RaCiA

The utilisation of waste heat, particularly through electricity generation, is becoming increasingly important for increasing energy efficiency and reducing greenhouse gases. The "RaCiA - Rankine Cycle for Industrial Waste Heat" project aims to support industry in increasing the utilisation of process waste heat.

There are a number of concepts and systems for waste heat generation that work according to the principle of the heat engine, such as steam power and ORC processes or Stirling engines. Nevertheless, the broad implementation of waste heat utilisation through electricity generation in industry has not yet gained momentum.

The exploratory project carried out by Forschung Burgenland and the scientific project partner Technisches Büro Dr Beckmann aims to increase energy efficiency by converting previously unused, and in the best case renewable, low-energy sources into electricity. A new type of steam process was developed to convert waste heat into electricity at low temperatures between 140°C and 550°C. The patented process uses water as the process medium and is based on three-stage flash vaporisation. The process design enables the integration of low-temperature waste heat at different temperature levels.

Based on thermodynamic simulations (IpsePro and EES simulation software) and an ecological assessment (GaBi life cycle assessment software), the innovative process was optimised and compared with state-of-the-art processes. The result shows clear advantages of the new process compared to similar processes (e.g. ORC process) both in terms of efficiency and ecology. For example, the electricity production generated by the novel process was increased by 29% _relative to a conventional ORC process under the same process conditions of the waste heat source.