MATChING: new technologies to help power plants use less water
The energy industry is one of the largest water users in Europe. But water is growing increasingly scarce. That’s why the European MATChING project examined new technologies for three years to make power plants more water-efficient.
Cooling water is the main cause of high water usage levels
No less than 71% of European water collection is used for energy generating – often as cooling water. We need large quantities of cooling water to generate electricity. That not only applies to nuclear and gas power plants but also to sustainable energy sources such as geothermal energy.
As part of the MATChING project, sixteen European partners, such as knowledge institutes, power companies and technology suppliers, examined whether we could do with less.
Advanced materials and technologies to limit water abstraction and condensation loss
MATChING stands for Materials & Technologies for Performance Improvement of Cooling Systems in Power Plants. The goal was to reduce the demand for cooling water in the electricity industry. The project aimed to do so through innovative technological solutions demonstrated in thermal and geothermal power plants.
Essentially, the project aimed to deliver a drop in water abstractions of 30% in thermal energy generation, as well as a drop in condensation loss of 15% in the geothermal industry.
- To make water savings economically feasible in power plants and pave the way to the market, we used nanotechnology-based materials.
- We examined the usage of alternative cooling liquids and examined how to increase the available water supply by exploiting alternative water resources, among other things. That allows us to utilise several membrane technologies to recycle or repurpose city water, process water and wastewater.
- To optimise the robustness of cooling equipment, we examined advanced materials and coatings for cooling towers and condensers.
The new technologies were tested across Europe. We started in a laboratory and moved on to pilot installations at nine testing sites afterwards.
VITO’s role in MATChING
Among other things, VITO focused on:
- The reduction of cooling water usage in power plants through MCDI and MD
- The improvement of cooling processes in the generation of geothermal energy
Funding
MATChING was funded by the European Union’s research and innovation programme Horizon 2020 as part of the grant agreement n° 686031.
