Periodic Reporting for period 1 - VOLUMICO (VOLUMe Induced micro-COgenerator for high energy efficiency of gas distribution networks)
Période du rapport: 2018-11-01 au 2019-02-28
In the actual context of an urgent need for energy decarbonization, natural gas (which currently represents about 22% of primary energy demand) will likely continue to play a significant role because it is the cleanest of all the hydrocarbon energy sources and has high conversion efficiencies. Most of the natural gas (64%) is consumed in residential, commercial and industrial sectors (mainly for heating). The gas is distributed by means of national and international networks, which are made of long-distance pipelines operating at different pressure levels. At the last stages of distribution, a gas pressure reduction is needed to attain the local distribution network at low pressure (0.3-1.5 barG). One of the remaining challenges in the gas distribution is that this final pressure reduction causes energy losses, which hamper the benefits of natural gas. Our objective is to produce autonomous, easy-to-install and robust devices to reduce the gas pressure in a single step and recover the energy loss by generating electricity. These must be designed to meet the specific needs of target end-users.
Thanks to the H2020 SME Instrument Phase 1 program, in the last 4 months we have assessed the technical, commercial and financial viability of our novel technology. Our TRL6 prototype of VOLUMICO was designed to work with gas flows of around 330 Sm3/h. After having analysed the market and identified the user-needs, we have concluded that VOLUMICO should be available in three sizes, working within the range 1,000-5,000 sm3/h and generating between 25 and 125 kWe. We have identified necessary technical tasks to have these versions ready for commercialization and have estimated the budget. We have also assessed risks and analysed competitors and competing technologies. We have drawn the business model and forecasted the profitability of the business.
VOLUMICO is a disruptive and market-creating technology since it is the only one that address the problem of the energy loss during gas depressurization at the ends of the gas distribution network. With an interesting payback for users, it is compatible to any other technology aimed at doing better use of resources (such as co-generation) or to decarbonize the electricity generation (e.g. PV panels). The installation of VOLUMICO reduces wasted energy and hence saves money and avoid GHG emissions. The global life-cycle impact of natural gas is improved with these robust, standardized and easy-to install technology.