Sustainable heat pump for residential cogeneration

Scientists have long been trying to find ways to reduce reliance on oil and fossil fuels, helping save the environment. Heat pumps offer a device that extracts heat, providing an alternative to fossil fuels, producing clean energy while saving significantly on costly budgets. The EU-funded FLAMINCO project provides for an ultra-efficient gas heat pump that consists of an innovative micro combined heat and power unit. It is mainly power by natural gas, and gas mixtures, providing an average efficiency of 160 percent. Development of this system allows for integration into smart grids.

Over 25% of the primary energy in Europe is used for space and water heating in the residential sector. 85% of this energy is still produced from fossil fuels. In the context of urgent transition towards carbon-free energy, natural gas is greener than coal or oil, and carbon-neutral sources like biogas or renewable energy power-to-gas arise as promising options. 

At the same time, decentralized production presents advantages as heat is not wasted and there is no loss in the electricity transportation. Integrated into smart grids, decentralized productions increases the global efficiency of the energy production.

FLAMINCO is an ultra-efficient gas heat pump consisting of an innovative micro combined heat and power –micro CHP- unit, a state-of-the-art heat pump and a condensing water boiler. It may be powered with natural gas, biogas or H2 and gas mixtures. It provides up to 135 kWth. 

A smart control system makes the three involved technologies always work in the most cost-efficient way, ending with a yearly average efficiency of 160%. This system is ready for integration into smart grids and considers temporary costs and carbon intensity of electricity to decide the working mode. 

FLAMINCO targets 15-20 apartment buildings. End-users may reduce gas use by 30%, what immediately translates into economic savings (4,600 €/yr) and CO2 reduction with a fast payback of just 4 years. Maintenance costs will also be much lower than other micro-CHP technologies based on combustion engines or fuel cells.

We are MITIS, a Belgian high-tech start-up committed to the development of efficient and clean micro CHP systems. After having launched an outstanding heat exchanger and an innovative flameless combustion chamber, we are developing FLAMINCO. This will be our flagship and first mass market product. 

FLAMINCO will foster our business (we estimate 72.2M€ turnover in the 8th year of commercialization and 14 new jobs in the company (to add up to many other indirect jobs).

Coordinator

• MITIS

Start date: 1 April 2020 - End date: 31 March 2023