Piston machine to generate more electricity from waste heat
Die etavalve GmbH will die Produktion von Strom aus Abwärme durch eigens dafür entwickelte Kolbenmaschinen steigern. Die Empa unterstützt das Vorhaben mit einem Entrepreneur Fellowship für ihren ehemaligen Doktoranden und etavalve-Mitgründer Andyn Omanovic.
The Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology(Empa) has awarded its former doctoral student Andyn Omanovic an Entrepreneur Fellowship. It is intended to contribute to the development of a new type of reciprocating machine that can be used to increase the generation of electricity from waste heat, Empa explained in a press release. The project will be realised by etavalve GmbH from Zurich, which was founded by Omanovic and hydraulics expert Wolfgang Schneider as a spin-off from Empa and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich(ETH).
Currently, the conversion of waste heat into electricity is mainly carried out using turbines. However, turbines are “particularly effective for high temperatures and for power requirements of several hundred megawatts”, explains Omanovic in the press release. “But for temperature ranges of around 500 to 900 degrees, where waste heat is generated irregularly, and up to the power range of several megawatts, our reciprocating engine is better suited.”
The start-up has already found a partner for an initial practical test in the form of energy supplier IWB in Basel. By the beginning of 2025, etavalve aims to have developed a pilot machine that IWB will use in the process of converting biomass into biochar. The lean gas produced during pyrolysis contains methane and gaseous pollutants and must be incinerated as required by law. An initial small series of piston machines for the combustion of lean gases is to follow shortly afterwards.