Luminescent: The World's First Isothermal Heat Engine
- Asher Aharonov
- Sep 11, 2024
- 4 min read
Updated: May 27
In an era where clean energy production is increasingly crucial, LAVA (formerly Luminescent) emerges as a game-changing innovator in the green energy sector. This Israeli startup, founded in 2020, is revolutionizing energy production with its novel liquid-based isothermal engine.
Luminescent's technology offers an efficient and environmentally friendly method to generate electricity from various heat sources, addressing the critical challenge of efficiently converting waste heat—a largely untapped resource due to the limitations of traditional heat engines.
Their mission is to transform the global energy landscape by generating zero-emission electricity from any waste heat source efficiently and cost-effectively.
Approximately 70% of energy is lost as waste heat, representing a massive economic loss and a significant contributor to environmental degradation. Luminescent's engine promises to capture, reuse, and store this waste heat, turning it into a valuable resource for cleaner energy solutions.
Headquartered in Tel Aviv, Luminescent employs about 25 people and was founded by Doron Tamir and Prof. Carmel Rotschild.
Tamir serves as the CEO and has extensive experience in technology management and entrepreneurship, including over a decade of experience as the co-founder of Solexrenewable (PV developer in Israel, local partner of EDF EN for 10 years. 500MW in PV projects).
Prof. Rotschild is the CTO and scientific director. A world-renowned expert in optics and photonics, he brings deep academic and research experience. He is a professor in the mechanical engineering department at Technion - Israel Institute of Technology and invented the isothermal process used by Luminescent.
Luminescent's Technology - Explained
Luminescent's technology is based on isothermal expansion, a thermodynamic process allowing highly efficient energy conversion.
Here's how it works:
Heat Absorption: The system absorbs heat from various sources, particularly industrial processes.
Liquid Expansion: This heat causes a specially designed heat transfer liquid (HTL) to expand isothermally (at constant temperature).
Bubble Interaction: The HTL flows through a nozzle and is mixed with pressurized air or other gas bubbles. These bubbles expand isothermally due to their large surface area and poor heat capacity.
Energy Conversion: The expansion of the bubbles accelerates the HTL, converting thermal energy into kinetic energy.
Electricity Generation: A four-nozzle rotor operates a generator on the engine shaft, producing electricity.
Key Advantages of the Technology
High Efficiency: The isothermal process allows for much higher efficiency than traditional heat engines. Luminescent claims its process doubles an engine's efficiency compared to other operations and provides up to 70% more power than existing technologies.
Versatility: It can utilize heat sources across a wide temperature range, including low-grade heat typically wasted.
Zero Direct Emissions: The process does not produce greenhouse gas emissions. Scalability: The technology can be scaled to suit various applications, promising an accessible way to produce and store zero-emission electricity for any power generator or heat source of any size.
Power Density: The system offers 1000-fold more power density than traditional heat engines, with a comparable reduction in CAPEX.
Energy Storage: Capable of storing the resulting energy for up to 20 hours, addressing intermittency issues in renewable energy systems.
Need and the Environmental Impact
Several critical factors drive the need for Luminescent's technology.
The first is the climate crisis; there is an urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and a global push for clean energy solutions to mitigate climate change.
Second, energy efficiency is imperative. Rising energy costs and regulatory pressures necessitate more efficient resource use and improvements in industrial energy efficiency.
Third, the ability to integrate renewable energy. Luminescent provides a technology that complements and enhances renewable energy systems and efficient energy storage solutions to address intermittency issues.
Last but not least is industrial competitiveness; industries seek to reduce energy costs and improve sustainability profiles, driving the demand for energy-efficient technologies.
Customer Base and Competitors
Luminescent's potential customer base is diverse and includes heavy industries, such as steel, cement, chemical manufacturing, etc.; power generation, which includes both conventional and renewable energy producers; oil and gas, which contains refineries and processing plants; food and beverage, which provides for large-scale processing facilities; and pulp and paper, which includes mills and processing plants.
Future Developments & Potential
Based on an interview with Luminescent's CEO, the company's future developments are expected to include several initiatives, including effective cooling solutions for data centers using waste heat and expansion into geothermal energy.
Luminescent's technology addresses a vast market. Waste heat is a significant untapped energy source with immense growth potential. The company is targeting a $1,500 price point per engine, with costs expected to decrease as production scales up.
The super-efficient waste heat engine is expected to be available as a pilot by mid-2023, with sales starting in 2025. Luminescent targets industrial operations in the United States, Europe, Japan, China, and South Korea, indicating a global market strategy.
According to a McKinsey report, the potential of this technology to save at least 3,100 TWh—about 12% of global electricity consumption—is significant. Depending on whether waste heat is used for heat or electricity, the annual global saving could reach up to €140 billion.
VC Investment
Luminescent has secured several funding rounds, highlighting strong investor confidence in its technology. The company raised $2M in a pre-seed from Estancia Capital in February 2021, $5.5M in seed from Grove Ventures (Lior Handelsman) in May 2022, and $12.5 million in a follow-on seed in May 2023 with investments from Grove Ventures, Ormat Technologies, Inc. , and Techint Group.
Conclusion
Luminescent stands at the forefront of a potential energy production and utilization revolution. The company offers a solution that could significantly impact global energy efficiency and sustainability efforts by addressing the critical challenge of waste heat recovery and conversion. With continued development and strategic partnerships, Luminescent could be a key player in ushering in a new era of clean, efficient energy production.