Besides commercial developers, it's mainly public and privately funded institutes that drive progress with their basic research, developments and inventions. They are also known to spawn spin-offs that shake up the scene as innovative new market players. TU Wien is a very good example of this. Not only do its 4,800 members of staff and 30,000 students make it Austria's largest natural sciences and technological university, but it is also by far the country’s biggest recipient of EU research funding. The high volume of collaborative projects with private companies and funding agencies accounts for almost 40 percent of its state funding. But besides the necessary expertise, TU Wien also offers a bank of ready-to-use new technologies. One of its key exhibits at HANNOVER MESSE 2018 is a market-ready high-performance heat reservoir.

This groundbreaking invention is the first handy and cost-effective system for short-, medium- and long-term storage of heat at temperatures between 200 and 300 degrees Celsius. Its outstanding properties and benefits speak for themselves - high energy density of 2 megajoules per kilogram, highly dynamic heat output (reaching the maximum temperature of over 300 degrees Celsius in ten seconds), short charging time in a matter of minutes, unique and cost-effective combination of materials, easy-to-operate, high cycle stability, suitable as a long-term reservoir for up to several months. To top it all, this is the first highly dynamic storage system to use waste heat between 150 and 400 degrees Celsius. In terms of potential applications, apart from the obvious industrial scenarios, it could also be used to efficiently pre-heat vehicles so as to avoid cold starts, for example.