Archive for February 22nd, 2013

Slowly but surely, waste heat recovery is becoming more cost effective for more manufacturers. Credit: Durr.

In all the discussion of clean energy production in the U.S., one thing that doesn’t get talked about too much is waste-to-heat. Thermoelectric generation produces electricity from heat that otherwise would simply dissipate in the air.

In the past manufacturers haven’t bothered with it, because it’s an expensive and not too terribly efficient way of recycling heat into usable electricity. But recent advances have made it more attractive to manufacturers using heat-intensive power.

It’s a promising option. According to a recent report on advances — “breakthroughs,” according to IEEE Spectrum – in the field at Northwestern University, “when utilities burn fossil fuels to produce electricity, roughly two-thirds of the energy in the feedstock is lost as waste heat.” Obviously if there’s a way to capture that and recycle it to usable energy that’s both efficient and not expensive, that would be wonderful news not just for utilities, but for any manufacturer using boilers and other equipment currently generating waste heat. Read the rest of this entry »

Since the gas crisis of the 1970s, Brazil has been a strong believer in renewable energy. It is the second largest producer of ethanol in the world. More than 47 percent of the country’s energy supply comes from green energy sources, such as biomass, wind, and hydroelectric power.

As such, Deutsche Messe has announced the launch of a new trade fair, RENEX South America, which will premiere at the Fiergs Exhibition and Convention Center in Porto Alegre, Brazil. The show will run Nov. 27 to 29, 2013. RENEX, which is short for “Renewable Energy Exposition,” will showcase the latest technological developments and solutions in the renewables sector. Read the rest of this entry »