HEAT
Energy comes in many forms. Two of the most common are electrical energy and heat energy. Globally, heat represents 20% of the world’s energy. In the industrial West, heat is 25% of the region's energy. Heat is a significant contributor to global warming because most heat comes from fossil fuels -- burning oil or natural gas.
Energy comes in many forms. Two of the most common are electrical energy and heat energy. Globally, heat represents 20% of the world’s energy. In the industrial West, heat is 25% of the region's energy. Heat is a significant contributor to global warming because most heat comes from fossil fuels -- burning oil or natural gas.
The most common means to transfer heat is by steam. Huge multi-MW utility generators make steam from natural gas, oil, coal and nuclear fission by boiling water and turning it into steam. Historically, heat is divided into two types by its temperature: low-grade heat (<100C, <212F) and high-grade heat (>100C, >212F). Of course, low-grade heat is just hot water and high-grade heat is steam. Many heat uses are for low-grade heat because it is much safer than high-grade heat.
Solar energy – energy from the sun – comes to the earth as electromagnetic radiation. Solar collectors capture the sun’s energy. PhotoVoltaic (PV) collectors convert that radiation directly to electricity and discard the heat energy. Thermal collectors capture the energy as heat that can be stored and later converted into electricity, cooling or clean water.
Currently PV panels convert over 20% of the sun’s energy into useful energy while thermal collectors like Focused Sun’s convert over 60% of the sun’s energy into heat. From a global warming perspective, our collectors are 3 times more efficient than PV.
HEAT CATEGORIES:
Heat is divided into four main applications: space heating, foods, fabrics and industrial heating.
Solar energy – energy from the sun – comes to the earth as electromagnetic radiation. Solar collectors capture the sun’s energy. PhotoVoltaic (PV) collectors convert that radiation directly to electricity and discard the heat energy. Thermal collectors capture the energy as heat that can be stored and later converted into electricity, cooling or clean water.
Currently PV panels convert over 20% of the sun’s energy into useful energy while thermal collectors like Focused Sun’s convert over 60% of the sun’s energy into heat. From a global warming perspective, our collectors are 3 times more efficient than PV.
HEAT CATEGORIES:
Heat is divided into four main applications: space heating, foods, fabrics and industrial heating.
SPACE HEATING involves heating residences, businesses and factories during cold weather. Today Space Heating is mostly electricity, oil and natural gas, most of which come from fossil sources and add to global warming.
Big heat users in the commercial sector are hotels, college campuses and other “cogeneration” facilities. They provide space heating during cold weather. Even in temperate and hot climates, hotels have laundries and cooking that require heat.
Big heat users in the commercial sector are hotels, college campuses and other “cogeneration” facilities. They provide space heating during cold weather. Even in temperate and hot climates, hotels have laundries and cooking that require heat.
FOOD HEATING: Heat from the Microgrid or Hectare can be 300C (572F) -- suitable for nearly all cooking. Industrially, food products are pre-cooked, then canned or otherwise packaged before transport. If high temperature heat is available, it can be diluted with cooler temperature water to make any temperature available. In India, temples serve food to 10,000 worshipers daily requiring heat for heating food, heat that could be renewable.
Another food application is food drying. Uganda has fishermen that dry their lake fish in the sun. More sanitary fish drying can use Focused Sun solar heat to dry fish night and day, letting fish be marketed further away. Many other food products can get higher selling prices if they are dried under the best sanitary conditions.
Another food application is food drying. Uganda has fishermen that dry their lake fish in the sun. More sanitary fish drying can use Focused Sun solar heat to dry fish night and day, letting fish be marketed further away. Many other food products can get higher selling prices if they are dried under the best sanitary conditions.
FABRICS: Industrial fabrics use primarily low grade heat (<100C, <212F) for dyeing, washing and other processes. If a Microgrid or Hectare is being used to generate electricity, its “waste heat” can be used for fabric processing. A Microgrid has 15 kW of low-grade (<100C, <212F) heat for use in fabric processing -- after it generates 2 kW of electricity. Similarly, if a Hectare is situated near a fabric processing facility, it can deliver 3 MW of heat in addition to 400 kW of electricity.
For night-time operations, low-grade heat (hot water) can be stored either in the unit’s concrete heat storage or in separate insulated water tanks. Cogeneration plants in Los Angeles CA USA remove water jacket and exhaust heat from reciprocal engines and store it overnight for dyeing rugs the next day.
For night-time operations, low-grade heat (hot water) can be stored either in the unit’s concrete heat storage or in separate insulated water tanks. Cogeneration plants in Los Angeles CA USA remove water jacket and exhaust heat from reciprocal engines and store it overnight for dyeing rugs the next day.
INDUSTRIAL HEATING: Besides space heating, foods and fabrics, other types of industrial heating are specific to the industry. A wire processing plant in Saudi Arabia needs heat to “de-gas” the plastic coating on its wire – it takes a month – until it is ready for sale.
Another application is wood drying. Focused Sun has an American prospect seeking heat for drying wood chips to make green hydrogen. Hydrogen pyrolysis needs dry wood chips, not green ones. We can dry green wood chips more efficiently than other methods.
Enhanced Oil Recovery (thermal EOR) is where hot water with surfactants is pumped into a low-producing oil well. The heat raises the temperature of the oil-bearing rock and reduces its viscosity. Then the oil can be more easily pumped out. Occidental Oil in Colombia was able to improve its oil recovery by 300% with thermal EOR. By turning Focused Sun's heat into steam, we can use hot steam to heat the ground after fracking to cut the oil's viscosity.
Solution mining is where hot water is pumped into a well-hole above a mineral deposit. The hot water dissolves and mixes with the underground mineral. A higher concentration brine is pumped out and excess water extracted. Left is the raw mineral without ever having to mine it. Lithium mining in Salton Sea, CA, USA is solution mined. Both heating the hot water and then removing its excess water require large amounts of heat.
Another application is wood drying. Focused Sun has an American prospect seeking heat for drying wood chips to make green hydrogen. Hydrogen pyrolysis needs dry wood chips, not green ones. We can dry green wood chips more efficiently than other methods.
Enhanced Oil Recovery (thermal EOR) is where hot water with surfactants is pumped into a low-producing oil well. The heat raises the temperature of the oil-bearing rock and reduces its viscosity. Then the oil can be more easily pumped out. Occidental Oil in Colombia was able to improve its oil recovery by 300% with thermal EOR. By turning Focused Sun's heat into steam, we can use hot steam to heat the ground after fracking to cut the oil's viscosity.
Solution mining is where hot water is pumped into a well-hole above a mineral deposit. The hot water dissolves and mixes with the underground mineral. A higher concentration brine is pumped out and excess water extracted. Left is the raw mineral without ever having to mine it. Lithium mining in Salton Sea, CA, USA is solution mined. Both heating the hot water and then removing its excess water require large amounts of heat.