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

Informazioni relative al progetto

herc accelerating industrial co2 neutrality

ID dell’accordo di sovvenzione: 190188980

DOI

10.3030/190188980

Progetto chiuso

Data della firma CE 5 Aprile 2023

Data di avvio 1 Febbraio 2023

Data di completamento 31 Luglio 2025

Finanziato da

• The European Innovation Council (EIC)

Costo totale

€ 3 566 560,00

Contributo UE

€ 2 496 592,00

Coordinato da

EFENCO OU
Estonia

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - herc accelerating industrial co2 neutrality (Reducing natural gas needs and carbon emissions in industrial usage and transforming industry towards hydrogen with HERC, a novel plasma-assisted combustion (PAC) technology)

Periodo di rendicontazione: 2024-02-01 al 2025-07-31

Sintesi del contesto e degli obiettivi generali del progetto

High-temperature process heat (HTPH) industries, which are energy-intensive, consume 20% of all fuels and contribute 24% to global GHG emissions. A significant 80% of these industries lack viable alternatives for transitioning towards CO2 neutrality. While renewable energy options exist, they come with challenges. For instance, renewable solutions often need high operating costs, uncertain lifespans, and incompatibility issues, such as using electricity in the iron and steel sector. Hydrogen cost ranges between 1.5 to 5 times that of natural gas for the same energy amount. In a steam system operating at full capacity, fuel expenses dominate, making up 96% of life-cycle costs, while capital and operational expenses contribute just 3% and 1%, respectively. This underscores the central role of energy efficiency in cost considerations.

However, striving for optimal combustion efficiency presents its own set of hurdles. Thermochemical constraints cap efficiencies at 98.5%, and pushing these limits might inadvertently increase emissions. Currently, there's a lack of effective solutions to address this dilemma. Since CO2 emissions are a direct outcome of a chemical process, significant reductions can't be achieved without pioneering new technologies.

High Energy Ray Ceramic (HERC) technology is a patented novel method that uses self-powered vacuum nanoelectronic chips to generate low-temperature plasma from waste heat from chemical reactions and other heat sources.

HERC chips are embedded in the high-temperature combustion chamber, interacting with the flame to release the power of plasma-assisted combustion. This ground-breaking method efficiently turns waste heat into usable energy. In 2022, the HERC prototype achieved an 18% increase in combustion efficiency during industrial validation, possibly revolutionizing the whole combustion sector. Increasing fuel combustion efficiency reduces greenhouse gas emissions and aids in the decarbonization of hard-to-abate sectors. The overall objective of the project is to reach the first industrial installation of HERC chips.

Lavoro eseguito dall’inizio del progetto fino alla fine del periodo coperto dalla relazione e principali risultati finora ottenuti

During the project, Efenco developed and experimentally validated a novel class of heat-powered photon generators based on pyroelectric emission in vacuum-sealed ceramic devices. The primary technical objective was to achieve stable soft X-ray emission under cyclic thermal excitation and to understand the dynamic behavior of pyroelectric crystals in high-temperature, low-pressure environments relevant to industrial applications.

Using our custom-built test rig (“Fire Cube”), we conducted systematic laboratory experiments combining calorimetric, spectrometric, and combustion-coupled measurements. These trials revealed a clear and repeatable influence of soft X-ray flux on flame behavior—measurable through shifts in oscillation patterns, flame stability, and thermal output. To our knowledge, this constitutes the first experimentally validated instance of high-energy photons (1–50 keV range) generated via purely thermal means affecting combustion dynamics.

A major milestone was the achievement of stable photon fluence rates of ~1.8 × 10⁶ photons/cm²·s, with peak rates up to 2.7 × 10⁷ photons/cm²·s in a 14-chip configuration. These values approach those of low- to mid-power commercial soft X-ray tubes, but were achieved without external high-voltage sources or active cooling, solely through controlled thermal gradients across pyroelectric LiTaO₃ crystals. This confirms the feasibility of a compact, passive, and energy-autonomous emission system.

These scientific breakthroughs contribute novel data to the emerging field of thermally driven photon emission and lay a robust foundation for industrial pilot deployments post-project. They also open new application pathways in: Combustion enhancement; Advanced surface processing , In-situ sensing in harsh conditions .

Together, these achievements establish Efenco’s HERC technology as a new class of emission platform, bridging pyroelectric materials, combustion science, and applied energy engineering.

Progressi oltre lo stato dell’arte e potenziale impatto previsto (incluso l’impatto socioeconomico e le implicazioni sociali più ampie del progetto fino ad ora)

The Efenco project has advanced a novel photon-based enhancement mechanism for combustion processes using pyroelectric soft X-ray generators. To our knowledge, this is the first time such a method has been repeatedly demonstrated with measurable thermodynamic effects. Calorimetric tests indicated up to 5–10% shifts in energy distribution profiles during combustion. These results emerged from hundreds of hours of controlled testing in the custom-built “Fire Cube” setup, which enabled precise monitoring of crystal behavior, emission patterns, and thermal cycling dynamics.
However, the project also revealed significant complexity in reliably scaling the effect. One key challenge is the multi-body electrostatic and electromagnetic interference between chips in shared enclosures, which can lead to non-linear performance behavior. These interactions sit at the intersection of multiple scientific and engineering domains—vacuum nanoelectronics, thermodynamics, plasma physics, material science, and combustion engineering—making this a deeply interdisciplinary problem space.
As such, further uptake will require continued R&D support beyond the project’s scope. Addressing these challenges demands targeted efforts in modeling, simulation, and endurance testing, along with broader collaboration between academic and industrial partners. In addition, support for international IPR, certification pathways, and access to demonstration funding and market validation environments will be critical to transition this deep-tech innovation into robust, scalable products.