researchers at brunel university (london, england) will be designing three heat pipe-based heat exchangers, fabricated by u.k.-based econotherm and tested in spain, slovenia, and italy, which will be part of project etekina (heat pipe technology for thermal energy recovery in industrial applications) that kicks off in october and is supported by the european union horizon 2020 initiative.
the project will use heat pipes as part of an energy recovery system. (wikimedia commons)
according to an announcement from the school, the £700,000 project is designed to cut energy waste in europe’s steel, ceramics, and aluminum industries to meet the eu energy requirements of cutting greenhouse gases by 40 percent by 2030.
the brunel team will lead the project to overcome challenges such as space, transport, corrosive heat sources, and transporting and integrating heat from separate process, which has hindered previous attempts at making waste energy recovery systems profitable.
the announcement stated, “the heat recovery systems they’ll develop will need to be safe, self-cleaning and have online monitoring and use the same mechanical design. the brunel team will test a range of designs from steam generators and condensers to recouperators and evaluate each on the amount and quality of waste heat streams and the form of heat energy needed.”
dr. hussam jourhara from the brunel institute of energy futures added, “etekina could be easily used in 296 industries where it has potential applications in plastic and chemical production. the potential for heat pipes is exponentially growing with a substantial annual energy saving.”
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