Page 43 - European Energy Innovation - winter 2018 publication
P. 43
Winter 2018 European Energy Innovation 43
COMMUNICATION
3) Offering flexibility to the power system: The
technology is a fully controllable source of electricity.
This flexibility is a distinctive advantage over variable
renewable energy, but also against conventional thermal
technologies, which are not very flexible.
4) A safe and clean source of energy: The technology
involves only simple circulation pumps and any noise
will be minimal. There are very low operation and
maintenance requirements.
Reflecting on the project’s progress since 2015, the engines. Biogas plants reject large amounts of waste
partners have much to be upbeat about – especially two heat, with a fraction already utilized for CHP operation
world record performance milestones; or even for the biogas production. The remaining can
be recovered by the proposed technology for electricity
• Record power density in the RED system of production.
39 W per m2 of cell pair
• Marine sector. Ships are using low/medium speed
• Record minimum specific thermal energy consumption internal combustion engines for their propulsion, which
of Membrane Distillation: 46.1 kWhth/m3 are already equipped with heat recovery systems
for steam production in most cases. However, in the
In a new video about RED Heat-to-Power’s achievements auxiliary engines on-board only their exhaust gases are
so far (https://youtu.be/HgZCcWijSp0 ) Andrea Cipollina exploited, with large amounts of waste heat in their
of the University of Palermo said: “We started working cooling circuit (cooled by seawater) readily available.
three years ago from scratch. We started building new
knowledge based on experimental and modelling activities • Gas compression stations. For the supply of natural
and based on this we developed a process that enabled gas in the long piping networks, gas compression
us to build the first operating pilot system.” stations are used, which usually operate with gas
turbines fuelled with natural gas. These reject large
Sebastian Mortier, from the European Commission, amounts of waste heat in their exhaust gases.
said: “We are glad to have projects like RED Heat-to-
Power to show that we are confronting real issues Michael Papapetrou said: “We have analysed the potential
in a sound manner and that innovation can happen environmental impacts which shows the substitution of
wherever in Europe. Good collaboration, and cross-border grid electricity with electricity generated by the RED Heat
collaboration, are very important to us. This project is a Engine would lead to reduced environmental impacts. All
good showcase for that.” the partners are inspired and excited by the potential of
the RED Heat-to-Power project.” l
The next step is taking the RED Heat Engine to scale.
From detailed modelling and simulation, results show For further information please contact:
the most efficient regeneration technology is multiple
effect distillation (MED). When MED is used, efficiencies of Michael Papapetrou
conversion close to 10% can be achieved for waste heat at +49 89 72012712
100 oC, while levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) below 0.10 michael.papapetrou@wip-munich.de
Euro/kWh is possible, reaching values below 0.05 Euro/
kWh over the next two decades. This project has received funding from the
European Union’s Horizon 2020 research
Analysis shows there are large amounts of heat available and innovation programme under grant
to power the heat engine across Europe and beyond. agreement No 640667. The sole responsibility for the
These resources are mostly in the form of industrial waste content of this article lies with the authors. It does
heat. The most applicable sources of heat are: not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European
Union. Neither the INEA nor the European Commission
• Industrial sector. It includes various segments with are responsible for any use that may be made of the
different characteristics of waste heat (temperature, information contained therein.
heat capacity, and thermal carrier).
• Decentralized power plants based on biogas
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