Most individuals are aware of the position of photo voltaic and wind energy within the power transition. Many would additionally learn about how clear hydrogen gasoline and huge batteries try to interrupt into the market.
However electrical engineer Vijay Prateik believes there are nonetheless gaps left to fill.
The world, he says, wants methods of storing energy that are sturdy and simple to move, whereas the warmth radiating from industrial boilers and smelters can be utilised.
The 32-year-old first-generation entrepreneur has been making an attempt to resolve each issues with a brand new type of power storage that makes use of thermal power, as an alternative of electrical energy, as the first enter. His answer includes pairing a generator with superior supplies – ones that may retailer and launch warmth from their chemical bonds on command. The mixture, he notes, provides method to an influence plant that may run on waste industrial warmth relatively than fossil fuels to both ship electrical energy again to factories or into energy grids to help the set up of intermittent renewables. That is what Prateik’s start-up, deMITasse Energies, based in 2011, is making an attempt to grasp.
Whereas such thermo-chemical purposes are nascent with few gamers within the area, Prateik stays undeterred, and decided to search out methods to cut back prices within the subsequent few years to make sure the business viability of his answer. DeMITasse Energies has acquired backing from authorities, analysis and company stakeholders in India.
He returned house to India from the US after graduating from the Massachusetts Institute of Expertise (MIT) to work on his start-up, however is now contemplating an growth again in america, and establishing a analysis base in Singapore.
Prateik believes that the local weather and clear power problem requires a larger give attention to nascent applied sciences to decarbonise areas that conventional renewable energy struggles in. Policymakers must also chorus from making exaggerated guarantees in “poster-boy” clear applied sciences, comparable to photo voltaic and wind, he added.
On the again of his Sustainability Management A-Record win, Eco-Enterprise caught up with Prateik to listen to extra about his future plans, ideas on India’s sustainability innovation scene, and what it will take to decarbonise the world’s most populous nation.
They don’t have the gleam of photo voltaic panels, nor the aerodynamic curves of new-build electrical automobiles. However the power storage and energy plant system deMITasse Energies is creating, a prototype of which inbuilt Bangalore, India, proven right here, may assist generate energy utilizing waste warmth from industrial boilers and furnaces, a vastly untapped power supply right this moment. Picture: deMITasse Energies.
What supplies are you utilizing for thermo-chemical power storage?
We developed our personal inorganic artificial chemical compounds. As a comparability, there’s this class of naturally occurring mineral referred to as zeolites, which can react with polar substances like water and chlorine to surrender power in a reversible course of.
The massive problem is agglomeration, the place, after a few cycles, zeolites type a rock-like construction with decrease thermal conductivity. This is the reason such supplies haven’t discovered many business purposes exterior of laboratories. We’re amongst a handful of corporations throughout the globe that have perfected its use.
We even have our personal working fluids and catalysts, which when used collectively, make a well-oiled machine.
How has 2023 been for deMITasse Energies?
We had an excellent 2023. Two main corporations partnered with us, and have made progress in increasing overseas.
One is Larsen & Toubro, which is one of many largest navy producers right here in India and is engaged on an unmanned submarine challenge. Getting power with out combustion was a key subject for them. Coincidentally, deMITasse Energies was initially shaped to resolve this actual drawback with the US Navy. Having a navy producer come again to us for a similar utility we began with was kind of a pleasant loop again for us.
The second firm is Thermax, one of many world’s largest boiler producers. We’re concerned in creating their next-generation boilers with power storage know-how. That may be a enormous vote of approval from the economic sector.
We’re additionally establishing our US firm. We might be transferring our headquarters there, and we now have began hiring folks. We had been supplied to maneuver to Colorado by the governor in 2021, however Covid-19 delayed issues. We’ve now employed a former advisor to US president Joe Biden, who’s on our crew for the US growth. The marketplace for power storage may be very developed there, and we’re wanting ahead to constructing an indication plant in Might, kind of like a show-and-tell, which we did in India final yr.
We at present have a five-kilowatt system with power storage for about 50 hours in New Delhi, and the one within the US might be related.
What’s your long-term imaginative and prescient?
I imagine the dimensions we will attain is considerably bigger. We need to attain about 300-megawatt baseload provide with a minimum of 72 hours of grid-scale storage within the subsequent 5 years.
We’re focusing within the subsequent 5 years primarily in america and again house – which incorporates India and the bigger Southeast Asia and Asia Pacific market. At this time, India lets about 20,000 megawatt-hours (MWh) of power go to waste yearly, whereas the US wastes about 10,000MWh, from their industries.
These markets are enormous for us – we might want to develop enormous manufacturing capabilities and manufacture specialised merchandise for every market due to their completely different environmental circumstances and necessities.
Actually, we’re at present contemplating if we must always relocate our India workplace to Singapore, due to expertise. India has many engineers however they’re principally in infotech and software program. Singapore, however, is a really sturdy analysis and improvement base with extra beneficial tax charges and monetary regulation.
So we’re having about 40 to 50 employees within the US specializing in analysis and improvement, and gross sales. In Singapore, we’d have 10 to fifteen employees solely in analysis and improvement, primarily in nano and artificial chemistry. That is up from the 12 staff we now have now.
How’s funding coming alongside?
We need to shut our Collection A funding in March or April this yr. We’re very near closing some offers, at a ballpark of about US$10 million.
Why solely pursue Collection A funding now?
I used to be approached by enterprise capital corporations earlier, however I had sufficient financial savings to get by, particularly once I didn’t have staff and overhead prices, so it was comparatively simple to bootstrap. All of the funding I acquired earlier went to creating the chemical compounds.
In hindsight, whereas issues might have moved faster if I had accepted funding earlier, it didn’t appear proper to simply accept cash for one thing that wasn’t but developed.
In 2022 we selected to boost a pre-Collection A fund to construct the demonstration prototype in Delhi. The explanation we’re elevating Collection A funding now’s to develop to the US, commercialise the know-how, and rent high-quality staff.
What received you into the sustainability area initially? I do know you began with a navy background, however later pivoted.
I’m {an electrical} engineer, and I’ve been serious about just a few areas. Sustainability and renewables is one among them, whereas navy is one other.
On renewables, lots of people imagine that renewables will save the planet. I additionally imagine that renewables is the way in which ahead. However we’re nonetheless closely depending on fossil fuels and will possible proceed to take action for an additional 30, 40…possibly 100 years. Fossil fuels are simply too environment friendly of an power supply. So it’s a kind of mission for me to resolve this drawback.
After I was in school, I additionally got here up with a small bladeless hydropower turbine in Northern India, within the Himalayan area, for the remoted villages with out entry to electrical energy. Whereas the turbine labored nicely at low stream velocities, there was pink tape and I used to be busy learning, so the challenge by no means actually went additional.
So I’ve at all times discovered the sustainability area to be a hotbed of innovation. There may be a lot that may be performed.
For my present work, we had initially pivoted from a navy focus to automobiles – reusing waste warmth in automobiles to recharge batteries. However Tesla was already a factor within the US then, and competing in opposition to them can be tough, so we pivoted once more to stationary power purposes – that is the place we now have been up to now seven years or so.
Aren’t you competing in the identical area as clear hydrogen gasoline?
There are a number of techno-commercial points with hydrogen. It really works on smaller scales, but when it’s important to substitute the whole provide chain it turns into extraordinarily tough – particularly since it’s tough to retailer securely. Gasoline cells are additionally costly. Hydrogen is just not going to be mainstream for the following 10 to twenty years, a minimum of.
That stated, we now have many areas of synergy with hydrogen. We will positively be a hydrogen service, or retailer power from burning hydrogen for simpler transport into distant areas, by lorry as an example.
India is a big, fast-growing nation. What do you suppose is most wanted to hurry up the power transition within the nation?
As I stated, once I was in school and dealing on my facet challenge, the pink tape was a nightmare. India at all times had a separate ministry for brand spanking new and renewable power, but it surely by no means actually did a lot [India also has separate ministries for coal, oil and gas, and power].
However right this moment, issues are simpler. The federal government is revolutionary options from each huge and small corporations, so that could be a nice step in the appropriate course. We see the identical pattern within the US.
The difficulty can be that we are inclined to have this poster little one – the important thing applied sciences that get all the eye – that are wind and photo voltaic. Now you most likely can embody lithium-ion [batteries] too. However the issue is these applied sciences have already been round for 3 a long time, and they’re at some degree of maturity. There may be solely a lot that may be performed; in the event that they had been supposed to resolve the local weather disaster they might have already got performed {that a} decade again.
A 12-megawatt peak photo voltaic farm in Telangana, India. The nation needs to have 500 GW of put in energy capability from non-fossil gasoline sources by 2030. Solar energy capability reached over 70 GW final yr. Picture: Wikimedia Commons/ Thomas Lloyd Group.
So we have to cease overpromising. India does a number of these theatrics, as an example, by talking of 100 per cent clear power within the coming a long time. The numbers don’t lie, it’s not going to occur. Some years in the past Nitin Gadkari, the highway transport and highways minister, had claimed that each one automobiles in India can be zero-emission, and firms not would shut store. He later softened his stance. Such actions might give good political mileage however don’t present readability on the way in which ahead.
The extra reasonable strategy is to give attention to newer applied sciences that may remedy clear power points. Past deMITasse Energies, there are different developments, as an example, batteries promising to price as little as US$40 a kilowatt-hour. Additionally, power effectivity applied sciences are usually very ignored.
You’ve stated earlier than that you’re impressed by the quantity of innovation popping out of the Massachusetts Institute of Expertise, the place you studied. What do you suppose is required for Indian establishments to match the extent of MIT within the clear power area?
We’re not there but, however then once more, the Indian Institutes of Expertise (or IITs – about two dozen public varsities nationwide) are about 60 years outdated, and MIT has been round for over 160 years.
The factor is, India right this moment has turn into very centered on infotech, software program and companies. After I was in an IIT over 10 years again, folks had been speaking about advancing core applied sciences, dealing with liquid nitrogen and so forth. At this time, IITs have turn into a hotbed for start-ups, for making enterprise plans and determining methods to ship cleaning soap to your home in 5 minutes.
That may be a worthwhile pursuit, however core applied sciences shouldn’t be uncared for – so that is one space we’re missing. I returned to India from the US to start out deMITasse Energies, as a result of I assumed India would profit from our know-how, however hiring has been tough, particularly for analysis and improvement.
The previous governor of the Reserve Financial institution of India, Raghuram Rajan, printed a e book just a few weeks again, arguing whether or not India ought to transfer away from manufacturing, as it’s one thing international locations like China have taken over. I’ve at all times had enormous respect for Raghuram, but it surely was demoralising to listen to his argument.
In spite of everything, all first-world international locations have leveraged manufacturing and innovation to get to the highest. Whereas India is sweet at low-innovation manufacturing, say, of standard boilers, constructing one thing new is the place we’re lagging, and the place international locations comparable to Japan and Singapore have continued to excel in. India, in brief, must play catch up – particularly within the subject of inexperienced applied sciences.
The interview has been edited for brevity and readability.
Vijay Prateik was one among 10 sustainability leaders chosen for the Eco-Enterprise A-Record 2023. Learn our tales with the opposite winners right here.
