ElectraTherm announces its small-scale ORC units have reached a 30,000 hours runtime milestone, proving the technology is robust for applications from internal combustion engines [Editor's Note: far better with external combustion engines] to biomass boilers, geothermal/co-produced fluids and solar thermal.
By
terryhallinan at 2012-06-11
In a release last week, technology firm ElectraTherm, that works on small-scale, distributed power produced from waste heat announced that its Series 4000 Green Machine fleet surpassed 30,000 runtime hours.
This is the first Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) machine sized 30-65kWe to achieve this milestone.
30-65kW???
Hey, we coal fanciers don't even like to talk about less than 1,000MW. What's with this puny kW stuff?
What's with it is the end of Ol' King Coal's misrule as well as that of all fossil fuels if we want. The untold thousands of wells producing kW power would add up lots of MW's and an end to the terrible threat from nuclear power thrown in for good measure.
See below the fold if you have any interest in saving a planet in peril.
Both active and depleted gas and oil wells produce large volumes of hot water which has been a pain and a pollutant for oil and gas producers. The first use of geothermal power from active oil wells will be to - you guessed it - increase production. But even that will reduce burning of natural gas.
In the meantime even the sad sack of renewable power, solar, could get a boost from the venerable organic rankine cycle waste heat engine. If the Spanish banks get their temporary fix, they might even see fit to continue financing for a Florida solar farm planned by a Spanish energy conglomerate fixing to use a rankine cycle engine from another company to generate electricity.
Will we go green like much of the rest of the world or stay dirty and die?
The choice is ours.
Stay tuned.
Best, Terry