Detailed project
NB: this form is filled entirely by the ones submitting the innovation.
What is the issue addressed?
Generally, heat is produced to generate electricity. At ENTENT we say no to that. For us, sustainable energy is within reach. To produce our electricity, we go and look for waste heat, thermal waste rejected by Man in nature to make useful electricity in a circular economy approach. On average, only 30% of the heat produced by man is used, the rest being rejected into nature as waste heat. This heat is found in industry, electricity production, data centers or incinerators. Following the Paris Agreement, many countries have committed to become carbon neutral by 2050. To give an order of magnitude, the valorization of all these sources of waste heat throughout the world would allow to supply electricity to the equivalent of the European Union, without adding raw material, without increasing CO2 emissions. Currently, the technologies for converting this heat into electricity operate in a temperature range from 150 to over 350°C. However, in industry, 60% of waste heat is rejected at a temperature below 150°C. In electricity production, 90% of heat emissions are below 150°C. The potential for these low temperatures is immense, with a market of more than €70 billion. Industrialists are in demand, will soon be constrained by regulations following the Paris agreements, and currently have no solution. Why not? Because current technologies were designed with a power strategy in mind, and operate at high temperatures.
How is the problem solved?
To meet this need, ENTENT took the problem in the opposite direction. Mathias FONLUPT, president of the company, started from a blank sheet of paper to develop a technology, not with a power strategy, but with a performance strategy. In his conception, Mathias developed a breakthrough innovation, a technology that is now patented in its entirety, the PULSE. The PULSE implements a new thermodynamic cycle with pulsed organic fluid flows. ENTENT's solution allows for a 60% improvement in machine efficiency at low temperatures compared to existing solutions, and makes it possible to use heat sources from 60 to 150°C.
What is the customer target?
Existing industrial and energy producers (heat or electricity) reject most of the waste heat targeted by ENTENT. These are not necessarily large petrochemical or nuclear industries. In France, 80% of the industrial market is carried by the food industry. Whether it is in the pasteurization of milk or the cooking of pizza, this sector emits mostly low temperature heat. Concerning the production of electricity, the solution makes sense with the new projects in biomass, biogas or geothermal energy. An application is also possible in solar thermal.
How is this solution different?
The ability to operate efficiently at low temperatures is THE added value of PULSE technology. The use of a pulsed organic fluid flow inside the machine is unique. To implement this pulsation, the entire system has been redesigned and differs from the most similar Organic Rankine Cycle technologies: - Addition of valves to control the system - Flash evaporation - Turbine type expander replaced by a piston system, more efficient in clocked operation - Condenser optimized to accept pulsed flows - Removal of the mechanical pressurization system (pump), replaced by a thermo-gravity system The overall architecture of the machine was patented in 2018 and can therefore be passed to Open Source. ENTENT has many possible improvements to the technology in-house that could feed into the Open Source patent cloud.
