Extract the wasted heat to reduce the bill: the ingenious gamble from a French start up to save industry from losing their energy
According to a study by ADEME, the French industry loses 20 to 40% of its consumed energy in its ovens’ fumes. At more than 100 ° C, this is equivalent to 20 TWh, or more than 700 M € of energy loss each year. To address this issue, a French SME has developed the Eco-Stock: a device that recovers the produced heat before it disappears into thin air, to put it back in the production loop.
“82% of CAC 40 companies do not have a carbon-neutral strategy,” according to a study by Ecoact. In France, 50% of the final energy is consumed in the form of heat, 20 to 40% of this heat is lost in fumes. These losses are considerable. How is it possible to improve the energy efficiency of industries while generating quick and sustainable profits?
This is the question raised by the ETC industrial thermal engineering office in order to recycle this waste. Eco-Tech Ceram (ETC) designs and supplies solutions for the improvement of industrial energy efficiency.
Its first solution, Eco-Stock®, developed within the Global Innovation Competition with the support of Bpifrance and its partners, is an eco-efficient heat accumulator designed to transform a wasted heat source into high value-added heat.
How does Eco-Stock® work?
Inspired by proven technologies, its works simply: it is loaded by capturing the calories of the fumes that pass through it. The stored energy is then recycle to replace fossil energy consumption (drying, preheating of combustion air, steam/cold/electricity production). The system is robust and modular: with a capacity of 3 MWh (the equivalent of 2 barrels of oil), it allows to upgrade fumes up to 1000 ° C to 1MW.
A sustainable solution
“The Eco-Stock® provides a carbon-free heat (180 times less CO2-emitting than natural gas) that avoids the production of 1000 tons of CO2 per year. It is eco-designed with non-strategic materials or even coming from the circular economy “explains Antoine Meffre, founder and president of ETC.
With a return on investment of 3 to 10 years (faster than most new renewable energy installations), Eco-Stock ® is the most cost-effective and sustainable heat storage solution for these power levels today.
“We keep this idea as a leitmotif: Nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is transformed – and we are also convinced that the cheapest energy is the energy that we do not consume “.
Today, a first commercial unit is working, ETC is operating at the European level and carries out a second financing round in order to accelerate its commercial development. Eco-Tech Ceram wants to become a key player in the future of the industry by offering optimum sustainable and cost-effective solutions that improve the energy efficiency of industries.
To find out more about the performance of this first unit or to discover the ETC engineering office, contact Antoine Meffre at antoine.meffre@ecotechceram.com