An innovative electricity micro-generator

Waste not want not.

The Opcon Powerbox recovers ‘low grade heat’ which to date, is almost discarded. Others currently capture waste heat for co-generation but this is high grade heat which is typically used in steam cycles that require high temperatures. Higher temperatures mean higher pressures, and invariably higher costs, plus there’s the added maintenance and repair issues related to the corrosive nature of water and steam.

Enerji’s systems operate at lower temperatures meaning lower pressures and lower costs. Also, we use organic working fluids instead of water which means our plants will not suffer the same corrosive effects caused by steam and water.

Sources of waste heat include:

• Exhaust gas from diesel generators
• Gas fired power stations
• Hot process water
• Kilns, cement and steel manufacturing processes
• Gas compressor stations

(1) 24.7 Quads of energy is used by industry, of this 20-50% is lost in the form of Waste Heat
(2) Conventional hydroelectric power
(3) Fuel ethanol and biodiesel consumption, plus losses and co-products from their production
(4) Municipal solid waste from biogenic sources, landfill gas, sludge waste, agricultural byproducts and other biomass

US Renewable Energy Consumption by Source

(US DOE - EIA Annual energy Survey 2006)

Low grade heat is far more prevalent than high grade heat.

In 2006, the US Department of Energy estimated that 7 quadrillion British Thermal Units (BTUs) of waste heat was made available from industrial processes alone – that’s more than all of the energy consumed from all renewable resources combined.

Seven quadrillion BTUs is the equivalent of burning a column of oil the size of a football field that is one kilometre high.