Turnbull & Scott have been developing an idea that would allow for the storage and transfer of waste heat energy. The opportunity for such a solution emerged from recognition by the T&S team that there was an increasing number of enquiries from industrial customers that had excess waste heat but no immediate or near time use for any, or all, that they had available.
The project seeks to determine the feasibility of recovering surplus waste heat from industrial sites to a heat store, then transporting the heat store to a secondary site or heat network where the heat can be discharged and reused. It will combine the company’s expertise in the design of heat exchangers with the use of phase change materials (PCMs). The company’s research and design team are building models to predict and optimise the sometimes conflicting goals of Thermal Efficiency, Transportability, Charge/Discharge times, and of course costs.
T&S will construct a test unit this year, allowing for the testing of heat loss during transportation, discharge times, combinations of mediums, and PCMs. They hope to find and install a demonstration site in 2024.
To develop the idea further, Turnbull & Scott have been selected as one of 16 companies to share a Scottish Enterprise fund that aims to strengthen Scotland’s ‘green heat’ supply chain. The support is set to bolster the development of novel products and processes that support the transition to low carbon heat or improve the thermal performance of buildings.