Belgium: country reportEllen Van Mello (WPP) & Patrick Hendrick (ULB)
7/09/2022

WPP - ODE
LEDEN WPP2

Where are we at?

⚫ How we heat buildings:⚫ Majority of families heat via fossil fuels (upto 87%)
⚫ Last year more then 200.000 new fossil fuel boilers (6% oil based)⚫ Role of heat pumps:
60
50
40
30
2010-Austria
Belgium
Switzerland
Czechia
Germany
Denmark
Estonia
Spain
FinlandFranceHungary
Ireland
Italy
Lithuania
Netherlands
NorwayPoland
Portugal
SwedenSlovakia
United…

HP sales per 1.000 households

Source: EHPA
3

Where are we at?

⚫ Reasons for slow role out:
⚫ High density gas grid
⚫ Higher tax and tariffs on electricity⚫ Old building stock

Source: EHPA

4

Goals- General Belgian Goal 2030 : Reduction of 44% of greenhouse gas
emissions- Renovation goal: renovate all buildings to average lower than 100
kWh/m2/year by 2050
- Potential of HP by region:- Brussels: 43 GWh (now 13 GWh)
- Flanders: 1455 GWh (now 600 GWh)
- Wallonia: 1875 GWh HP (now 360 GWh)

5

Transition

Potential of heat pumps Flanders?
BBL (2017): Study by Kelvin
Solutions

District heating
Heat pumps

6

Current decisions

Potential of renewable heat Wallonia:

Source: PACE 2030, SPW

7

Current decisions

Decisions residential buildings:=> Flanders: first bans on fossil fuel⚫ 2021: ban on connection to gas grid for new appartment buildings (15 units)
and new allotment or new collective housing projects⚫ 2022: ban on new oil boiler (in new and existing buildings)⚫ 2025: ban on connection to the gaz grid for new residential buildings=> Brussels: High subsidies⚫ Subsidies upto 4750 euro=> Wallonia:⚫ Subsidies from 1000 to 6000 euro
8RESEARCH ACTIVITIESBelgian participation in recent annexes of IEA HPT:
- Annex 49: Design and integration of heat pumps for nZEB:
https://heatpumpingtechnologies.org/annex49/- Annex 58: High Temperature heat pumps=> partner: UGent
https://heatpumpingtechnologies.org/annex58/- Annex 61: Heat pumps in Positive Energy Districts Participation procedure ongoing=> partners: KU Leuven (prof. Helsen), Boydens Engineering partof Sweco (prof. Boydens), VITO, ULB (prof Hendrick)https://heatpumpingtechnologies.org/annex61/9

RESEARCH @ KU Leuven (prof Helsen)
List of projects (running and finalized)
Projects - Thermal Systems Simulation (The SySi's) (kuleuven.be)
List of PhD’s (running and finalized)
PhDs & Awards - Thermal Systems Simulation (The SySi's) (kuleuven.be)

Department Mechanical Engineering, Thermal
Systems Simulation (The SySi) Team

Source: A. Uytterhoeven

10

FOCUS = SYSTEM INTEGRATION
Towards low-carbon energy services in a multi-vector and multi-sectorial system

Department Mechanical Engineering, Thermal
Systems Simulation (The SySi) Team

Source: EnergyVille11

Model Predictive Control of HP systems
Renewable and storage integrated systems for optimal comfort supply➢ 2016-2021 EU-H2020 hybridGEOTABS (www.hybridgeotabs.eu)
Model Predictive Control and Innovative System Integration of GEOTABS in Hybrid Low
Grade Thermal Energy Systems➢ 2017-2022 IBPSA Project 1 (ibpsa.github.io/project1)
BIM/GIS and Modelica Framework for building and community energy system design andoperation➢ 2019-2022 VLAIO Spin-off Fellowship & KU Leuven C3 project
Energy efficient optimal control of buildings and their energy systems➢ 2020-2022 VLAIO O&O iCOSY2Intelligent Connected Comfort System➢ 2022 start up of Spin-off Builtwins
Sustainable Buildings Control
Department Mechanical Engineering, Thermal
Systems Simulation (The SySi) Team12THERNETThe Heat Pump as a crucial component in thermal networks➢ 2014-2021 IWT/VLAIO Proeftuin De Schipjes (Living Lab ‘De Schipjes’)
Woningrenovatie: innovatie bij energiezuinig verbouwen’ De Schipjes - Samengaan vangebouwzorg en energieoptimalisatie in historische woonerven➢ 2015-2019 VITO PhD Fellowship Bram van der Heijde
Optimized integration of thermal energy storage and conversion in fourth generation
thermal networks➢ 2017-2020 VITO PhD Fellowship Annelies Vandermeulen
Control of thermal networks to unlock flexibility➢ 2020-2024 FWO PhD Fellowship Jelger Jansen
Model Predictive Control of Fourth Generation District Heating
Networks

Department Mechanical Engineering, Thermal
Systems Simulation (The SySi) Team13

CLEAN CLUSTER CONCEPTS
Low-carbon energy services in a multi-vector and multi-sectorial system➢ 2021-2025 VLAIO Baekeland PhD Fellowship Wouter Peere@ boydens engineering – part of Sweco
The development of future-oriented fossil-free energy concepts for clusters in various(Flemish) settings and environments➢ 2021-2025 KU Leuven C2 project PED (PhD Fellowship Lucas Verleyen)
Positive Energy Districts - Identifying technically-feasible and effective solutions towards
decarbonization under existing boundary conditions➢ 2022-2026 FWO (to be approved) PhD Fellowship Louis Hermans
Integrated optimal control and design of low-carbon multi-energy vector districts, including
difficult-to-decarbonize buildings➢ Starting in 2022 KU Leuven IOF Program REINFORCE
Energy System Integration for Low-carbon Energy Services
Department Mechanical Engineering, Thermal
Systems Simulation (The SySi) Team14

FLEXIBILITY
Heat Pumps in a demand response context➢ 2016-2019 EU-H2020 FHP

Flexible Heat and Power, Connecting heat and power networks by harnessing thecomplexity in distributed thermal flexibility➢ 2016-2021 KU Leuven C2 Project

Energy Storage as a Disruptive Technology in the Energy System of the Future➢ 2018-2021 VITO PhD Fellowship Javier Arroyo

Synergy of mathematical and AI techniques for novel methods of building energymanagement➢ 2020-2025 VLAIO Moonshot
InduFlexControl I & InduFlexControl IIControl algorithms for flexibility in power-to-X andindustrial processes.

Department Mechanical Engineering, Thermal
Systems Simulation (The SySi) Team15

RESEARCH @ UGent⚫ Prof Depaepe, Prof Lecompte: focus on component performance⚫ participation in annex 61 high temperature heat pumps⚫ Contact: Steven.Lecompte@UGent.be⚫ Prof Laverge, focus on building interaction⚫ Coordinator of hybridGEOTABS horizon 2020 project (cfr projects slide

prof Helsen)

16

RESEARCH @ ULiège
Vincent Lemort➢Buildings✓

Exhaust air heat pumps (ventilation) for residential buildings: E/N✓Heat pumps for both heating/cooling coupled to passive coolingtechniques: N✓

Innovative vapor compression cycles with 2-phase
compression/expansion for heating, cooling and power production:E/N✓

Reversible heat pump/ORC systems for Carnot batteries: E/N➢ Vehicles✓➢

R1234yf heat pumps for passenger cars: EIndustry✓✓

Very high temperature heat pumps (>180°C) for industrial
processes: N
CO2 commercial refrigeration with waste heat recovery: E/N

E: experimental; N: numerical

Test bench for testing two-phase scroll
compressors (H2020 Regen-by-2project)

17

RESEARCH @ UMons• Strategies for integrating HPs in complex energy systems at
the city district level:• Guidelines for defining energy system architectures.
• Guidelines for components sizing.
• Energy performance evaluation of complex energysystems.
• Hybrid HP and boiler systems for existing buildings:• Guidelines for integrating HPs in existingbuildings.
• Sorption heat pumps:• New Adsorbent Materials developmentwith enhanced sorption performances.
• HP Prototyping and tests.
• Integration of HPs in industrial processes:
feasability studies
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RESEARCH at UCLouvainCurrently one project using heat pumps for energy storage:“Carnot batteries as effective sector-coupling systems forheat and power: techno-economic analysis and robustoptimisation”⚫ Use of heat pump to charge a sensible heat thermal⚫
⚫
⚫

⚫

⚫

storage (water tanks).
The storage can be discharged either directly to deliver
heat, either through an organic Rankine cycle to produce
electricity.
The heat pump can recover waste heat and boost theCarnot battery efficiency.
Goals of the projet: optimisation of the design of different
Carnot battery concepts under techno-economic
uncertainties and identification of attractive integration
scenarios for each concept.
Joint thesis with ULiège (already one prototype and one
demonstrator under development for coupling with DHN).
Contact: antoine.laterre@uclouvain.be

19

RESEARCH at ULB

Energy recuperation from the sewer (sewage water)
for NZEB (Riothermy)
An example in Brussels (with water DSO)

20

Ellen Van Mello

Patrick Hendrickellen.vanmello@ode.bepatrick.hendrick@ulb.behttps://warmtepomp.ode.be/nl/

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