Project description
Converting low-grade waste heat into electric power
Low-grade waste heat (less than 100 °C) constitutes the greater heat source, corresponding to 63 % of the total recoverable heat. However, technical and economic difficulties prevent its wide exploitation. At the industrial level, only the valorisation of high- and medium-grade electricity is deployed. The EIC-funded WH2E project proposes an innovative way to convert low-grade waste heat into electric power. Sweetch Energy developed the Ionic Nano Osmotic Diffusion technology based on the most advanced nanotechnologies and specific membrane design. The solution includes two major steps: the temperature gradient conversion into salinity gradient using thermo-sensible ionic liquids, coupled with an osmotic engine to generate electric power as the final result.
Objective
To cope with the growing global energy consumption and sustainable development scenarios, Waste Heat Recovery is an efficient, green and economic solution to help highly demanding industries save valuable energy.
However, while low grade waste heat (<100) constitutes the largest source of heat with an annual 3700Mtoe, corresponding to 63% of the total recoverable heat, it has not been widely exploited yet due to technical and economical difficulties. Only valorisation of high and medium grade in the form of electricity is largely deployed at industrial scale.
In the WH2E project, Sweetch Energy is proposing an innovative way to convert low grade waste heat into electric power. To do so, two major steps will be necessary: the conversion of temperature gradient into salinity gradient using thermo-sensible ionic liquids, coupled with an osmotic engine (INOD) to generate electric power as final output. The INOD (Ionic Nano Osmotic Diffusion) technology, developped by Sweetch Energy, is based on the most advanced nanotechnologies and specific membrane design.
At the end of the project, a testing phase in partnership with an international industrial corporation will allow to reach a TRL6 and secure the market readiness. Sweetch Energy is targeting first the industrial sector and ambitions to become a global leader in the decarbonized electricity sector.
The project is supported by Veolia and Solvay.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
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CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
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Programme(s)
- HORIZON.3.1 - The European Innovation Council (EIC) Main Programme
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-EIC - HORIZON EIC GrantsCoordinator
35760 Saint Gregoire
France
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.