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Reducing natural gas needs and carbon emissions in industrial usage and transforming industry towards hydrogen with HERC, a novel plasma-assisted combustion (PAC) technology

Project description

Revolutionary solution for industrial heat production

Industrial heat production is a vital process across sectors. However, its reliance on methane results in substantial emissions, while green hydrogen technologies are not yet feasible at the industrial scale. Funded by the European Innovation Council, this EIC project has successfully developed a novel high energy ray ceramic (HERC) technology. It uses a range of self-powered vacuum nanoelectronics chips that harness waste heat from the chemical reactions and catalyse plasma-assisted carbon-neutral combustion – a significantly more energy-efficient process. With HERC technology, dramatically less fuel (methane, hydrogen, and mixtures) is needed to produce the same amount of heat, simultaneously reducing energy expenditures and CO2 emissions.

Objective

Efenco is developing disruptive plasma-assisted carbon-neutral combustion (PA CNC) technology for industrial heat production to achieve a whole new level of efficiency & GHG emissions reduction in the burning of methane, hydrogen & their mixtures. We address the gains & pains of >1MW high-temperature process heat (HTPH) companies on their path to CO2 neutrality.
We introduce HERC (High Energy Ray Ceramic), disruptive innovation in fundamental physics & materials technology. HERC chip is a robust, reliable, & self-powered device that initiates PA CNC in the combustion & exhaust processes. HERC boosts burning efficiency by 18% & lowers GHG emissions by 20%. HERC is designed to be fitted in existing industrial boiler systems to gain a higher return on assets & lower OPEX. We estimate that there are around 50,000 suitable systems in the EU only, with the potential to reduce CO2 emissions by 1 Mt a while opening a strong business opportunity of 105.6M in revenue by the end of 2027.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

Programme(s)

Topic(s)

Funding Scheme

HORIZON-EIC-ACC-BF - HORIZON EIC Accelerator Blended Finance

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Call for proposal

(opens in new window) HORIZON-EIC-2022-ACCELERATOR-01

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Coordinator

EFENCO OU
Net EU contribution
€ 2 496 592,00
Address
RANNA 3D
40231 Sillamae
Estonia
SME
Yes
Region
Eesti Eesti Kirde-Eesti
Activity type
Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
Links
Total cost
€ 3 566 560,00