Awaiting Public Project Summary

The UK 2040 ban on internal combustion engines, and the resulting push towards electrification, in a large part, is aimed at the improvement of air quality. In towns and cities existing and planned Ultra-low emissions zones will enforce this change, but the entirety of the road network will need to support ever greater number of electric vehicles (EVs). The adoption of EVs is a "chicken and egg" scenario of charger availability and demand for charging. However, to encourage individuals and businesses to switch to electric, charging infrastructure must lead. The challenge this represents to organisations, such as Highways England, tasked with facilitating rollout of EV charging, is where to invest in infrastructure ahead of known demand. Upgrading of grid connections, if available, can run into the millions and take years to deploy. Furthermore, it cannot be guaranteed that investment will have been made into the right location. IPG have solved these challenges by bringing the efficiency of centralised power to the microscale. The high temperature ceramics at the heart of IPG's technology will enable delivery of 51% electrical efficiency in 100kW modules. A 45% increase over typical diesel or gas gensets and comparable to combined cycle gas power plants. So, whether a system contains a single module, or 25 in a 2.5MW plant, IPG offer unrivalled fuel-usage and emission reductions. The high efficiency of IPG's turbine system not only cuts CO2 emissions by up to 57% on natural gas, but the innovative use of flameless combustion eliminates harmful pollutant emissions, such as NOx, CO, and particulate matter. Given the flexibility of IPG's flameless combustion, net zero CO2 emissions can be achieved by the utilisation of future fuels such as Hydrogen and Bio-gas. This SME led project seeks to demonstrate the IPG Turbine System as a grid-independent, ultra-low emissions, and low-cost power provider for EV charging solutions. This technology, if deployed across the Highways England network, would both alleviate the grid stress in high usage areas and enable remote locations to facilitate electric vehicle charging, that previously were inaccessible for grid-connected charging units. This could potentially offer the Highways England a solution to facilitate the increasing adoption to electric vehicles. Most critically, this enables Highways England to offer a solution to EV charging that meets the growing demand for electric vehicles in all locations, that offers a vast reduction in emissions, improving air quality for its users.

This SME led technical feasibility project seeks to demonstrate the IPG power system; a grid-autonomous EV charging solution, capable of providing all charging modes, independent of grid restrictions at a competitive cost with ground breaking air quality and emission profile, producing zero NOx, SOx, CO, and particulate matter, with a dramatic reduction in CO2 emissions. IPG’s power unit offers up to 51% electrical efficiency that can be deployed in required modules of 100 kW+, whereby 4 x 100kW modules per 20ft shipping container, that delivers powerplant efficiencies in a low-cost, ultra-low emissions, and scalable turnkey-package with the ability to operate on multi-fuels both gaseous and liquid. The IPG power system reduces CO2 emissions by up to 57%, as well as reducing fuel costs by up to 76% (when on natural gas) compared to diesel generators and gas engines, due to the system high efficiency and innovative use of IPG's flameless combustor that is achieved through utilisation of the turbine exhaust and high heat transfer effectiveness through the IPG regenerator unit. This technology, if deployed across the Highways England network, would both alleviate the grid stress in high usage areas and enable remote locations to facilitate electric vehicle charging, that previously were inaccessible for grid-connected charging units. This could potentially offer the Highways England a solution to facilitate the increasing adoption to electric vehicles. Most critically, this enables Highways England to offer a solution to EV charging that meets the growing demand for electric vehicles in all locations, that offers a vast reduction in emissions, improving air quality for its users.

This project proposes the development of a novel micro-turbine for the optimisation of LFG in electricity generation. The project result will have direct application across all UK landfill sites producing > 80m3/hour (~2000sites), has strong export potential to the EU, and application in developing countries depending on the available infrastructure. Intelligent Power Generation Ltd (IPG) will develop and test at lab scale a novel 300kW cross flow turbine. By utilising a novel ceramic turbine design IPG will overcome the limitations of current Internal Combustion Engines, used by all active UK LFG energy projects, which are unable to combust LFG at low volumes <245m3/hour OR low methane content <30% and have a low efficiency of just 25% when methane content is <40%. By replacing ICE’s with the XFT there will be a 63% increase in electricity generated from the same volume of LFG thus improving UK energy security. Currently just 456 of the ~22,000 UK landfill sites are producing electricity, by extending the operational life of projects the novel turbine produced will enable many closed sites with a low LFG yield to be brought back online =>providing access to an untapped energy source.