Horizon Europe is the EU’s key funding programme for research and innovation. Together with a consortium, researcher Dr. Abhishek Singh of the Faculty of ET received a budget of 4 million euro. His project HERCULES introduces a novel breakthrough approach towards thermal energy storage of surplus renewable energy. This is possible via a hybrid thermochemical/sensible heat storage with the aid of porous media made of refractory redox metal oxides and electrically powered heating elements.
The heating elements use surplus/cheap renewable electricity (e.g. from PVs, wind, or other sources) to charge the metal oxide-based storage block by heating it to the metal oxide reduction temperature (i.e. charging/energy storage step) and subsequently (i.e. upon demand) the fully charged system transfers its energy to a controlled airflow that passes through the porous oxide block which initiated the oxidation of the reduced metal oxide.
It is an exothermic process thus a hot air stream (> 1000 oC) is produced during this step which can be used to provide exploitable heat for industrial processes. The waste heat from the industrial process can also be utilized for partial or complete charging of the storage system depending on its temperature and availability. It can also provide heat to the district heating network thereby providing the synergy between the industrial and district heating systems. In this project, the storage solution would be developed for Steel and Recycling industry.
The proposed research will be conducted by an interdisciplinary consortium constituting leading research centers, universities, innovative SMEs, and large enterprises including ancillary service providers and technology end-users.
What is Horizon Europe?
Horizon Europe is the EU’s key funding programme for research and innovation with a budget of €95.5 billion. It tackles climate change, helps to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and boosts the EU’s competitiveness and growth. The programme facilitates collaboration and strengthens the impact of research and innovation in developing, supporting and implementing EU policies while tackling global challenges. It supports creating and better dispersing of excellent knowledge and technologies.
It creates jobs, fully engages the EU’s talent pool, boosts economic growth, promotes industrial competitiveness and optimises investment impact within a strengthened European Research Area. Legal entities from the EU and associated countries can participate.
