How does waste heat to power work?

Waste heat to power (WHP) technologies produce electricity by capturing waste heat—typically from exhaust gas or indus-trial processes—and converting this waste heat to electricity. WHP systems utilize otherwise wasted thermal energy to drive turbines or engines that can produce electricity for on-site consumption or grid export.

What is the recovery of waste heat for power?

The recovery of waste heat for power is a largely untapped type of combined heat and power (CHP), which is the use of a single fuel source to generate both thermal energy (i.e., heating or cooling) and electricity.

Is district heating an inefficient use of energy?

The practice of using district heating is not an inefficient use of energy. Instead, capturing waste heat from power plants and distributing it to heat buildings and carry out heat-intensive industrial processes is a more efficient approach. This is what combined heat and power (sometimes called co-generation) and district heating are all about.

What is waste heat to Power (WHP)?

Waste heat to power (WHP) is the process of capturing heat discarded by an existing thermal process and using that heat to generate power (see Figure 1).

What are waste heat sources?

waste heat is recovered from a thermal process and used to generate electricity, it is considered to be a combined heat and power (CHP) system. As indicated in Table 1, waste heat sources that drive WHP technologies can be divided into three categories, each with its own attributes. Table 1. Types of Waste Heat Streams

What is a waste-to-energy plant?

Commonly known as waste-to-energy (WTE) plants, facilities that burn municipal solid waste (MSW), or garbage, in boilers to produce steam are a small but steady source of electric power in the United States.