Project Description
Development of eco-designed thermal storage units for the energy transition and recovery of waste heat
Budget: 3M€
Duration: 18 months
Realization of a 1:1 scale demonstrator of the Eco-Stock storage system. It is a high temperature sensible heat storage system (up to 600°C) operating on the principle of thermocline type thermal storage. The system is containerized and therefore potentially mobile. Its storage capacity is 2 MWh and its operating thermal power reaches 1 MW. The system operates with an electric heat source simulating industrial waste heat deposits. It made it possible to technically validate the Eco-Stock solution and to test its response in different operating situations. The results made it possible to calculate the energy performance (yields) and environmental performance (Life Cycle Analysis, CO2, energy return rate) of the solution.
Development of heat storage materials from waste
Thanks to the workshop for the development of ceramics put into service during the program, ceramic formulations 100% made from waste have been able to be developed. The thermal storage properties of the materials obtained have been validated using the TRL 6 storage prototype available from Eco-Tech Ceram. An industrial pre-series was also able to be produced to validate the transfer of technology with industrial production tools.
Demonstration of an innovative heat storage solution: Eco-Stock®
The ECO-STOCK 1000 program of the World Innovation Competition (CMI II) enabled the TRL 7 demonstration of the Eco-Stock® solution. Thanks to more than 500 hours of trouble-free operation, the digital models used until then for the business cases could be validated with less than 5% error. The performance of Eco-Stock® could also be measured. Capable of storing 2 MWh at 600°C at a maximum power of 1 MW with an efficiency greater than 95%, these excellent performances allow the Eco-Stock® to be profitable for the recovery of waste heat from industrial sites of ceramic production and forging and foundry among others.
Demonstration of the eco-efficiency of the Eco-Stock® solution
The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) carried out on the Eco-Stock® shows that its use as a replacement for natural gas generates 180 times less CO2: 1.4 kq/CO2eq/MWh compared to 253 for natural gas . The functional unit of this LCA is the supply of 1 MWth at the rate of 2 GWh/year for 20 years. The impact on resources, the highest, would be advantageously reduced by the use of storage materials resulting from waste in particular.
The Eco-Stock® solution is therefore a cost-effective eco-designed solution for heat storage. Currently developed for the recovery of industrial waste heat, this thermal storage unit also has a role to play more widely in the energy transition for Power To Heat and Power To Power in particular.
