Strathmore Energy Research Centre (SERC) and Steamology^TM have won a grant under the Energy Catalyst 7 competition, funded by DFID through Innovate UK’s Energy Catalyst programme, to implement and demonstrate a zero-emission energy generation and storage technology in Kenya. Steamology^TM is a technology development company based in the United Kingdom and specializes in utilizing steam to generate electricity and will be the lead organization with SERC being the lead development partner in Kenya.

The new innovation tagged the Water to Water (W2W) system will seek to use water (in a closed loop set up) in energy generation and storage. The solution has great potential in replacing traditional battery storage technologies that are not only still very expensive, use toxic materials and have limited life cycles but also have dire environmental impacts.

The W2W system will use a renewable energy source to split water into hydrogen and oxygen gases through a process called electrolysis. The gases are then compressed and stored in pressurized cylinders where they can be recombined, on demand, to produce steam which turns a compact, energy dense turbine to generate electricity. The steam is then condensed as water and the process starts again.

The W2W system has potential applications in off-grid electricity generation such as mini-grids to provide energy access for productive use and social inclusion as well as offer power back-up alternatives to the traditional diesel generators. Large scale storage is also possible since the system is very modular and can be expanded to produce up to 1MW of power.

Interested to partner or know more about the project? Get in touch with the team via:

Thomas Bundi  tbundi@strathmore.edu

Matt Candy matt.candy@steamology.co.uk