With the growing imbalance between energy supply and demand, improving energy efficiency and recovering waste heat have become critical challenges. High-temperature water source heat pumps have emerged as a promising solution to address energy and environmental issues in the petrochemical industry. This technology is now widely adopted in Europe and the U.S., demonstrating its effectiveness in optimizing energy use.
Heat pumps operate by transferring heat from low-temperature sources to high-temperature areas, using a portion of high-quality energy—such as electricity or mechanical power—to drive the process. A high-temperature water source heat pump specifically utilizes industrial waste heat from wastewater to produce hot water at 70–90°C, which can be directly used for heating and general industrial applications.
In the petrochemical sector, crude oil gathering and transportation systems are vital but highly energy-intensive. These systems require both heat and energy to move crude oil from the reservoir to the production stage. Traditionally, natural gas produced on-site has been the primary heat source. While efforts have focused on reducing heat loss and improving furnace efficiency, waste heat recovery has remained a less developed area.
Many oil fields in China are now in the middle to late stages of development, where the water content in crude oil is very high. In fact, about 70% of the produced fluid consists of water, which is pressurized and transported through pipelines. The heating furnace then sends the oil to a central processing station for separation. The separated water typically ranges from 40 to 60°C. For example, in the Shengli Oilfield, there are 52 sewage treatment stations with a daily discharge of 720,000 cubic meters of wastewater, with temperatures between 50–70°C. Of this, around 260,000 m³/day comes from water above 60°C, representing a significant untapped thermal resource.
By utilizing high-temperature heat pumps to recover just 5°C of heat, up to 73,000 kW of energy could be recovered. With a heat output of approximately 100,000 kW, this equates to the energy released by burning 10 tons of crude oil per hour, or about 87,600 tons annually. If the heat pump were used to lower the temperature of oil-contaminated water by 20–30°C, it could save 350,000 tons of crude oil each year—equivalent to 1% of the Shengli Oilfield’s total output. Clearly, the application of high-temperature water source heat pumps in the oil and waste heat industry offers a powerful way to maximize waste heat utilization, creating substantial economic value and paving the way for more sustainable energy practices.
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