Thermal Energy Recovery in Industrial Applications

ETEKINA is an EU funded research project aiming to recover 57-70 % of the waste heat stream in energy intensive industries. ETEKINA stands for “heat pipE TECHnologies for INdustrial Applications” and officially started October 2017.

Ten companies and institutes from across Europe have joined forces to improve the energy performance of energy intensive processes. Their solution is based on heat exchanger technology (HPHE) using heat pipes for thermal recovery. As part of the project, three HPHE prototypes will be built and tested for three different production plants in the aluminium, steel and ceramics sectors. The different industrial environments produce different exhaust streams with different waste heat quantity and quality (chemical composition, different particles coming out along with the gases, temperature and pressure of the flue gases, …), and provide different processes where the recovered heat might be utilized. The challenge: the recovery solution should be adapted increasing the overall efficiency and being cost-effective.

The Heat Pipes Heat Exchanger units will be designed by experts from Brunel University London (United Kingdom). Waste heat technology specialist Econotherm (United Kingdom) will manufacture the heat pipe heat exchangers and install them at the following demonstration sites:

• Aluminium Production: Fagor Ederlan (Arrasate, Spain)

• Steel Production: SIJ Metal Ravne (Ravne na Koroškem, Slovenia)

• Ceramic Production: Atlas Concorde (Modena, Italy)

All activities relating to the practicability and efficiency of the aluminium parts production will be supported by Ikerlan (Spain), a non-profit technological research centre and ETEKINA’s project coordinator as well as by Insertec (Spain), a manufacturer of furnaces.

The Jožef Stefan Institute (Slovenia), a scientific research institute, will mainly analyse the practicability and efficiency of steel production. The same will be done for the ceramic production by the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (Italy).

The European Science Communication Institute (ESCI) based in Germany is the projects’ media partner and will lead the communication and dissemination activities to engage with the public and various stakeholders.

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Meet the Principal Investigator(s) for the project

Professor Hussam Jouhara - Having worked in academia and the industry, Hussam has unique expertise in working on applied heat exchangers and energy-related research activities with direct support from research councils and various UK and international industrial partners. He has extensive expertise in designing and manufacturing various types of heat exchangers, including heat pipes and heat pipe-based heat exchangers for low, medium and high temperature applications. His work in the field of heat pipe based heat exchangers resulted in novel designs for recouperators, steam generators & condensers and flat heat pipes. These have been implemented across various industries including, but not limited to: food, electronics thermal management and low to high industrial waste heat recovery and Energy from Waste. Over the last few years, he has successfully managed to achieve new designs for industrial waste heat recovery and many thermal systems that have enhanced the performance of various industrials processes in the UK, Europe and world-wide. He is also an elected member of the Senate of Brunel University London.  Throughout his academic and industrial career, he received over £14.1M research funding from various UK/EU based research councils (RCUK & EU H2020) and from British and European industrial partners. He is a published author of academic books with many filed patents in areas related to heat pipes engineering and manufacturing and Energy from Waste systems. He is a Chartered Engineer and Fellow of both Engineers Ireland (Ireland) and IMechE (UK). Hussam is the founder and the Head of the Heat Pipe and Thermal Management Research Group in Brunel University London.  Major projects as a Principal Investigator in Brunel: Technical Director of: Innovative WAter recoverY Solutions (iWAYS) - H2020 Technical Coordinator of: Heat Pipe Technologies for Industrial Applications (ETEKINA) - H2020 Technical Coordinator of: Prefabrication, Recyclability and Modularity for cost reductions in Smart BIPV systems (PVADAPT) - H2020 Climate and cultural based design and market valuable technology solutions for Plus Energy Houses.  (CULTRAL-E) - H2020 Innovative Polymer-Based Composite Systems for High-Efficient Energy Scavenging And Storage (InComEss) - H2020 Design for Resource and Energy efficiency in cerAMic kilns (DREAM) - H2020 STEP – Heat Pipe Design Challenge for Hot Plasma Cooling - UKAEA High-Power and High-Energy Battery Systems with Integrated Structural Thermal Management for Heavy-Duty Applications - Innovate UK Roadmap for Industry - Academia collaboration between Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, Argos Cement Company, Brunel University London and Econotherm in heat recovery in large industrial systems - Royal Academy of Engineering Conceptual Feasibility of a Heat Pipe as a Structural and Thermal Member in an Automotive Battery Pack Design - Innovate UK IMproving Power bAttery Cooling Technologies (IMPACT) - Innovate UK Room Temperature Passive Heat Recovery with Heat Pipe - Innovate UK Controllable bidirectional heat recovery device - Knowledge Transfer Network Erva Mate Drying - Innovate UK Active refrigeration shelf with thermal storage - Innovate UK EDUCATION Ph. D. (Mechanical Engineering), 2004, University of Manchester, UK PROFESSIONAL CREDENTIALS Institution of Mechanical Engineers (UK): Chartered Member and Fellow (CEng, FIMechE)  CIBSE (UK): Fellow (CEng FCIBSE) Engineers Ireland: Chartered Engineer and Fellow (CEng, IntPE, FIEI)  Institute of Refrigeration (UK): Member (M.Inst.R)  TEACHING CREDENTIALS P. G. Cert. in Higher Education, 2010, Brunel University, Uxbridge, UB8 3PH, UK. Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA), 2017, UK  

Related Research Group(s)

Heat Pipe and Thermal Management - Thermal management; Energy efficiency development; Emission reduction; Energy recovery; Heat-pipe technology; Heat exchangers; Fluid dynamics.

Project last modified 13/10/2023