InTEGrated – Development of innovative TEG systems

Background

  • A huge amount of waste heat occurs during steel making processes which is given unused to the environment. Using these waste heat could be a step to a climate neutral steel production.
  • Thermoelectric materials are semiconductors which exhibit a strong relationship between a current flow in the material and the passage of heat through the material. Thus, thermoelectric generators (TEG) could be one option to use both radiative and convective waste heat.

Objectives

  • InTEGrated is the continuation of the previous THERELEXPRO project (RFSR-CT-2013-00029). Based on the achievements of the previous project, InTEGrated aims to develop thermoelectric generators more suitable for the exploitation of waste energy recovery at steelmaking plants
  • Design new TEG systems based on the concepts of compactness and modularity, reducing the assembly and installation costs at the end user, and overheating protection systems, preventing harmful effects on the devices.

Innovative content

  • A highly innovative heat pipe-based heat extraction (which works also as an overheating protection system) for heat transfer to the TEMs and a PCM based overheating protection of the TEMs.
  • An ad hoc finite difference “system model” able to simulate the performance of the prototypes intended as complete systems.

Potential benefits for the industry

  • InTEGrated will address improved energy management within steel plants by optimized energy harvesting through new TEG systems, to produce electricity from waste heat, implying a reduced amount of electricity produced from fossil fuels and thus reduced CO2 and other emissions, in turn addressing improved sustainability.

Funded by: Research Fund for Coal and Steel (RFCS)

Duration: 01.07.2020 – 31.12.2023

Link: https://www.integrated-euproject.eu/

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