Energy · heat · production · material loops

What one installation discards is the input of the next.

CIRCULIS is a systems approach for municipalities, districts and commercial sites. It combines the generation of power and heat, their cascaded use, a district heating network, food production and the material loop into one integrated site — so that each stage supplies the next and as little as possible remains unused.

The problem

The duty exists; the solution does not

German heat planning legislation obliges municipalities to draw up heat plans — the larger ones sooner, the smaller ones later. The duty exists; where the heat is to come from is another matter. In many places there is neither a network, nor a generator, nor an operator willing to take on both.

At the same time, residual materials are available in those very places that are disposed of rather than used, and waste heat escapes unused. Each of these installations is hard to justify on its own: a combined heat and power plant with no heat customer, a recirculating fish farm buying in its heat, a greenhouse with air conditioning — each possible, each expensive.

CIRCULIS does not address one of these installations but their linkage. The approach describes in what order and through which interfaces the components interact, so that separate undertakings become a site that sustains itself.

The measure of success. An integrated site has succeeded when no stage depends on buying in something that another stage produces itself.

Components

Eight components that supply one another

The following description sets out the task each component performs within the whole. The specific interconnection, the design of the stages and the processes from whose interaction the closed loop arises are not the subject of this description.

Component 1
Power generation
Digestion of organic residues from the surrounding area and generation in a combined heat and power plant. It supplies base-load electricity and at the same time the heat on which the other stages build.
Component 2
Cascaded heat use
The heat produced is not used at one temperature but passed down in stages: from the hottest application to feeding the network. Each stage receives what the previous one no longer needs.
Component 3
District heating for the municipality
Connection of public buildings and local businesses — nursery, fire station, administration, school, sports hall, commerce. This does not merely answer the heat plan; it fulfils it.
Component 4
Aquaculture
Fish farming in a closed recirculating system. Heating the water, otherwise the largest cost item of such installations, comes from the heat stage and not from purchase.
Component 5
Protected cultivation
Production of vegetables, herbs and berries under glass or in stacked form. Climate control is largely achieved through managed natural ventilation and the heat already available.
Component 6
Nutrient and material loop
Nutrients from the fish farm go into cultivation, residues back into digestion, and the digestate into soil improvement. The aim is to meet the nitrogen requirement without buying in from outside.
Component 7
Power, storage and market
Additional generation from sun and wind, storage for surplus periods, and operational management that decides between own use, storage and feed-in according to need and market conditions.
Component 8
Provision for people
Connection of basic medical provision through MEDORIS for the surrounding communities and the businesses on site — where general practice cover has become thin.
Effect

What it amounts to

01

The heat plan becomes achievable

A municipality under a planning duty ultimately needs a generator, a network and an operator. CIRCULIS brings these three roles together in one undertaking instead of tendering them one after another.

02

Residues become inputs

What is disposed of today enters the loop as the input of the next stage. This reduces disposal costs and purchases at the same time — in two places at once.

03

The site becomes less dependent

Electricity, heat, fertiliser and part of the food arise locally. The site stays connected to the grid but depends less on what is happening on it.

04

Demonstrable to funders

Effects on energy, material flows and employment are measured and documented. Funding bodies require this — and the measurement chain is needed for operations in any case.

Implementation

The order in which it is done

The sequence is an order of steps, not a timetable. Duration and scope depend on the site, the permitting position and the financing structure.

Stage 1

Site and quantity assessment

What residues arise, in what quantity and quality? What heat customers exist, and at what distance? What land and permits are available? Without secured feedstock quantities and without customers, nothing begins.

Stage 2

Feasibility and structure

Sizing the components to the site, the permitting route, corporate and financing structure, participation of the municipality, heat supply and offtake agreements.

Stage 3

Construction and operation

Construction in phases — as a rule generation and network first, the further stages afterwards — training of staff and transition to regular operation.

On the participation of the municipality

Undertakings of this kind touch on local public services. Participation by the municipality — in the company, through connection agreements or through the citizenry — is therefore not a concession but a precondition of permitting and of acceptance. It is carried forward from the outset.

Roles

Who is responsible for what

Proprietor

IMS New Technologies AG

Proprietor of the brand and the associated know-how, Herisau, Switzerland. It develops the systems approach, supports the site assessment and grants licences.

www.ims-nt.ch

Project company

Construction and operation

Construction and operation are carried out through a dedicated company in which the parties — including the municipality — hold interests according to the structure chosen.

Partners

Plant and research

Individual components are implemented together with suitably qualified plant builders, operators and research institutions. These are independent undertakings; their technologies belong to them.

Contact

Enquiry

Write to us stating the municipality or site, the residue quantities available, possible heat customers and the occasion. We work without a contact form and without a telephone hotline.

Notice on intellectual property

This description sets out CIRCULIS at a functional level. The specific interconnection of the components, the design of the heat stages and the processes from whose interaction the closed loop arises are not the subject of this description.

They constitute protected know-how and the subject matter of intended applications for industrial property rights. Disclosure takes place only upon conclusion of a confidentiality agreement and only after the priority date has been secured.

CIRCULIS™ is a brand of IMS New Technologies AG. Figures for yields, costs, efficiencies and economic viability are site-dependent and are quantified only within a feasibility study.