[Aug. 28, 2023: Brian Blum]
Imagine if you could heat or cool your home by extracting the desired comfort level from the air. (Credit: Creative Commons)
With energy prices rising rapidly, a new startup may have the answer – technology that harnesses the energy from humidity fluctuations to cool and heat buildings at half the current price.
Imagine if you could heat or cool your home by extracting the desired comfort level from the air. Literally.
Israeli startup Thermoterra is turning that vision into an innovative renewable energy system that harvests energy from fluctuations in humidity.
“Water vapor in the air that adsorbs on or into absorbent materials transfers a significant amount of energy,” explains Dror Zachory, founder and CEO of ThermoTera.
We know this instinctively. When water evaporates, it produces a cooling effect. Think about the human body – when we’re hot, we sweat, which when evaporated keeps us from overheating.
When water vapor is absorbed or condenses on a material, the opposite happens – it generates heat.
On a hot day, Thermoterra’s technology brings warm and dry air into the home or office. Zachor says it’s stored inside the insulation of building walls—hempcrete, silica gel or wood wool insulation absorb moisture especially well. When the air later evaporates, it absorbs the energy and cools the building.
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When the temperature is cold, cool and humid air is brought in; As it is absorbed, it heats the air, heating the home or office.
“It’s a natural phenomenon,” says Zachory.
The need for new technologies like Thermoterra is undeniable: about 40 percent of the world’s building energy is spent on heating and cooling, and buildings represent 30% of the world’s energy use.
three components
To work its magic, Thermotera needs to integrate the structure of the ducts and ducts into a new wall. In existing buildings, a new façade can be added with built-in insulation and ductwork on the walls.
It may take a few inches, but the environmental impact and financial savings are significant: Zachory estimates that incorporating ThermoTera technology into a building’s construction can cut heating and cooling costs in half” and in some cases even can be reduced to “zero”.
A smart wall-mounted fan, controlled by algorithms, circulates hot or cool air as needed. This is the only part of the system that requires power.
Thermoterra’s system is made up of three main components:
Storage Reservoir – Special absorption material packed inside a wall with air channels designed for maximum air flow.
A system of fans, ducts and dampers.
ActiveMemBrain includes IoT smart sensors, controllers, algorithms and cloud computing.
Using special materials that can absorb large amounts of water, coupled with the company’s patent-pending control system, Thermoterra insulation uses humidity variations to “charge” the material – keeping it dry in winter or warm in summer. Creates moist in – and then material to release hot or cool air as needed to force the air.
Thermoterra’s technology can be implemented in many forms. (credit: Thermoterra)
By continuously flowing such ambient air through its system, Thermoterra smoothes out peaks and troughs so that both temperature and humidity cycles are shallower, resulting in a more comfortable environment.
a real effect
The idea for Thermoterra came to Zachory when he was building his own green house in Amirim, a rural Galilee community known for its environmental consciousness and where Thermoterra is now headquartered.
Thermoterra’s patented technology harnesses the energy from fluctuations in humidity. (credit: Thermoterra)
“I put all my technology into building a zero-energy house,” Zachory told ISRAEL21c.
“The house was completely off the grid. I didn’t use any wood or any other energy. So, in winter, I was feeling cold.”
Zachory’s background in biotechnology, agriculture, mechanical engineering and green manufacturing led him to realize that he could develop humidity cooling and heating systems using “natural, simple and available materials, rather than rare elements or sophisticated materials that we need to import”. Heating can be applied.
Zachory explains that if you leave a newspaper out in the sun, “it will get very dry and crisp. If you keep it in a ‘wet’ room, it will absorb some of the moisture and become flexible again.
This principle is general for all types of materials. Traditional clay and mud buildings are very good at keeping the cold out and the heat out using moisture.
By taking advantage of natural fluctuations in humidity, Zachory found that he could raise the temperature in his home from 12 °C (53.6 Fahrenheit) to 26 °C (78.8 Fahrenheit).
Zachory’s house turned out to be a not-so-good proof of concept, he notes. “This is a special house. I wanted to show that our approach could work on more general buildings, where we could make a real impact.
a change in the world
Zachory founded Thermoterra in 2015 with patent attorney Jeremy Rutman and data analysis specialist Yonatan Nathan. Five people are employed in the company.
The money came from the Israeli Ministry of Energy, the Israel Innovation Authority and the founders. The company is currently applying for an EU research grant.
Thermoterra also received funding from the Quantum Hub Accelerator, which is sponsored by Israeli air-conditioning manufacturer Tadiran.
“We talked with their engineers about collaborating on reducing the amount of energy needed to solve their moisture problems,” says Zachory.
The team is excited about what they are doing.
“We had a very good programmer early on,” says Zachory. “I told them, we don’t have money to pay salaries. He said, ‘I am not interested in salary. I’ve been working for years on AI for a credit card company that would motivate people to make more purchases. I want to make a difference in the world.
moisture harness
Zachory estimates that it would cost about $3,400 to run a 100-square-meter private home with humidity-fluctuating heating and cooling.
Value-added services will include smoke and gas leak detection and indoor air pollution monitoring and filtering.
Thermoterra will not design its own insulation. “We don’t want to be the ones building the passive part of the system. Therefore, we will cooperate with contractors,” says Zachory.
The company is now looking for such collaborations as it is in the product development phase with experiments in different parts of Israel.
Going forward, Zachory can imagine Thermoterra being used to cool cars. “When a car is parked in the sun, it gets hot. We can cool it using the evaporative water collected overnight.
Whether it’s a car, a home, or someplace Zachory hasn’t thought of yet, “cooling and heating is a basic need. We are empowering people to make their homes self-cooling and self-heating.”
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Note: The above content has been provided by Brian Blum. The content can be edited for style and length.
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