Each week, we talk with our colleagues at The Colorado Sun about the stories they’re following. This time, The Sun co-founder and editor Larry Ryckman joined us to discuss a team-up between a Fort Collins-based startup and local brewer New Belgium for a pilot program testing emissions reduction technology.
Ryckman told KUNC The Sun's story focuses on the intersection of beer and climate change. Reporter Mark Jaffe ventured to Colorado State University and New Belgium Brewery to learn about an experiment to replace a gas boiler with a first-of-its-kind industrial electric heat pump.
"The brewery needs a lot of hot water to make its beer," Ryckman said. "The boiling time actually affects even the flavor of the beer. Of New Belgium's direct greenhouse gas emissions, about 4,100 tons of carbon dioxide a year comes from burning natural gas to make steam. So, less than a half mile from the brewery at CSU's powerhouse energy campus, the startup company AtmosZero is putting the finishing touches on the prototype for an industrial heat pump."
The goal of this trial is to test the hardware and develop computer controls. AtmosZero has raised about $7.5 million in venture capital and received $500,000 from the Department of Energy to help fund this work.
"The heat pumps work by drawing heat out of the air, relying on an electric-run compressor," Ryckman sad. "Since they don't burn any fuel, they're much more efficient. And in 2022, residential heat pumps actually outsold furnaces."
Climate experts say, what's good for a house can also be good for a factory. They contend heat pumps can be several times more efficient than combustion technologies because the pumps move heat - kind of like a refrigerator or an air conditioner - rather than creating heat from their input energy. Heat pumps also don't lose heat through combustion exhaust gases.
The basics of a residential air source heat pump begin with a liquid refrigerant that has a very low boiling point, allowing it to vaporize even at subzero temperatures and capture heat. A compressor then condenses the vapor, raising its temperature, and a heat exchanger moves the heat indoors.
"The AtmosZero prototype doubles and triples down on all of these elements with multiple compressors, heat exchangers and lines that lead to the prototype," Ryckman said. "The company says no one has done what they've done before, which is to create an industrial air source steam heat pump, and they're very excited about this work."
AtmosZero and New Belgium hope to create not just a process, but a product.
"They want to create an off-the-shelf product that factories could just drop in for an existing package boiler," Ryckman said. "That could be a very attractive option for small companies like New Belgium, when the trial runs on this prototype. They hope to build a 650 kilowatt pilot at the New Belgium brewery, which likely begins next summer, and it'll provide 30% to 40% of the brewery's total steam load. They think that this sort of industrial heat pump could eventually be a very big deal in helping the United States and others reduce their greenhouse gas emissions."
