2024 R&D 100 Award for High-Efficiency Micro Combined Heat and Power Device

ORNL and Enginuity Power Systems developed a high-efficiency 8-kilowatt micro-CHP, or combined heat and power device, powered by an opposed-piston engine to simultaneously generate electricity and provide heat to residential or light commercial buildings. The micro-CHP can run on natural gas, renewable biogas and hydrogen, enabling the transition from conventional fossil fuels to zero-carbon fuels.

Residential homes and light commercial buildings require substantial heat and electricity simultaneously. However, two-thirds of the energy used by electricity generation in conventional power plants is wasted in the form of heat discharged to the atmosphere, and additional energy is wasted during the transmission and distribution of electricity to end users. This device efficiently generates electrical power and captures heat that would otherwise be wasted, providing useful thermal energy — hot water used for space heating and hot water supply — in a single process and from a single energy source.

The research was funded by DOE’s Building Technologies Office in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

Contributing to the technology were Zhiming Gao, Kashif Nawaz, Ahmad Abuheiba and Brian Fricke of ORNL; and Philip Zoldak, Jacques Beaudry-Losique, Jonathan Mansinger and Maysam Molana from Enginuity Power Systems.