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Waste heat recovery for industrial heat intensive processes

Project description

Innovative compressor technology for waste heat recovery

Most processes in the food industry, such as frying, drying, sterilising and pasteurising, involve use of gas-fired boilers. Only a small part of the total energy used in these boilers adds value to the final product. The remaining part is discharged with exhaust gases at high temperatures, which represents an opportunity for heat recovery. A Dutch agritech company has patented a heat pump design for waste heat recovery from deep frying. Norway-based company Tocircle Industries has developed proprietary compressor technology that constitutes an essential part of this heat pump design. With the help of the EU-funded Hot chips project, the company now aims to bring the compressor technology to a higher maturity level (TRL 9). Deep frying of potato chips will be the target application.

Objective

The proposal addresses the initial exploitation of a vast business opportunity for waste heat recovery (WHR) in industrial processes worldwide. 12-25% of national energy consumption in industrial countries is used for drying, one of many processes suitable for WHR. The industries paper, petrochemical, food, wood and plastic have a moderate calculated potential need of 4400 high temperature heat pumps (HTHP) delivering heat between 100 and 150 oC in Europe alone.
There is a technology gap in the market for heat pumps delivering temperatures between 100 and 200 oC according to a comprehensive report from IERE (Stuttgart University), a necessity to fully exploit the vast potential in industrial processes. Tocircle is maturing its compressor and integrating it in a High Temperature Heat pump (HTHP) to fill this gap.
The first process to address is the European potato frying industry consisting of 250 known frying lines. Their energy (gas) consumption totals 8 TWh a year at a value of 210 M€. The corresponding emission is 1.5 Mt CO2. A reduction in fossil consumption by 70% can be achieved by integrating a HTHP in the deep-frying process.
The global market value of frozen French Fries is about 19 billion $ with Europe as the largest market, then North-America and Asia-Pacific. They represent the growth path for our potato frying solution.
Commercial objectives: Tocircle will reach annual HTHP sales of 63 M€ in Y3 after project completion, a profit of 16 M€ and creating 100+ new jobs in Europe from the European potato frying segment alone.
Technical objectives: to mature Tocircle’s patented rotary vane compressor using Evaporative Compression Technology (ECT), to integrate an ECT compressor package into a full-scale pilot HTHP system and to demonstrate the solution at one of 11 frying lines of company Aviko, a major international French fries producer.
ECT is a disruptive technology allowing the HPHT to deliver temperatures up to 200 oC

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

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Keywords

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

SME-2 - SME instrument phase 2

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) H2020-SMEInst-2016-2017

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Coordinator

TOCIRCLE POWER SYSTEMS AS
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 1 138 606,75
Address
ORNESVEIEN 3
8160 Glomfjord
Norway

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SME

The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.

Yes
Region
Norge Nord-Norge Nordland
Activity type
Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 3 944 847,50

Participants (1)

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