Starting date : Jun. 2016 > Feb. 2019
Lifetime: 33 months
Program in support : H2020-EE-13-2015
Technology for district
heating and cooling
Status project : complete
CEA-Leti's contact :
Elise Saoutieff
Bernard Strée
Project Coordinator: City University (GB)
Partners: - CY: Center for Technology Research & Innovation (CETRI)
- ES: Naitec
- FI: Net Technologies
- FR: CEA-Leti, SERM, SNCU
- GB: City University
- GR: Centre for Research & Technology Hellas (CERTH)
- PL: Iznab, Promar
- SI: Energetika
Target market: n/a
Publications:
«Energy Harvesting for Autonomous Sensors», E. Saoutieff,
P.Gasnier, S.Boisseau, EnerGaïa, Montpellier, 2018.
Investment: € 2.0 m.
EC Contribution: € 2.0 m.
| Stakes
CEA-Leti’s main contribution to InDeal is development of energy harvesting solutions, specifically a water flow energy harvester and a thermal energy harvester. The aims are, (i) to supply in-line intelligent water meters able to work autonomously for years by replacing batteries and, (ii) to improve quality and reduce costs of water network monitoring (flow rate, temperature, pressure, leakage, pH, etc.).
Micro-turbine (cm²)-based water flow and thermal energy harvesters have been designed, modelled and fabricated for a few m/s or L/min to ensure compatibility with building environments. Both systems have been tested in the laboratory and in a real environment.
Water flow energy harvester • First work to optimize a centimeter-scale water flow harvester and ensure its long-term characterization in a real application case (Montpellier Odysseum heating and cooling district). • High output powers at high flow rates (490mW@9m3.h-1) for cold and hot water with very low pipe pressure losses (<50 mbar). Mean power of 5mW (typical LED consumption). • Proportionality between turbine rotational speed, instantaneous power and flow > the system can be used as an autonomous flowmeter. • 4-month test in heating system substation. • Presence of propeller fouling and dirtying did not degrade its operation.
Comparison with thermal energy harvester • Peak at 34.8mW in the real environment due to high ΔT (water temperature 56 °C; substation temperature 17.5 °C), typical power for RF reception. • Ease of installation (no requirement to stop flow since harvesters can be installed around pipes). • High output power at high temperature gradient. • No fouling. • Not suitable for cold water pipes.
Faced by climate change and coupled with the need to secure sustainable economic growth and social cohesion, Europe must achieve a genuine energy revolution to reverse present-day unsustainable trends and live up to ambitious policy expectations. A rational, consistent, far-sighted approach to heating and cooling is key to ensuring this transformation. In this connection, district heating and cooling systems need to be more efficient, intelligent and cheaper. The InDeal project offers an innovative platform that creates a fair distribution of heating and cooling among the buildings within the network by, (i) real–time energy consumption data gathering via artificial intelligent meters, (ii) identifying and evaluating network building needs and demands for heating and cooling depending to energy efficiency, energy consumption and type of building (EDP tool), (iii) predicting short-term and long-term weather conditions, and forthcoming heating and cooling demands (EDP tool), (iv) monitoring and controlling the amount of energy stored in the network storage stations and substations (SMT), (v) ensuring 24/7 monitoring of the DHC system through a central control platform and (vi) minimizing heat losses via novel pipe design solutions and innovative insulation materials. InDeal’s goal is to transform today’s DHCS into a new next-level automated DHCS that will guarantee the system’s higher overall energy efficiency by ensuring fair distribution of heating and cooling energy demands. In achieving this, InDeal represents a significant step forward to wider use of intelligent district heating and cooling systems and integration of renewables, waste and storage.
IMPACT
This first work involved long-term characterization of an optimized water flow harvester in a heating and cooling water network to provide new opportunities for future industrial transfer of the autonomous flowmeter. Impact in the scientific community with a journal publication on the experimental study of axial flow water turbines in Smart Materials and Structures, and presentations at international conferences. New collaborations including close cooperation with NAICTEC (Spain) and SERM (France).
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