Decarbonizing industry is the key challenge for 2050 to achieve the Net Zero ambitions. For this, one of the current pathways is the massive electrification of industrial processes in demand for low-temperature heat (up to 150°C) thanks to heat pumps. However, the electricity distribution companies have recently issued an alert: the grid development is insufficient to match the enormous future needs for electricity. In the coming decades, this will thus trigger tensions on the power grid and lead to priorization in the supply of electricity. Therefore, to alleviate electricity demand while meeting industrial needs, it is crucial to provide alternative technology, such as Absorption Heat Transformer (AHT), which has the potential to meet the demand for low temperature heat, from non critical and abundant energy sources such as industrial waste heat, with hardly any electrical use. With this objective of offering another option than vapor compression heat pumps, the ZIMBA project aims to develop and validate at TRL4, an innovative AHT system at 15 kWth and 110°C. It will be based on a novel water ammonia AHT technology improved by a two-phase ejector specifically designed in order to stabilize its performance and widen the range of its operating conditions, in particular under hot conditions. From the physical evaluation results obtained, scaling studies up to 500 kWth will be carried out by the consortium, composed of researchers and industrial manufacturers, in order to push for a design with practically no critical raw materials, easily maintainable and recyclable, and with only commercially available components for fast time to market. The integration of the system in the potential future energy market and the associated business models will be studied in order to ensure a circularity of the energy and to fully exploit the exergy of the heat losses. Thus, ZIMBA will help the EU in reducing its dependence on fossil and electricity, while meeting climate goals.

Natural gas fired Combined Cycle (CC) power plants are currently the backbone of EU electrical grid, providing most of regulation services necessary to increase the share of non-programmable renewable sources into the electrical grid. As a consequence, Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and Utilities are investigating new strategies and technologies for power flexibility. On the other hand, existing cogenerative CCs are usually constrained by thermal user demand, hence can provide limited services to the grid. At the same time, CHP plants are highly promoted for their high rate of energy efficiency (> 90%) and combined with district heating network are a pillar of the EU energy strategy. To un-tap such unexploited reserve of flexibility, and to further enhance turn-down ratio and power ramp capabilities of power oriented CCs, this project proposes the demonstration of an innovative concept based on the coupling of a fast-cycling highly efficient heat pump (HP) with CCs. The integrated system features thermal storage and advanced control concept for smart scheduling. The HP will include an innovative expander to increase the overall efficiency of the HP. In such an integrated concept, the following advantages are obtained: - the HP is controlled to modulate power in order to cope with the CC primary reserve market constraints; - the high temperature heat can be exploited in the district heating network, when available; low temperature cooling power can be used for gas turbine inlet cooling or for steam condenser cooling, thus reducing the water consumption; - in both options, the original CC operational envelope is significantly expanded and additional power flexibility is achieved. In general, the CC integration with a HP and a cold/hot thermal storage brings to a reduction of the Minimum Environmental Load (MEL) and to an increase in power ramp rates, while enabling power augmentation at full load and increasing electrical grid resilience and flexibility.