- Number 294 |
- August 31, 2009
Team to generate electricity from waste heat
GE wants to harvest waste heat
from industrial engines such as
this GE gas turbine.
Industrial engines are often only 35 percent efficient, wasting well over half of available energy as waste heat. But researchers from DOE's Idaho National Laboratory and GE engineers have now teamed on a project to generate electricity from waste heat. The technology places an evaporator directly into the hot exhaust to capture the heat and convert it to energy. The process, known as the Organic Rankine Cycle, traditionally used a working fluid and was considered to be very costly uses a secondary oil loop to preclude flammability issues. Replacing the working fluid oil loop with an evaporator placed directly in the hot exhaust stream could yield a 20 percent to 40 percent increase in efficiency at a far more affordable price.
[Nicole Stricker, 208.526.5955,
nicole.stricker.@inl.gov]
