Heliex prototype to screw down energy costs
6 Jun 2011
East Kilbride, UK – Scottish start-up company Heliex Power Ltd has unveiled an energy recovery system that, it claims, can boost efficiency in power production and industrial processes. The unit is the latest stage in the commercial development of steam screw expander technology patented by City University in London.
The system, being displayed at Powergen Europe in Milan is a 250kWe generator set using a screw expander to extract energy from water at 30 bar and 250 deg C input conditions. It has applications in many industrial processes but the particular unit on display is for geothermal power generation in Australia.
Heliex Power, based in East Kilbride, Scotland, is a spin out from work at City University on screw compressor technology. Financial backers include BP Alternative Energy Ventures.
“Our system promises a rare combination of radical advances in industrial energy efficiency with low-risk because it is based on tried-and-tested technology. It uses established manufacturing methods and materials,” said Dan Wright, Heliex founder and chief executive.
“Heliex’s technology lightens the growing burden for industry created by escalating energy costs by capturing energy traditionally lost in a variety of industrial processes ranging from power generation to dairy operation and marine propulsion,” he added.
Heliex’s screw expander system has applications in any process that produces waste heat, including wet steam at 130 to 300 deg C. Current applications are in electricity generation, oil, gas and chemical industries, pharmaceuticals, food processing and paper production.
Industrial and marine diesel engines and gas turbines, CHP systems, geothermal power stations and processes utilising steam pressure reduction valves can also improve their energy economics through the screw expander sets, the company adds.
The Heliex steam screw expander set on display in Milan is a 250kWe unit designed to operate with water or steam up to 30bar pressure and 250 deg C temperature. The set weighs 2,5 tonnes including expander, alternator, drive system and controls. It is 3.1m long, 1.4m wide and 2m high.
Heliex expanders have applications in closed or open systems. They work with wet steam and even liquid water between 130 and 300 deg C. The Heliex range will comprise expanders with outputs from 70 to 500kWe. The sets can be supplied in multiple installations for higher powers. In due course larger bespoke machines will be produced.
In the Heliex closed system the Heliex set has its own boiler and condenser, and extracts energy from a flow of hot waste fluid from an industrial process. This can be gaseous, liquid or two-phase. The energy typically is recovered through electricity generation. In the Heliex open system the Heliex set replaces the pressure reduction valve in steam industrial processes. In this arrangement, electricity is generated using low grade steam from the customer‚s own processes. This system makes profit for the customer through the price difference between the fuel burned in the boiler and the electricity generated by the expander. The electricity can be sold to the grid at feed in tariff or used in-house.
Heliex expander systems are self-contained skid mounted sets and are designed to sit on normal factory floors or roadways without special foundations. They are transportable by fork-lift truck and are designed for indoor and outdoor installation to ingress protection standard IP66. The customer need only connect the steam or heat source input and output piping, the power electrical cable, a single phase electrical supply for control and instrumentation and a small diameter 7bar air line for the internal control valve actuator.
Heliex Power was established in 2009 as a spin out using exclusive licensed patented steam screw expander technology of City University, London. The company, which has just begun trading, was set up to focus on the commercial realisation of the university‚s systems. The company has its offices and manufacturing facilities in East Kilbride, Scotland.
