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Economic Aspects Of Utilizing Heat Transformer Technology

Johan Enslin

Heat Transformer technology (HT-technology), although commercially available, is relatively unknown. The fact that HT-technology uses only ~1% of the electricity of the conventional Vapor Compression (VC) technology for the same heat load, drive rapid revolutionary new heat recovery possibilities, however. Some advances in heat transformer development open new doors for lowering the cost of Air Conditioning (A/C), water pumping and extraction (de-humidification) from the air, as well as power generation by combining with Organic Rankine Cycles (ORC), from utility-scale down to micro-scale of a few kWe for single household use. This paper tries to realistically present cost calculations based on cost correlations for process components often used in the literature for estimating overall system costs [2]. A/C making use of HT-technology allow cost savings of >99% over the traditional VC-types, while de-humidifiers built on HT-technology can decrease the cost of water extracted from the air to values of <R5/m3 water produced, or in USD terms 0.36 $/m3. Modern HT-principles make the recovery of heat even from ambient temperature water practical for utilization of small ORC coupling to pump water using the thermal energy in the water being pumped as a power source. REHOS Autarkic Water (RAW)-Pump costs are calculated to ~5x the standard electrical pump cost, but savings on not having to use electricity, repay the difference in as little as 3.5 years for the larger pumps. Utilizing HT-technology with ORC integration allow utility cooling water (CW) heat recovery for power generation as low cost as 22.1 $/MWhe allowing huge Carbon Dioxide (CO2) emissions, and water savings, while phasing in very practical, affordable stepwise de-carbonization of the fossil combustion Power Station (P/S). The same Regenerative Heat of Solution (REHOS) cycle may, on micro-scale, generate power using a swimming pool (solar pond) as heat source delivering electricity at extremely low rates (~50% of grid parity) eg. Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) calculated for a 20kWe for a REHOS Pond be: LCOE20kWe=35.95 $/MWhe making a very strong business case for home power generation, even though capital investments are still high. Heat Transformer technology even allows heat recovery from ambient air for a mobile generation with costing as low as 1569 $/kWe for 30 kWe Power Packs. This could very practically be utilized in electric vehicles, road and rail transport, as well as aero-applications making practical electrical planes possible by eliminating some of the weight of batteries.