Reversible thermodynamic energy storage for renewable energy carriers via efficient work to heat to work transformation for the process industries

Renewable energy carriers such as electricity, green hydrogen, solar heat exhibit significant temporal variations; process industry sites must cope with fluctuating energy inputs while meeting stringent energy efficiency, environmental and economic criteria. RECITHERM addresses this challenge by developing innovative energy conversion technology for industrial sites and validating the solutions under varying energy supply and operation conditions. The proposed technology will combine advanced thermodynamic cycles, storage technologies, thermoelectric conversion, and renewable thermal inputs (e.g., solar) into fully integrated innovative prototypes suitable for deployment in real plant conditions. The expected final TRL for proposed technologies will be 6, after the successful execution of the project. During the implementation of the project, the Consortium will address specific challenges such as use case definition though comprehensive analytical screening of renewable generation and on-site industrial demand dynamics; development of advanced numerical component models, development of adequate integrated control system and performance monitoring; AI based short-term demand forecasting, digital twin building. An important outcome of the project will be the installation and experimental testing of two power-to-heat-to-power RECITHERM prototypes in industrial environments. The materialisation of these prototype systems will require strong effort in both system and component innovations to meet specific operation demand. The collected results will be used for model validation, techno-economic and life cycle assessment of the proposed systems. It is expected that the developed solutions will be competitive and more sustainable alternatives to current power-to-power conversion technologies based on electrochemical storage, with a 20% overall in renewable electricity share and 25% reduction in CO2 emissions.