Heat Recovery Solutions announces raft of new customers and launches Clean Cycle Generator

9 June 2010

Heat Recovery Solutions (HRS) today announced a new revenue stream for organisations whose machinery and industrial processes generate low-temperature waste heat.

Heat Recovery Solutions estimates that two-thirds of the fuel burnt to generate power is lost as heat. Its new range of Waste Heat Power Generation machines can turn heat generated by small-scale reciprocating engines, (such as landfill gas engines), biomass boilers, turbines and industrial processes (including incinerators and processing plants) into electricity which can then either be re-used or sold back to the grid.

This is a proven technology that adds additional revenue streams with few variable costs to all kinds of manufacturers, agricultural waste sites, mills, landfill sites and any other industrial process that generates waste heat at temperatures higher than 121°C.

Using heat that would otherwise go into the atmosphere is a profitable way for European companies to become more environmentally friendly and meet the EU’s 202020 target which requires 20% of energy to be generated from renewable sources by 2020.

Brad Garner, President of Heat Recovery Solutions, said: “Waste-heat-to-electrical power generation is now ready for the mainstream. It’s just about the greenest technology there is. However, our customers are not buying solely for environmental benefits. For them, this is a commercial purchase based on economics. If you’re wasting heat, you’re wasting money”.

At this year’s Renewable Energy World show (co-located with the PowerGen Europe show), Heat Recovery Solutions will be unveiling its new Clean Cycle waste-heat-to-electricity generators specifically designed to be commercially viable in the 100 to 150 kW range. The company has shipped 20 units already which have racked up a combined 7,000+ working hours.

Companies already using Heat Recovery Solutions’ Clean Cycle generators include:

Saw Mill in Italy

A saw mill 30km north of Venice expects to increase its annual revenues through the use of Heat Recovery Solutions Clean Cycle generators. The mill burns wood scraps and sawdust to heat water and the resulting steam is then turned into electricity. The mill then sells a constant 300kW of electricity for 350 days a year to ENEL, the Italian utility company

This is the first deployment of its kind in Italy and will generate over 400,000 euros in additional revenue for the mill annually. Heat Recovery Solutions’ partner in Italy, Progeco S.r.l, designed, project managed and is operating the site.

Biogas and Biomass plants in Slovenia

Heat Recovery Solutions’ partner in Slovenia, INEA d.o.o., is installing Heat Recovery Solutions Clean Cycle generators at various locations: A landfill site outside Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia; one biomass plant (saw mill) in the town of Kamnik on the outskirts of Ljubljana which burns waste wood products; and two biogas plants.

One of the biogas deployments is in the town of Črnomelj in south east Slovenia and the second is at Ljutomer in the north east.
Waste products generated by local farms – such as spoiled crops – are transported to the plants where they decompose.  This process creates methane gas which is used as a fuel for gas-engine-driven generating sets which turn the methane gas into electricity.

However, the generator sets used to do this create an immense amount of waste heat in their exhaust and so a Heat Recovery Solutions Clean Cycle waste-heat-to-electricity generator is being installed at the site.

This will produce an additional 100kW net of electricity per Clean Cycle system which will be sold to the local grid and generate an estimated 90,000 to 100,000 euros a year in additional revenue for the plant’s owners.

The Marion County Landfill, Florida, USA

This landfill is representative of many landfill sites in the USA. The methane generated from refuse such as rotting food, plastic, cans, building materials, tree trimmings and other human waste fuel gas-engine-driven generator sets which produce 4.2 mW of electricity. A Heat Recovery Solutions Clean Cycle^TM Unit has been installed to capture the heat generated by one of these machines for an additional 125kW (gross) of electricity. There are plans to eventually generate over 600kW of electricity (gross) from the heat source to be sold to the local electric utility, Progress Energy. This will generate about $50,000 of additional revenue a year.

The Heat Recovery Solutions Difference

To date there have been no commercially viable Waste Heat Power Generation systems specifically targeted to harvest heat at the lower temperatures generated by small-scale reciprocating engines, biomass boilers and industrial processes.

Heat Recovery Solutions has developed various technologies that optimise the efficiency and reliability of its Clean Cycle^TM system at lower temperatures. Heat Recovery Solutions’ main innovations include the removal of rotating seals, the development of super-efficient magnetic bearings and sophisticated power electronics – and the use of environmentally friendly working fluids. Heat Recovery Solutions has also reduced the cost of ownership of its Clean Cycle^TM generators.

About Heat Recovery Solutions

Heat Recovery Solutions was officially launched as a stand-alone company in 2010. It spun-out of research carried out by its parent company, Calnetix Inc., an incubator for the creation of energy efficient technologies.

With operations throughout the US and Europe, Heat Recovery Solutions is helping companies to maximise their revenues and take advantage of the electricity subsidy schemes in place in many countries.