21. März 2019

Innovator of the Year: AAA Efficiency

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An energy innovation from Germany with worldwide potential

Climate protection, energy efficiency and sustainability are burning issues concerning the future. But really advanced solutions are not found in prohibitions and price increases, but rather when climate protection finds itself coming together with competitive advantages. As with this innovation from Germany, which generates CO2-neutral electricity from previously unused industrial waste heat: AAA Efficiency is nominated as „Innovator of the Year“.

The possibilities that this new method brings with it is huge. Worldwide, in production plants, industrial plants, in factories or on ships, enormous residual amounts of unused energy dissipate through waste heat into the environment. When summed up, these residual amounts represent a gigantic potential that corresponds to the power production capacity of many existing power plants, which are known to be heavily responsible for CO2 emissions.

An enormous potential

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for example states that the unused waste heat worldwide adds up to 8,300 tera watt-hours per year – that’s 8,300 billion kilowatt-hours – of which alone around 500 tera watt hours stem from Germany. Converted into energy costs, this adds up to round about one trillion euros of senselessly wasted energy per year worldwide.

With the technology developed by AAA Efficiency a large amount could be put to use – for example, to operate e-mobility as a genuinely clean-powered propulsion system, as it is then powered via the CO2 neutral power supply from „waste heat“ rather than partly from fossil fuel generated electricity.

„Up to now, the energy transition has mainly been determined by the expansion of the renewable energies wind, sun and biomass. With the effect that an ‚asparaguizing and overproduction of maize‘, the demand for electrical highways and in addition steadily rising electricity prices is increasingly leading to protest from the general public. In this situation, the new technologies for converting waste heat into electricity are finally strengthening the second, so far neglected pillar of the energy transition, the energy efficiency, “ states Gene Gerrienne, Country Manager UK & International Markets of the renowned technology innovation rating agency Early Metrics, when speaking about AAA Efficiency.

Unprecedented low inlet pressure made available

The highlight: This process allows the use of even minimal residual waste heat, which could hitherto not be used by the existing energy recovery systems.

The AAA system, which can be integrated without costly and lengthy downtime, acts as a kind of microgrid (decentralized energy supplier), converting residual heat into CO2-neutral electricity – here as a test system in a steel company

Essentially a process of heat-energy conversion, which can already be implemented starting from an inlet pressure of 0.5 bar. As a completely unproblematic convertible microgrid (decentralized energy supplier), it converts residual heat into CO2 neutral electricity. The resulting cost efficiency (from 1.35 cents EUR / kWh cost price) and the scalability of the modified technology (10kW to 500kW with input pressure from 0.5 bar) open up fields of application that can soon make a real contribution to the protection of the climate and energy worldwide – simply because they now pay off.

Producing waste from energy – in almost every business

The main goal of the AAA technology: Electricity generation from previously unusable minimum residual waste heat

Possible because the electricity generated can be fed back into its own electricity grid or even fed into public power grids. Much less expensive than any other power-generating process, such as coal-fired power plants, gas-fired power plants, nuclear power plants, photovoltaic power plants or wind turbines, is capable of.

Thanks to the continuous practical research and scientific evaluation of German engineers and scientists, this potential can be raised in the future by virtually every residual heat generator within the operator model of AAA Efficiency – for every imaginable industry on this globe, that now uses its residual heat waste to improve CO2 emissions.

„For the first time it has been made possible to extremely economically produce from ‚low-grade energy‘, namely waste heat at a low level, a higher-quality energy, namely electricity. A revolution on the international energy market seems to be taking place“, says Christian Speer, Senior Executive of MMWarburg Bank and Chairman of the Advisory Board of AAA Efficiency AG. This, according to Speer, would affect not only the global industrial sector, but also the shipping industry, which is currently also focusing on its CO2 emissions.

An economic-historical circle closes: the story took its beginning underground

The innovation is a virtually perfect example of German inventiveness, and its history makes it even more exciting. After all, what is now newly organized and structured under the name of AAA Efficiency and ready for worldwide use, began in coal mining in the Ruhr region. There, the inventor of the process worked as technical director and was responsible for the exact opposite: namely the conversion of electricity to coldness underground. The idea of reversing the procedure was laughed at in the beginning. But first attempts showed quickly: Here something groundbreaking has been initiated.

In recent years, the technology has been successfully tested in a total of ten projects under real conditions with well-known German industry leaders. The performance data was checked and certified by the TÜV. With this, the possible performance data verified in a Fraunhofer study have come true. The now internationally patented process makes residual heat usable, which so far had not been developed economically. Founded this month as AAA Efficiency AG, now the international marketing of a variety of applications has begun.

From an idea to innovation and a countable contribution to real climate protection

The technology of AAA Efficiency is a prime example of what inventors and team spirit are capable of. For the AAA Efficiency team of physicists, engineers, technicians and industrial masters from the fields of physics, thermodynamics, power engineering and control engineering years of unremitting research and a belief in contributing to a cleaner world and developing their vision of a more climate-friendly energy recovery has now become reality.

For the pioneering development of a climate-friendly and cost-reducing energy recovery system, AAA Efficiency has been nominated as Innovator of the Year and is eligible for the Audience Award 2019.

Visit AAA: https://aaaefficiency.net
Find out more about the Business Price Innovator of the Year 2019 here.