RECOVERY OF WASTE HEAT

The search for cleaner, more dependable, more efficient, alternative forms of energy generation and conversion continues to gain international momentum.  About one half of the $770 billion spent annually on fossil fuels worldwide is thought to be emitted as waste heat in one form or another – for example, from motor vehicle radiators and exhaust systems, from water heater and furnace flues, from power plants and other industrial stacks, to name but a few.  Recovering useful energy from such low-grade heat, typically in the 200 - 600º range was, for the most part, uneconomical.  However, with the benefit of ENECO’s Thermal Chips operating in the Power Mode, this vast untapped resource, or at least a good proportion of it, becomes economically viable.  This, in turn, leads to significant fuel savings and reduces carbon emissions.

1. The Motor Industry, for the conversion of exhaust heat to electricity.  An ENECO Power Mode converter system using the exhaust heat should generate sufficient power to serve all of the vehicle’s electrical and electronic systems, including its air conditioning unit, and should reduce average fuel consumption by at least 10%.
2. The Power Generation Industry, to produce additional electricity from waste heat that is otherwise wasted. In this way, a power plant can increase output without using more fuel, or maintain the same output using significantly less fuel. A recent study at a geothermal plant in Hawaii demonstrated that use of its waste heat would yield 6% additional electrical output at negligible increase in operating cost, and the investment cost would be recovered within two years.
3. The National Science Foundation awarded ENECO a contract to assess the feasibility of converting process waste heat produced by magnesium and aluminum smelters into electricity. Electrolytic processes consume enormous amounts of electricity and generate large quantities of heat that cannot be used for the process and therefore is wasted. Thermal Chip technology can convert a portion of this waste heat into additional electricity for use by the process, offsetting the smelters' electricity consumption by 4 - 8% at a capital cost that can be recovered in about 20 months.