the EER labeling program since January 2010 and its standard figures will plan to be raised every two years (Table 1).

9 Vietnam Table 1; Indian EER Regulation up to 31Dec, 2011 up to 31Dec, 2013 up to 31Dec, 2015 Star Star Star Star Star An energy labeling program has started on voluntary basis from January 2011 in Vietnam and it will be mandatory to meet the standard from January Furthermore, MEPS regulation is scheduled to start from January Indonesia The introduction of the EER labeling system with four ranks is considered for non-inverter type ductless air conditioners with cooling capacity of 17.6kW or less and inverter type of 10kW or less South Korea South Korea has renewed its energy labeling system introduced in 1992 and applied since The value shown on labels has been changed to R to represent the average of Cooling EER (CEER) and Heating EER (HEER) since Table 2 shows the five labeling levels applied for split type, RCC < 4kW. Table 2; Labeling Level Japan Figure 12; New Labeling Room air conditioners in Japan are standardized under the Japanese Industrial Standards Code as JIS C 9612 and package air conditioners as JIS B The domestic water heater Eco-Cute is being discussed to be standardized. Eco-Cute has already adopted the JRAIA standard, APF labeling system and some achieved APF 3.8. Those are available at the market as is mentioned earlier. In addition, introduction of the Top runner program is being discussed following room air conditioners. The Eco-point system under the program for the promotion of green appliances put in practice from May 2009 to March 2011 and was very successful. The Eco-point system allows consumers who buy government-designated refrigerators, television sets and air conditioners to apply for points that can be used to buy other goods and services. We had a common labeling system shown by star numbers from 1 to 5 and to gain eco-points, the designated products must be labeled over a certain star level depends on when to be purchased. Here is a case example; 5,000 eco-points are given to 3.6kW appliance with 5 stars. 5,000 eco-points are equivalent of a 5,000 JPY coupon.

10 APF became mandatory labeling for room air conditioners (RAC) and package air conditioners (PAC) in 2006 for the first time. The Top Runner target for RAC was revised and the wall mounted types achieved the revised target in 2010 while the other types like multi types set a target year to achieve them in 2012 (Table 3). Target financial Year Target APF Table 3; Japan APF target 2010 Financial Year: Heat Pump wall mounted 2012 Financial Year; All model excluded above Heat Pump ~3.2Kw ~4.0 Kw ~5.0Kw ~6.3Kw ~7.1Kw ~28.0Kw Wall Mounted Fixed size Free size except wall mounted Multi type R & D 5.1 Cool Earth-Innovative Energy Technology Program Research and development of heat pumps have been conducted mainly by manufacturers. The Japanese government has supported financially certain groups or persons that are recognized their abilities to foresee the future trends and to carry out their projects. Cool Earth-Innovative Energy Technology Program was proposed by METI and that mentioned 21 technologies. Ultra High-Efficiency Heat Pump is listed as one of the innovative energy technologies in the program and it is introduced to have a potential to have 2 times better COP and a half cost by 2050 (Figure 13). The national project, Next Generation Heat Pump System Council has established to achieve this ultra high-efficiency heat pump within NEDO with a grant of 400 million yen and begun research since They have studied as a total system combined with other technologies as it is impossible to achieve the ambitious target by independent current technology. 5.2 Refrigerant Development Figure 13; Technology Development Roadmap

11 Heat pumps could make our globe safer and more comfortable by visualizing total life-span emission of greenhouse gas that comes out of a heat pump. That is known as a carbon footprint which represents the amount of total carbon dioxide emitted when manufacturing, shipping and disposing equipment. Refrigerants are invisible but exist in a carbon footprint. Development of next generation refrigerants is getting attention because refrigerants themselves are somewhat related to energy efficiency of equipment and global warming. We need to develop alternative refrigerants to fit in variety of equipment or usage that we pay more attention. Refrigerant should be picked out as a topic and be more discussed. We should keep devoting ourselves to create a sustainable world. Invisible refrigerants should be monitored through figures/data to see its lifetime and build a management system to control. Followings are important points: Develop and promote next refrigerants for equipment Prevention of refrigerant leak and management to measure the total quantity of leakage Take it out from scraped products and from production lines and destroy it Visualize total greenhouse gas emission through a life cycle of equipment or a carbon footprint. HFC is mainly used as a refrigerant in heat pumps at present. However combination with R1234yf, R1234ze or HC is tested and discussed as a next refrigerant. Products with HC appeared in the market however what is wanted is a well-balanced choice of energy conservation, eco-friendliness and cost efficiency but human safety must have a first and utmost priority. We believe that management of leakage and monitoring refrigerants consist one important part of a management system in industrial process for heat pump manufactures. 6. CONCLUSIONS There are 3 important actions to take for maximum use of heat pumps; the breakthrough technology for greenhouse gas reduction. First one is technological development for more energy conservation, second ones are political activities to disseminate the newly developed technologies by government and the third one is promotion to get consumers to be aware of the technology. HPTCJ estimates that we could potentially reduce 130 million tons of CO 2 annually if all residential, commercial and industrial cooling, heating, hot water supply equipment and heating/drying operated by under 100 degrees Celsius were replaced with heat pump systems. Notably, this figure is equivalent to about 10 % of current annual CO 2 emissions. We should appeal how massive contribution heat pumps can contribute to globe. Heat pump is able to upgrade inexpensive heat existing anywhere around into valuable renewable energy. Policy makers in every nation should be aware of this highly recommended technology against global warming. We must go forward developing equipment, its application and dissemination step by step in Asia and Oceania where holds huge demand of air conditioners. We would like to fulfill our obligations to conserve the global environment as a region with heat pump expanding markets, Asia and Oceania. Let s stop global warming with heat pumps! REFERENCES JRAIA World air-conditioning demand survey result 2010 JARN Special edition November 25, 2007 Serial No. 466-s/ Chiller and Large Air- Conditioning Equipment JAPAN AIR CONDITIONING, HEATING & REFRIGERATION NEWS HPTCJ Heat pump Thermal Storage system installation statistic data 2008 IEA Energy Technology Perspective 2010