
Process to Turn Excess Heat Into Energy
Date: Monday, May 31, 2004 @ 21:09:53 UTC Topic: Devices
A story at The New Scientist describes a process (patent pending) for generating electricity from the waste heat from such things as power generation plants.
Extended Text: Instead of using steam to turn generator turbines, the process uses propane, which turns into a gas at a much lower temperature than water. The innovation is a two generator system that, according to their calculations, could raise the efficiency of a typical power plant from about 35% to about 60%.
It's only conceptual so far, but if the theory works out as predicted, this could be a tremendous boost in efficiency that would both decrease pollution emissions and stretch out the dwindling supplies of fossil fuels.
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