Waste Heat Technology for Power Generation

[hh5]

I remember back in the 1980s watching a news broadcast reporting about waste heat like in the train tunnels. Yeah I remember in the train tunnels suffering from the heat generated by air conditioning and hot power relays during the summer. In winter I love the train tunnels because it shelter me from the extreme cold up above.

 

It would have been an interesting idea to see how to capture the waste heat for power generation by viewing all the sources it comes from. It would transform how we design things that uses energy when we must think about ways to capture the waste energy.

 

The argument by my brothers was about how much input energy was put in capture vs how much power is generated. The failure of the argument was about how to think up ways to concentrate or capture the waste heat without costing too much. Much like fusion, it cost more to keep up the reaction than the power it generates.

 

It seems 30 years later various forms of the technology has been popping up.

 

If we had worked on the technology seriously in the past, qe would not have wasted so much of resources we crave for.

 

I saw on the news about using the heat differential of seawater to generate power. they developed an improved heat exchangers to heat up a liquid with low boiling point to generate steam to power a turbine.

 

http://english.ryukyushimpo.jp/2013/06/14/10571/

 

Developments in waste heat technology

http://www.350resources.org.uk/2013/04/16/developments-in-waste-heat-technology/

 

Germany uses train tunnel heat to heat up apartments

http://www.detail-online.com/architecture/topics/heating-energy-from-a-tunnel-019276.html

 

It seems that we need to think about how we use energy while we must think about making use of its waste.

 

ie: We heat up iron ore to make steel ... we don't think about capturing the waste heat 

ie: The heat in tunnels we don't think about lining it with pipes to carry away the heat into an ante chamber above that will generate power.

ie: Vehicles running the combustible engine we don't think about capturing the heat

ie: The coal power plants ... the waste heat from the sut

 

Something learned .,. if we use liquids that have lower boiling points ... then we can use less resources to  power our generators.

ie: Coal, oil, natural gas would be used less of

ie: nuclear power plant could have more generators to make use of extra steam thats generated from the low boiling point liquid

 

 

Edited August 14, 2013 by hh5

[hh5]

lol, GE starting on the steel mill waste heat in china (only the coke gas part)

(since 2006 technology developed)

http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/intelligent-energy/turning-emissions-from-a-steel-mill-into-electricity/10397

http://www.globalgeothermal.com/IronSteelIndustry.aspx

 

 

mmm there is waste heat from the pig iron

isn't there a co2 scrubber technology?

why store the co2?

Edited August 15, 2013 by hh5

[Zombie]

In Europe we're extracting waste heat from crematoriums using heat exchangers, heat that otherwise just goes to heat up the atmosphere.  The first UK plant went into operation this summer to heat a nearby public swimming pool. We're going to have to get smarter in our energy use and this is just one example of what can be done. Other schemes are heating housing developments with waste heat from power stations.

[hh5]

why did it take 40 years?

lol, thats 30-40 years of wasted energy

 

we got so much of the old tech that generates waste ... how fast is adoption to the new technology?

maybe its hard to part with it than to retool it?

 

we still have lots of cars generating waste heat ... buildings that generate waste heat

 

I guess in the next 50 years we'll be very conscious of what little resources we have left ... rather than have thought that what resources we have doesn't last forever ... back in the 70s we thought 75 to 150 years was forever ... if we didn't waste all that fuel ... perhaps 75 to 150 years could have been 250 to 600 years

 

another idea ... since we have low boiling point liquid ... we can heat it up from the sun ... our deserts can be our power generation plants

Edited August 15, 2013 by hh5

[Zombie]

Other schemes in Britain and Europe to use "waste heat" are ground source heat pumps - to recover solar energy stored in the ground - and roof-mounted solar heating panels to provide hot water.

[hh5]

my brother talked about how much energy a gasoline powered car doesn't use

 

Using Waste Engine Heat in Automobile Engines

https://www.asme.org/engineering-topics/articles/automotive/using-waste-engine-heat-in-automobile-engines

Harvesting Vehicles’ Waste Heat

http://www.wfs.org/futurist/july-august-2012-vol-46-no-4/harvesting-vehicles%E2%80%99-waste-heat

GM engineer gets 8m from govt to find a way to harvet

 

Using Waste Heat to Generate Clean Electricity

http://www.siemens.com/innovation/en/news/2012/e_inno_1231_1.htm

 

lol, the expensive car maker would use it before the cheaper ones would 

ie: Chrysler

 

next bmw

Powering Your Car with Waste Heat

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/424092/powering-your-car-with-waste-heat/

New thermoelectric materials will be tested in BMW, Ford, and Chevrolet vehicles by the end of summer.

At least two-thirds of the energy in gasoline used in cars and trucks is wasted as heat. Thermoelectrics, semiconductor materials that convert heat into electricity, could capture this waste heat, reducing the fuel needs of the vehicle and improving fuel economy by at least 5 percent. But the low efficiency and high cost of existing thermoelectric materials has kept such devices from becoming practical in vehicles.

Now researchers are assembling the first prototype thermoelectric generators for tests in commercial cars and SUVs. The devices are a culmination of several advances made independently at thermoelectric device-maker BSST in Irwindale, California, and at General Motors Global R&D in Warren, Michigan. Both companies plan to install and test their prototypes by the end of the summer—BSST in BMW and Ford cars, and GM in a Chevrolet SUV.

Another key challenge will be integrating the device into vehicles. The researchers have already tested a bismuth telluride generator in an SUV. “Right now, the device is just inserted into the exhaust system,” Meisner says. “A section of pipe is cut out and the device, which looks like a muffler, is inserted. We need to design something that’s more integrated into the vehicle system rather than an add-on device.”

 

Both BSST and GM researchers also need to find ways to make larger volumes of the new materials cheaply. Meisner cautions that it might be at least another four years before thermoelectric generators make it into production vehicles.

 

 

[hh5]

how expensive is tellurium?

Materials for Converting Waste Heat to Energy Pass Critical Milestone

http://news.sciencemag.org/chemistry/2012/09/materials-converting-waste-heat-energy-pass-critical-milestone

Roughly two-thirds of the money spent on power might as well be burned, as about two-thirds of all energy used by devices such as lights and computers is lost as heat. But prospects for reclaiming some of that wasted energy have improved, now that scientists have devised a so-called thermoelectric material that crosses a key practical threshold for generating electricity from heat.

 

Much as the photovoltaic compounds in solar cells generate electricity from light, thermoelectric materials convert heat to electricity. That raises the possibility of, say, using some of the waste heat from the gasoline engine in your hybrid car to charge the car's battery. "The dream of the field is to harvest waste heat from as many situations as possible—vehicles, factories, tankers," says Mercouri Kanatzidis, an inorganic chemist at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. "You'd then put that energy back into where you harvested it from—for instance, into increasing the mileage on your vehicle." There is, of course, a limit, as the second law of thermodynamics says that it's impossible for any device to run without generating some waste heat.

The new thermoelectric material consists primarily of lead and tellurium; past studies found that lead telluride was the best thermoelectric system at the kind of high temperatures one might find in engines and other hot spots. 

 

[Sasha Distan]

but why don't we just hook up every rowing machine, treadmill and fixed bike in every gym in the country to the national grid. voila, problem solved.

(yes i realise it's more complex that just plugs, but seriously, how hard could it be?)

[hh5]

I think it be good for recharging locally people electronic instead of sending it to the grid

lol, it take a lot to drive a tube tv set

but why don't we just hook up every rowing machine, treadmill and fixed bike in every gym in the country to the national grid. voila, problem solved.

(yes i realise it's more complex that just plugs, but seriously, how hard could it be?)