Several large construction and renovation projects are planned on this KU Leuven campus, such as the renovation of lab building O&N1 from the 1970s (approx. 40,000 m², study techniques by Ingenium) and an expansion of lab building O&N2. The university is taking advantage of both these major projects to also fossilize the heat production of these buildings with large heat pump installations (2.0 MW and 0.7 MW thermal). At the request of KU Leuven, Ingenium investigated whether these newly planned heat pump systems could additionally sustainably heat seven existing surrounding buildings, thus taking an important step toward a fossil-free campus. After all, by installing a low-temperature heat network at 50 °C throughout the campus, the planned heat pumps can produce additional sustainable heat without an excessively large additional investment. This is not an obvious exercise due to the varying central heating temperature regimes used in the various buildings today.

Ingenium simulated the heat demand of the various buildings and the operation of the low temperature heat network, looked at the potential energy gains, made the financial profitability exercise, and worked out the hydraulic and control engineering concepts. The study showed that in this way, the natural gas demand of the buildings concerned could be reduced by more than two-thirds, and CO2 emissions for heating could be reduced by almost 700 tons per year, without the need for additional heat pump capacity!

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ref.20020.003