2024-03-22 10:30:53
Recovering waste heat at low temperatures, a crazy dream? However, this is the challenge that the start-up Entent took on thanks to its Pulse technology based on a new thermodynamic cycle. A solution that allows both to control the cost of electricity, but also to decarbonize the industry. Focus on this promising young company which will be exhibiting at the Global Industrie show, from March 25 to 28*.
Created in January 2018 by two young engineers from Polytech Marseille, Mathias Fonlupt and Stéfan Ré, the start-up Entent based in Aix-en-Provence (Bouches-du-Rhône) wants to exploit the waste heat of industrialists. The story begins in 2012 when Mathias Fonlupt invented Pulse, a technology that works on the same principle as organic Rankine cycles (ORC). In a closed circuit, an organic fluid heats up and evaporates on contact with a hot source. The steam thus created will move a piston which will drive a current generator. The excess energy is then dissipated on contact with a cold source in a condenser. The liquid is then put back under pressure and returned to the evaporator.
“Our technology makes it possible to exploit temperatures between 60°C and 150°C, which was previously impossible. This is thanks to a new thermodynamic cycle with very high efficiency. Our solution works like a reverse heat pump: we take heat to produce electricity”develops Clément Schambel, Executive Director/CEO of Entent.
In 2019 the technology was patented and the following year, the start-up was a winner in the i-Lab national innovation competition. In 2021, Entent’s ten employees raise one million euros, which allows it to put its first laboratory prototype into service immediately.
Angels for Greentech from the Angelor network, CAAP Création, a subsidiary of Crédit Agricole Alpes Provence, Business Angels des Grandes Écoles and BPI participated in this inaugural round table.
A pilot unit in 2025
In 2023 and 2024, Entent is carrying out two new fundraising rounds, worth 2 million euros thanks to Caap creation and Team for the planet, with a specific objective: to finance the establishment of its first pilot unit and strengthen its teams. “To upgrade our technology to TRL, which is currently at level 6, we are in the process of manufacturing our first industrial pilot. It will be installed on a partner site over the next year. The unit is imposing: it is a 20-foot container that weighs several tons. This installation will be capable of converting 500 kW of thermal heat into 50 kW of electricity, or 400 mgW per year.adds Clément Schambel.
The technology developed by Entent offers several advantages. In particular, it makes it possible to decarbonize the industry and therefore reduce its carbon footprint. Electricity is also produced locally for consumption on site or redistributed on the network. “The Pulse provides the industrialist with a sustainable and profitable source of energy independent of the weather while having no impact on the existing process. It has the advantage of defining an electricity price for the next 20 years”concludes the executive director of Entent.
* Global Industry 2024 at the Paris Nord Villepinte exhibition center
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