The development of chemical heat pumps necessitates the construction of machines the size of a semi-industrial prototype or industrial pilot plant. The problem in designing such machines is the scale transposition from that of the laboratory model to that of the pilot plant. This transposition necessitates the development of a dimensioning method. The basic dimensioning tool is numerical modelling of the operation of chemical heat pumps. Such a model is described. The model parameters are fixed from experimental results obtained in specific laboratory experiments. These studies have permitted the realisation of a 20- to 50-kW (68,000- to 170,000-Btu/h) prototype. The validity of the method is demonstrated by the excellent correlation between experimental and simulated results.

KEYWORDS: calculating, sizing, testing, experiment, chemical heat pumps, industrial, prototypes, designing