R&D PROJECTS

TRENERGY

Acronym: TRENERGY

Time Period: From Jan 2013 to Dec 2015

Partners:

The projet partners are IFP Energies nouvelles (project leader), ALSTOM Transport, ENOGIA and the Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (DynFluid) of Arts et Métiers-ParisTech

 

Total Budget: 2 600 000

Financing:  Agence Nationale de la Recherche

Short description:

TRENERGY is a three-year collaborative project, started in January 1st 2013 and funded by the French National research Agency in the framework of the 2012 edition of the "Sustainable Transport and Mobility" programme. Its purpose is to assess the interest of using a Rankine thermodynamic cycle to recover part of the heat dissipated in the exhaust gas of diesel engines and thus increase the efficiency of the "power packs" providing propulsion for Diesel-electric trains. Up to now, Rankine systems have been mainly used for stationary equipment, although applications to transport have been studied (for trains, trucks, and more recently, cars) or even implemented, in the case  for large ships. For lighter transportation means, several scientific and technical bottlenecks need to be removed before Rankine systems can be considered  cost-effective devices for increasing energy efficiency. Among the main problems of Rankine systems for mobile applications, we can recall those posed by the rapid and uncontrolled variations of the heat source as well as by the limited cooling capacity of the system. The three main research themes of TRENERGY are:
 
    - studying the best control approach for an Organic Rankine Cycle system equipped with a turbine in an application with variable heat source;
    - designing a compact high-efficiency low-power turbine;
    - evaluating a more environmentally-friendly working fluid than those currently being tested for transport applications.

 

Website: http://projet.ifpen.fr/Projet/jcms/xnt_85540/trenergy