New super-efficient power system

Under development in UK

Biology News

It works by burning vegetable oil to power a generator and provide electricity for the home.

The waste heat from this process is then used to provide heating and hot water and is also converted to cool a fridge.

At each step, the waste heat produced from engine gases and cooling is used elsewhere to recover the maximum amount of energy from the system.

In addition to this, the plants that produce the fuel for the system absorb carbon as they grow – resulting in near zero overall carbon emissions.

Producing these three forms of energy (generation of electricity, heating, and cooling) for home use is known as micro-trigeneration, and this new design will take this approach to power geneation to the next level.

Led by experts at the Sir Joseph Swan Institute for Energy Research at Newcastle University and drawing on expertise from across the UK and China, the design also includes a unique energy storage system. This allows home owners to store extra electrical energy during off-peak times — for example during the night — and efficiently release it when it is needed most.

Project leader Tony Roskilly, of Newcastle University, explained: "The supply of electricity, heating and cooling can be optimized by this one, efficient and sustainable system. The combination of the generator and energy storage provides new ways to respond to changing energy demand in the home."

One of the potential oils to be used in the system comes from the seeds of an African tree, Croton megalocarpus, which produces abundant oily seeds.

Using C. megalocarpus as an oil source brings with it the advantage of being able to produce energy on land that is not suitable for traditional farming or food production — providing a fuel without sacrificing land for food crops.

Drawing on the modeling expertise of scientists at Ulster University, the team will build a full-scale prototype of the system.

The energy storage system, being developed with Leeds University, will supply electricity and cooling — helping to ensure that the correct form of energy is available at the right time and that the engine operates at its optimum efficiency.

Newcastle University’s Dr Yaodong Wang, said that this form of energy system for the home would be highly efficient.

"In the past, a significant barrier to the take-up of domestic scale micro-trigeneration systems has been the availability of the right energy at the right time," he explained.

"A household has varying energy demands depending on the time of day and the time of year.

"By integrating new energy storage technology with the micro-trigeneration system we have the potential to overcome this barrier and make an impact on future domestic energy supply."