September 8, 2022

CoBra supports the heat transition in industry

Reducing carbon dioxide emissions while providing heating and cooling for industry: The German Aerospace Center (DLR) is demonstrating how this can work with a new pilot plant. The CoBra high-temperature heat pump is now going into operation.

The DLR Institute of Low-Carbon Industrial Processes in Cottbus (Brandenburg) is working on technologies and solutions for an energy system of the future that is sustainable and in which industrial operations can do without fossil fuels for their production. The CoBra experimental plant is making a significant contribution to the heat transition in industry: "We can achieve values that are unprecedented in the world for the temperature lift and heat release temperature of 300 degrees Celsius with a heat output of around 200 kilowatts," says institute director Prof. Uwe Riedel. In the future, the aim is to go much further: "The DLR heat pumps will reach a temperature range for which there has been no technical realization to date. These temperatures are necessary for a low-CO2 conversion of the corresponding industrial processes." The name CoBra is a combination of "Cottbus" and the "Brayton process" of thermodynamics on which the plant is based.

Research drives structural change

The DLR Institute of Low-Carbon Industrial Processes has been newly established at the Cottbus site since July 2019. In close partnership with regional industry and science, the staff develop technologies for low-carbon processes. With research impulses and innovations, the DLR institute is one of the most important players in structural change in the Lausitz region. "With all the problems of our time, it is nice to see that we as DLR are contributing to solutions with transfers from research to industry. CoBra has the potential to enable massive CO2 reductions. At the same time, we are creating jobs in the region and preserving jobs in Germany as a business location by keeping the production of energy-intensive industries competitive through innovation," says Prof. Karsten Lemmer, DLR Executive Board member responsible for Innovation, Transfer and Scientific Infrastructures.

Reducing carbon dioxide emissions and saving energy

A large proportion of industries require process heat between 100 and 500 degrees Celsius. This is true, for example, of the food industry, the paper industry and the chemical industry. If renewably generated electricity is used, high-temperature heat pumps are climate-neutral. At the same time, industrial companies can save energy with high-temperature heat pumps.

The CoBra pilot plant was built within two years; financed with funds from the state of Brandenburg. DLR primarily selected companies from the region for the preparations and construction of the plant. In the long term, another larger CoBra pilot plant will be developed and built, which will allow even higher temperatures and a higher heat output. The CoBra pilot plant currently uses air as the working medium. However, it can also work with argon gas. The question of how to scale the prototype so that it is suitable for as many industries as possible is also the focus of the research.