MUMBAI, India, Sept. 22 -- Intellectual Property India has published a patent application (202641097965 A) filed by Sri Eshwar College Of Engineering on August 12, 2026, for Co-Located Circular Economy Refinery (ccer-1500).
Inventors include Dr. S. Sumathi; Devaranjan J; K S Abishek; and Birundha S.
The application for the patent was published on September 18, 2026, under issue no. 38/2026.
Abstract: This invention comprises the development of a modular, bench-top scale device and method for the co-location recovery of industrial waste heat, wastewater and green hydrogen through a zero vacuum gap near-field thermophotovoltaic (z-TPV) device. In particular, the present invention integrates a ceramic-copper thermal emitter assembly, a sub-100 nanometer near-field photovoltaic junction, and a gallium antimonide (GaSb) photovoltaic cell to convert 700-900° C. industrial waste heat to direct current electricity without any mechanical parts. The unique feature of the invention is a 3-stage processing pipeline whereby the recovered electricity, through a maximum power point tracking converter, is directed to a proton exchange membrane electrolyser while concurrently using the recovered process heat for treating co- located industrial wastewater in a thermal crystallisation unit. Different from the existing standalone waste heat recovery and industrial wastewater treatment devices, this invention recovers the salts, metals, and phosphorus compounds from the wastewater in a saleable form and produces demineralised water to generate hydrogen through electrolysis. The electrolyser produces ultra-pure hydrogen gas along with a medical-grade oxygen by-product, thus making possible the production of green hydrogen in a grid-free fashion and at substantially reduced costs compared to electrolysis. Thus, the integration of heat recovery, wastewater treatment and hydrogen generation in a machine-mounted single device provides a powerful solution for the reduction of industrial energy losses, effluent management and hydrogen production costs. As such, the invention provides a powerful solution for MSME and heavy industry decarbonization, circular economy and on-site green hydrogen production. Hence, this invention provides a self-powered industrial retrofit with by-product generation which improves existing furnaces, kilns and reactors by integrating TPV energy recovery with wastewater treatment and electrolysis.
Disclaimer: Curated by HT Syndication.
