GEA industrial heat pumps are at the heart of the heat transition at the Berlin-Neukoelln district heating plant

GEA is supporting the climate-friendly generation of district heating for households in the Berlin districts of Neukölln and Kreuzberg by supplying two large heat pumps for the Neukölln district heating plant (FHW). The 8.5-tonne systems are not only at the heart of the heat transition at the Berlin-Neukölln district heating plant (FHW), but are also a key component of the nationwide research project "Real-world laboratory of the energy transition", initiated by the German government and financially supported by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection.

In addition to Berlin-Neukoelln, large heat pumps will be installed in Stuttgart, Mannheim and Rosenheim and tested in real operation until March 31, 2026. Energy suppliers and scientific institutes from all over Germany are researching the practical suitability, potential and application conditions of large heat pumps in district heating networks under the umbrella of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Fernwärme (AGFW, now the Efficiency Association for Heating, Cooling and Combined Heat and Power). The data and findings obtained are intended to accelerate the heat transition and will be shared among the partners.

Heat generation at the Berlin-Neukoelln combined heat and power plant

The heat is generated at the Weigandufer site of the Berlin-Neukoelln combined heat and power plant. This is provided by seven large boilers using wood pellets, heating oil and natural gas. Hard coal is no longer used. The final phase-out of hard coal will be completed by 2025. To achieve the heat transition, five combined heat and power plants on the FHW site efficiently produce heat and electricity using combined heat and power (CHP). This combined generation process enables a particularly high degree of fuel utilization.

A GEA large-scale heat pump is already connected to the five combined heat and power plants. It uses the waste heat from the charge air cooling of the highly efficient combined heat and power plants. This increases the efficiency of the entire plant by around five percent. This means that an additional 4,000 megawatt hours of heat can be generated per year for the neighborhood from waste heat that would otherwise be lost.

Another new "hydrogen-ready" combined heat and power plant with a large GEA heat pump will soon go into operation

Another new combined heat and power plant will soon go into operation on the site of the Neukoelln CHP plant. The new combined heat and power plant is "hydrogen-ready". The second GEA large-scale heat pump forms the heart of the plant.

25,000 tons of CO₂ to be saved from 2025 - local companies to feed industrial waste heat into the district heating network

The FHW Berlin-Neukölln plans to invest continuously in the heating transition. To this end, the heat generation systems will be replaced with new, environmentally friendly systems and renewable energy sources will be integrated during ongoing operations.This includes more flexible combined heat and power plants, power-to-heat and a second heat storage facility. This will reduce the FHW's CO₂ emissions by 25,000 tons per year from 2025. FHW Neukoelln also wants to offer local companies in which combustion and heating processes take place the opportunity to feed industrial waste heat into the FHW district heating system.

Background information

How the heat reaches Neukoelln households

The heat reaches the connected households in the form of hot water - there are around 55,000 of them in the "neighborhoods" of Berlin-Neukoelln and Berlin-Kreuzberg. The water releases its heat and flows back to the FHW Neukoelln in a circulation system. Around 120 kilometers of pipes have now been installed. Around two to four kilometers are added every year. The district heating network now extends from the Landwehrkanal in Kreuzberg via Grenzallee in Neukölln, Reuterkiez and Körnerpark to Tempelhofer Feld in Oderstraße.

The GEA solution for the FHW Neukölln: two RedGenium heat pumps

GEA is supplying a total of two large heat pumps for the FHW Neukoelln. The GEA RedGenium is a highly efficient ammonia heat pump with Grasso reciprocating compressor, evaporator with integrated liquid separator and all heat exchangers as fully welded plate heat exchangers. The factory-assembled and ready-to-connect unit is equipped with a frequency converter as standard.

The RedGenium heat pump in conjunction with the brand new GEA Grasso V XHP reciprocating compressor enables temperatures of +95 °C to be provided. In addition to the temperature increase, the largest V XHP compressor also offers almost double the capacity compared to previous models available on the market. The new GEA Grasso V XHP reciprocating compressor series thus sets new standards. The new GEA solution ideally complements the existing heat pump portfolio, as it is ideally suited for many processes with high heat load requirements. These are, for example, applications in the food, beverage and dairy industries. The temperature level also meets the criteria for space heating, district and local heating networks.

Best efficiencies in the +95 °C class

Electrically driven heat pumps are able to replace conventional heating systems based on fossil fuels. They use either available process waste heat or other heat sources from the environment and transfer the heat to a high temperature level. Even when using pure "coal power", for example, a heat pump is much more sustainable than conventional boilers thanks to its outstanding efficiency, as it only requires around a third of the primary energy of a boiler to deliver the same output.
GEA's industrial "Red" heat pumps are a proven concept and widely used by international customers in various industries and sectors. This is also due to the key figures. In combination with the natural refrigerant ammonia at low charge rates, the technology offers the best efficiencies in its class. The most important parameter, which significantly reduces energy consumption and overall costs and thus ensures a significantly improved ROI (return on investment).

Watch a video here:

GEA RedGenium heat pump