Credit: Markus Breig/Amadeus Bramsiepe, KIT Low-temperature heat in the form of waste heat from industry or geothermal power plants offers big potential for sustainable and need-tailored power supply. The Modular Low-temperature Cycle Karlsruhe (MoNiKa), the only research facility of this kind in Europe, has now started operation at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). Work is aimed at enhancing efficiency and environmental compatibility of the conversion of excessive heat into electric power by means of the organic Rankine cycle (ORC). In the past years, low-temperature heat gained importance for efficient electricity generation with low CO2 emissions. "Instead of releasing excessive heat into the environment, it makes more sense to use it and to produce electricity from it," says Dr. Dietmar Kuhn, Head of the Energy and Process Engineering Group of KIT's Institute for Thermal Energy Technology and Safety (ITES). So-called ORC facilities are used to convert heat with a temperature below 200°C into electricity for private households. These facilities are based on the organic Rankine cycle, a process named after the British founder of thermodynamics, William John Macquorn Rankine, and mainly used in geothermal power plants.