It is a reality that today’s energy costs and demanding emissions reduction regulations as EEXI & CII indexes, force many ship owners to consider waste heat recovery systems as an option, in order to allow their vessels sail in a more sustainable and competitive way.
Plenty of Green technologies have flourished in the last years, from EGCS to Wind sails, from hull modification & coating to ORC. Marine Green technologies manufacturers are always forced to step up to the situation and be able to support ship owner with robust and reliable systems and this fairly new eco-system of “Green” manufacturers is drastically changing the maritime sector into a modern, efficient, innovative and eco-friendly industry.
Psyctotherm’s orientation to innovation keeps producing products and systems that improve vessel efficiency and allow greener operation in modern maritime sector. From idea to concept, from concept to research, from research to trials, from trials to test installation this is the way to end up with marine type approved fully commercialized products with running hours in actual installation and candidates for New building shipyards’ makers’ lists.
Through our research branch we are successfully delivering Green systems, focusing on utilization of waste heat produced on board. The technologies of ours that have biggest impact on fuel savings are 1) Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) 2) High Temperature Heat Pumps (HTHP). Both of technologies’ principle of operation are related to typical thermo-dynamic cycles and change of phases and use engineering principles of refrigeration, which is our main field
of occupation. We aim with both technologies to unlock waste heat recovery applications that were not possible in the past and make our systems core items for the ships of the decades to come.
Brief introduction to ORC & HTHP
Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) systems’ principle of operation is similar to the typical water-steam Rankine Cycle, but instead of
water it is uses refrigerant so can operate at lower temperatures. Refrigerant is evaporated using waste heat source and is routed to expander which rotates and produces electricity. Then it goes back to condenser to return to liquid phase and is pumped to evaporator again to close the cycle. System is type approved by IACS class, has received ESD letter and we have installed it in marine application with very positive results, as system keeps running truly auto- mated and unmanned. ORCs can recover waste heat from M/E’s JW, from excess steam or even from exh. gasses.
High Temperature Heat Pumps (HTHP) are truly a niche technology with limited number manufacturers world wide. Principle of operation is similar to typical Heat Pumps, what changes is the operating temperature range, which can reach temperatures up to 120 °C, meaning that heat pumps now can be used at applications that were not ever covered before.
This way heating on board can become very efficient, steam consumption minimized and flexibility maxed.
Psyctotherm Research branch
Our research team is working in the field of heat recovery, upgrade, and conversion to electricity for more than 15 years. Their main technologies are advanced Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) and
High Temperature Heat Pump (HTHP), for exploiting (waste) heat sources. Such as solutions are perfectly suited for ships integration, which reject huge amounts of heat, mostly at low-medium temperature ranges. These amounts of heat can either be converted to electricity or upgraded and reused in the ship processes.
On top of that, all recent regulations bring pressure to the ship owners to enhance energy efficiency of their vessels, reduce CO2 emissions and improve EEDI/EEXI. Psyctotherm research branch fulfills all the above targets with its ORC and HTHP solutions that is the result of long-term intensive research and development.
* Mechanical Engineer N.t.u.A., Technical Sales Engineer at Psyctotherm