The energy supply in houses and small offices requires energy in multiple forms and typically includes heating and electric power. Heating is normally provided by high efficient condensing boilers, while electricity is normally generated in large power plants and transported to the individual houses. An innovative way to produce the required heat and electricity at the location of the heat load is known as Combined Heat and Power (CHP).
Over the past years, a specific small scale form of CHP has gained huge interest from both the energy industry and from society. These so called “micro-CHP” solutions aim to be used in domestic and SME locations and can fulfill the end-users’ energy demand to a large extent. State of the Art: The development of micro CHP systems has been facilitated by recent developments of various technologies such as the Stirling Engine, Fuel Cells, ORC and gas engines.
These have recently entered the market in low volumes / field tests. However, a typical “chicken-egg” problem is obstructing massive introduction of micro CHP: A large volume is needed to achieve a low cost price, whereas a low cost price is needed to achieve large scale market introduction.
3 kWe Micro Gas Turbine based Micro CHP
Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), TNO and Micro Turbine Technology BV (MTT) have cooperated for several years to solve this problem. Together, they are working on a very innovative solution to this problem: a 3 kWe micro CHP system based on a very small gas turbine. By using commercial off-the-shelve components and technologies from automotive industry (turbocharger components), they are able to build a low-cost, reliable and high-performance micro gas turbine and, in that way, solve the mentioned “chicken-egg” problem.
This relatively cheap solution is possible since already millions of turbochargers are produced yearly for automotive markets. Over the past years, TU/e, TNO and MTT have proven that such a micro turbine can be developed and used in a micro CHP application. In early 2011, an electrical efficiency has been achieved of >17%; which is already high for small 3 kWe engines and a 3 kWe gas turbine in particular.
A micro CHP proof-ofconcept was build and operated from mid 2010 till mid 2011, which produced hot water and electricity, already with a combined efficiency of ~ 83%. It has run for a few hundred hours and performed according to design predictions and proved to be reliable. Modeling shows that electrical efficiencies of > 22% are feasible with a total CHP efficiency (heat and power combined) of > 95%.
PhD Ultra-lean combustion for micro Combined Heat and Power system
