Heat Exchangers and Heat Recovery

I Overview
Heat recovery refers to the various methods employed to capture waste heat from combined heat and power (CHP) generation systems. For many prime movers, heat recovery will take the form of a heat exchanger attached to the exhaust flue, although substantial thermal energy is also often recovered from the jacket cooling water, and to a lesser extent from the lube oil, of engine-based systems.
 

II Applications
Heat recovery will increase the total efficiency of a distributed generation system.

The heat recovered from a prime mover may be used either for hot water or steam generation, or in some cases direct process heat. This heat can also drive an absorption chiller or desiccant dehumidifier.

III Equipment Options
Heat recovery systems can take the form of air-to-air or air-to-liquid heat exchangers, or they can be specially designed boilers known as heat recovery steam generators (HRSG).

Heat recovery systems can be installed in conjunction with reciprocating engines, fuel cells, industrial turbines, micro-turbines, and Stirling engines.

IV Resources
1. Equipment Manufacturer Database
2. Distributed Generation Consortium