IOP Business Innovation Award: FeTu
For the development of a revolutionary heat engine, generating electrical power from waste heat and geothermal sources as low as 40 °C.
A single architecture, which is a blueprint technology for many fluid power applications, the Fenton Turbine, or FeTu, is both the technology and the company. The unique architecture of this simple fluid energy motor employs a novel quad-acting principle, seamlessly converting energy between volumetric and rotational sources at its most basic, fundamental level.
FeTu has established new performance norms in low-temperature power generation, enabling commercially compelling arguments for sustainable power from formerly unexploitable sources, such as geothermal and ultra-low-temperature industrial waste heat. With UK Government support, FeTu is developing the same architecture as an enabling high-temperature heat pump, targeting profound new efficiency levels. The hybrid FeTu architecture combines the most desirable characteristics of radial, axial and reciprocating compression technologies within a single platform, creating a ruthlessly effective and efficient fluid energy machine, which has often been described as resembling a heart.
This multifaceted machine also enables the replacement of volatile high-global warming potential (GWP) refrigerant fluids with a patented zero-GWP refrigeration and heating cycle using nothing more than air. There seem to be few practical limits on how this technology can play a critical and impactful role in the race to net zero.
The action of its unique four-chamber spherical design is elegant and mesmerising to behold, boasting a 100% evacuated volume and only two moving parts. It is lightweight, compact, scalable, low-friction, positive displacement and continuous flow, manufactured from abundant and recyclable materials. Due to its spherical design, it is an ideal pressure vessel and scales up inordinately well from tens of kilowatts to several megawatts.
FeTu’s groundbreaking design provides countless advantages to industrial manufacturers in addressing a comprehensive end-user need to reduce costs and improve their environmental impact by using less and producing more sustainable energy. It sets a new standard for performance and sustainability, unlocking new potential in recovering ultra-low-grade waste heat and beyond.
