The UK’s electricity grid is increasingly going green. Zero-carbon power sources provided 51% of Britain’s electricity by 2023.
However, to avoid straining the grid at peak times and driving energy costs even higher, there is a need to store and shift heating demand through Electrified Thermal Energy Storage (ETES) technology, which allows heat to be stored when electricity is cheap or abundant, and used later when needed. Yet many of the existing systems are expensive, large, and unreliable.
The e-Thermal Bank is a novel ETES technology designed to provide affordable, compact, and reliable heating and cooling, particularly for buildings where traditional solutions such as heat pumps are impractical.
The method was invented by Professor Yongliang Li, Professor in Thermal Energy Engineering at the University of Birmingham, combining microwave heating with thermochemical energy storage to produce heating or cooling on demand, with much higher energy density and lower cost than battery packs. Designed to work with smart electricity tariffs and grid signals, it is expected to achieve lower upfront and running costs, a smaller physical footprint, and the ability to provide both heating and cooling from a single unit.
Professor Yongliang Li in the laboratory
Enterprise supported the team through Innovate UK’s ICURe (Innovation to Commercialisation of University Research) Explore programme. Aimed at helping research teams test their ideas and explore the feasibility of potential spin-outs or licensing opportunities, the programme provided the team with training, funding, and resources to determine whether there is a market for the technology. Enterprise has also supported Professor Li in his consultancy work.
Enterprise helps develop the commercialisation, secure funding, found a venture to build the brand, and develop a strategy for the future. As academics, we aren’t always familiar with this process, and we don’t have the resources on our own.
This market exploration initiative identified crucial applications for the technology to power space heating in domestic and commercial buildings, particularly to support retrofitting social housing and public sector estates, as well as opportunities in disaster relief and industrial heating. Enterprise is looking at developing eThermFlex as an Operating Division or spin-out to help commercialise the technology.
Professor in Thermal Energy Engineering and Director of The Birmingham Centre for Energy Storage (BCES)
Professor Yongliang Li is a Chair in Thermal Energy Engineering in the School of Chemical Engineering. His research interests focus primarily on thermal energy processes and systems.
