World’s largest steam heat pump begins operations at Italian plant

Turboden, a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries group company, has successfully launched what it claims to be the world’s largest steam-producing heat pump at Delfort, an Italian specialty paper manufacturer. The system integrates a Large Heat Pump (LHP) with Mechanical Vapor Recompression (MVR) to generate 12 MWth of superheated steam at 3.4 bar(a) and temperatures between 150–180°C. It recovers low-grade waste heat from the industrial process and upgrades it using CO₂-free electricity, enabling high-temperature steam production without direct carbon emissions. The installation operates 10% above its guaranteed coefficient of performance (COP), demonstrating the technical and commercial viability of large-scale heat pump technology for decarbonizing industrial steam generation. This project addresses Delfort’s need for fully decarbonized steam while maintaining reliability and continuity with existing fossil-fuel boilers. The heat pump system was custom-engineered to fit within the plant’s limited footprint and fully integrated into the mill’s heat