Turning Industrial Waste-Heat Into Electricity
13 August 2012
Engineers check the Green Machine, which converts waste heat into electricity, at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas
This is the VOA Special English Technology Report.
Scientists say enough energy is being wasted in the oil and gas fields of Texas every year to provide electricity to one hundred thousand homes. Businessman Loy Sneary says he is using that waste to create a profitable company called Gulf Coast Green Energy.
Mr. Sneary says sixty percent of all energy produced in the world today is being lost as wasted heat. He wants to capture some of that heat from -- among other places -- the thousands of oil and gas wells in Texas, and turn it into electricity.
LOY SNEARY: “We’ve got more electricity that could be generated than all of the coal-fired power plants, natural gas fired power plants and nuclear power plants in the world. That’s what the potential is.”
Deep underground, the earth is hot. If you drive a drill down into hard rock or shale, the drill bit gets hot. Mr. Sneary uses his “Green Machine” technology to help capture the energy that is produced when heat meets cold. The machine moves the hot well-water through one pipe next to another filled with a cooling material called refrigerant. This refrigerant boils, and steam is produced. This steam is used to make electricity.
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