New technologies
A heat pump to fight global warming
Audio 02:10
The three Airthium engineers present at the 2022 edition of VivaTech, June 15, 2022. Guillaume Maurin is on the right.
© Leopold Picot
By: Léopold Picot Follow
4 mins
The energy transition is one of the concerns of some young companies present at the VivaTech new technologies fair.
This is the case with Airthium: these engineers are developing a technology to support the production of renewable electricity and restore it within an hour… months later.
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In the
VivaTech show
dedicated to innovation and start-ups in Paris, ecology is trying to take up some space.
However, one of the main challenges for the energy transition is to be able to compensate for the reductions in production of solar panels and wind turbines.
This is what Guillaume Maurin, engineer at
Airthium
, a company that is developing a revolutionary heat pump, reminds us: "
One of the first objectives is to allow 100% renewable electricity to be available all year round. year.
Except that we know that, for example, solar and wind, there is more in summer less in winter or that solar, there is during the day, but there is not night
.
»
A multi-function machine
Hence the interest of the Airthium machine.
It is capable of restoring electricity in a few hours, as well as over several months.
For the short term, for example for the same evening, the machine directly stores the electricity in the form of heat.
Surrounded by two of his colleagues, Guillaume Maurin continues: "
The surplus production that I have via my field of solar panels between 12 p.m. and 4 p.m., while my peak in electricity consumption will be from 6 p.m. p.m. until 11 p.m., let's say, I pass it through my machine, which makes heat and which I store in a huge thermos.
And in the evening, I return the heat that I have stored in this enormous thermos to my machine, I create movement and electricity again.
»
What if solar and wind energy were guaranteed available all year long *and* stayed cheaper than fossil fuels?
If we could store 1 year's worth of renewable energy in clean, recyclable batteries, would climate change still be inevitable?
See for yourself: https://t.co/DhILttlxM6
— Airthium (@Airthium) March 15, 2021
But the real concern is winter.
To compensate for the winter energy drop, the summer electricity surplus must be stored for months, this is called seasonal energy storage.
“
For the summer-winter solution, you need long-term storage.
That's why we would go through liquid ammonia, a form of chemical storage because it's quite easy to do and we can keep it for a long time
, ”explains the young engineer.
Then, you have to be able to restore the stored energy: this is what the prototype pump developed by Airthium does, by burning liquid ammonia.
“
The surplus energy that we have at a time, we use it to produce this synthetic fuel.
And then later, you can burn it: that's the advantage.
And compared to hydrocarbon-type fuel, the advantage is that when you burn, you don't produce CO2, no greenhouse gases
”, ignites Guillaume Maurin.
Anyway, that's in theory: there are still technical limitations to be resolved.
For example, storage with liquid ammonia.
If it is badly burned, it releases fine polluting particles.
Two liquid ammonia storage tanks, each 15,000 tons, on the waterfront of Houston's Vopak Moda Terminal.
© AP-Business Wire
Airthium is therefore employing a doctoral student who is currently working at the University of Louvain to develop burner technology, without flame, which will make it possible to mix the fuel correctly, to play with the temperature in such a way, to ensure that no NOx molecule be produced.
Decarbonizing the hot industry
Another application planned for this pump is to decarbonize part of industry: those that heat up a lot, such as metallurgy.
The Airthium machine rises to high temperatures, up to 500 degrees, that's twice as much as current heat pumps.
It would thus be possible to carry out heat treatment in industry, simply by using renewable electrical energy.
Guillaume Maurin points to the ceiling of the exhibition hall.
“
You see, all the beams up there are galvanized steel.
To do this, the zinc must be heated to 450°C.
This is exactly the temperature where our machine is in its comfort zone
,” explains the scientist.
Despite the challenges to be met, the company's engineers are confident: their heat pump should be marketed within three years for industrialists and long-term storage will be ready in five years.
► If you have any questions or suggestions, you can write to us at
nouvelles.technologies@rfi.fr
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