Screening of Cooling Technologies in Europe: Alternatives to Vapour Compression and Possible Market Developments

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate, review, and assess the recent advances of alternative cooling technologies using traditional vapor compression (VC) systems as a baseline. Around 99% of the final energy consumption used for cooling in the current European market (European Union plus the United Kingdom (EU27 + UK) is supplied by VC technologies. In comparison, the remaining 1% is produced by thermally driven heat pumps (TDHPs). This study focuses on providing a complete taxonomy of cooling technologies. While the EU heating sector is broadly explored in scientific literature, a significant lack of data and information is present in the cooling sector. This study highlights technologies that can potentially compete and eventually replace VC systems within the decade (2030). Among others, the most promising of these are membrane heat pump, transcritical cycle, Reverse Brayton (Bell Coleman cycle), and absorption cooling. However, the latter mentioned technologies still need further research and development (R&D) to become fully competitive with VC technologies. Notably, there are no alternative cooling technologies characterized by higher efficiency and less cost than VC technologies in the EU market.

Assessment of Final Space Cooling Consumption in the European Transportation Sector

“…Nevertheless, the results of Report 1 of the Renewable Cooling under the "Revised Renewable Energy Directive ENER/C1/2018-493" have been considered as the most relevant for the present study comparison, since similar time-reference, as well as units of measurements, are applied in both studies [60]. Particularly, the outputs of FEC for cooling of the latter, which involved SC in buildings of the residential and the service sectors, resulted to be slightly more than 105 TWh/y for the entire EU27+UK.…”

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