OnS’ coating technology will be used by researchers at Imperial College as part of iHPC, an EPRSC funded project to improve High Performance Heat-Power-Cooling systems using Organic Rankine Cycle and Absorption Refrigeration technologies.

At least 17% of all UK industrial energy-use is estimated as being wasted as heat, of which only 10% is considered economically recoverable with currently available technology. The successful implementation of these technologies would increase the potential for waste-heat utilisation by a factor of 3.5, from 17% with current technologies to close to 60%.

ORC and AR technologies are capable of recovering and utilising thermal energy from a diverse range of sources. The heat input can come from distributed combined heat & power (CHP) units, conventional or renewable sources (solar, geothermal, biomass/gas), or from industrial processes (exhaust gas).

OnS will be coating and modifying components to increase efficiency and to investigate whether a reduction in the overall size of the evaporator is possible to improve the efficiency for both ORC and AR systems when used together with our techniques such as specialised fluids.

About the EPSRC project “High Performance Heat-Power-Cooling Technologies” (iHPC)

The iHPC project is a 4-year multidisciplinary project aimed at minimising primary-energy use in UK industry and is concerned with next-generation technological solutions, identifying the challenges, and assessing the opportunities and benefits resulting from their optimal implementation. The project aims to develop and evaluate specific advancements to two selected energy-conversion technologies with integrated energy-storage capabilities: 1) heat-to-power with organic Rankine cycle (ORC) devices; 2) heat-to-cooling with absorption refrigeration (AR) devices. The project involves targeting and resolving pre-identified ‘bottleneck’ aspects of each technology that can enable step-improvements in maximising performance per unit capital cost. The goal is to enable the widespread uptake of these technologies and their optimal integration with existing energy systems and energy-efficiency strategies, leading to drastic increases performance while lowering costs, thus reducing payback to 3-5 years. Read more