About INFERNO
High-temperature manufacturing industries are energy-intensive, operating furnaces at over 1000 °C continuously, leading to substantial waste heat. In glass production, up to 60% of energy is wasted, and in cement production, 44% is lost as waste heat. The waste heat recovery market, currently valued at €57 billion and growing at 9% annually, is projected to reach €108 billion by 2028. High-temperature industries (>1000 °C) account for only 3% of this market (€3.2 billion).
Despite their high operating temperatures, downstream processes below 800 °C offer significant waste heat recovery potential. Waste heat can be recovered from cooling grates, furnace walls, and flue gases. However, the lack of technology capable of handling high temperatures in volatile environments and the complexity and cost of conventional systems like steam turbines hinder heat recovery adoption.
A new solid-state material-based system, operating at lower temperatures (800 °C or less), could capture a larger market share. Recent studies indicate that high-temperature industries are open to adopting such systems if they prove technically efficient, commercially viable, and easy to integrate into existing production lines.
The INFERNO program will develop a hybrid solid-state Thermophotovoltaic (TPV) – Metasurface Collector (MetaS) – Thermoelectric Generator (TEG) system that can efficiently recover and recycle waste heat into electricity for high-temperature process industries by implementing three pilot demonstrators. INFERNO aims to advance thermoelectrics, and thermophotovoltaics and develop a hybrid and highly modular TPV-TEG system combined with a Metasurface-based Collector that is unique in design, can be easily and cost-effectively retrofitted and integrated for electricity production from industrial waste heat, which will the first of its kind to be tested and validated in real industrial settings.
In this project, we will develop novel TPV cells with a heat-to-electricity conversion efficiency of 25% and eco-friendly and earth-abundant material-based TEG modules with an efficiency of 10%. The INFERNO hybrid system, combining TEG and TPV modules integrated with a unique nanostructured metasurface-based collector and reflector technology, will generate ~15 kW/m2 electricity with ~25% efficiency at temperatures between 500 °C and 800 °C.
Thereby, this project will lay the foundation of a novel approach to design, model and integrate an energy harvesting system that includes two types of solid-state devices for industrial waste heat recovery. Several designs will be investigated to efficiently capture wasted heat from industrial processes.
Objectives
1.
Short-term Objective: Integrate commercially available thermophotovoltaic (TPV) cells, concentrators, and thermoelectric generators (TEG) in the first hybrid system demonstrator.
This will investigate the reliability of current state-of-the-art components and provide experimental data on thermoelectric conversion efficiency to inform the design and development of low bandgap TPV cells, thermal radiation concentrators, and high-temperature TEG technologies.
2.
Mid-term Objective: Integrate the TPV cell with a reflector and TEG device using a liquid-based heat exchanger to individually test each component’s performance and reliability.
Test the hybrid TPV-TEG system in a real industrial setting at a Cement Roadstone Holdings (CRH) company to validate the power generation capability for targeted applications.
3.
Main Objective: Develop a compact energy conversion system to convert industrial waste heat into usable electricity.
Achieve technology breakthroughs in TPV, metasurface-based collectors, TEG, and system integration, creating a European competitive interdisciplinary value chain to enhance the innovation, sustainability, and leadership of the European semiconductor, electronics, and power generator design industries.
