Patented technology offers the opportunity to produce clean energy from waste hot water, hot gas, chimney temperatures and geothermal waters below 100 degrees Celsius (212 degrees Fahrenheit) with zero carbon emissions in industry, factories, workshops and workplaces.
According to the "Türkiye Waste Heat Potential Evaluation Project," the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources calculated the total theoretical waste heat potential in Türkiye is 160,000 terajoules per year. The savings that can be achieved with the recovery of the waste heat potential are calculated as $650 million per year, and the equivalent carbon emission reduction is calculated as 10 metric tons per year. This equates to the carbon emissions of approximately 4 million vehicles per year.
RePG Energy, which was established in 2016 with the support of TÜBITAK, and the Individual Young Enterprise (BIGG) utilize this potential, producing technologies and devices that produce energy between 20 kilowatts to 1 megawatt per hour by using the air from intense waste heat in industrial environments. The firm wants to be the first to initiate and implement the "Zero Waste Heat" strategy.
Sharing the details of the project, RePG Energy Deputy Chair and Founder Hasan Ayartürk said: "It has been over 20 years that I have been conducting theoretical studies on energy production from waste heat, and finally able to see the first physical outputs of the project in 2015. Basically, this waste heat is hot flued gas discharged from boilers, stove chimneys and geothermal hot water below 100 degrees."
He said that they have developed a technology that produced a 250-kilowatt device that will be able to meet the electricity needs of 1,000 houses. He stated that the device is also used in geothermal waters apart from the light industry, and the benefits of the system to the environment in this area, are unlimited. "Since our technology produces energy with zero carbon emissions, it converts the hot water coming out from underground into electrical energy and presses it back that can produce electricity directly by using the heat of the soil. For example, in houses with gardens, electricity can be generated by going down to the areas where ground source heat pumps up to land, thus preventing a very serious carbon emission."
Stating that the geothermal system, which produces energy from waste heat, can operate at lower temperature differences than existing systems, Ayartürk said: "We can achieve a much higher electricity output than conventional systems by using 60 degrees Celsius of waste heat, 20 degrees Celsius from outdoor environments and a 40 degrees Celsius temperature difference."
Mentioning that their systems are modular and that the small systems installed can be expanded later on, Ayartürk said: "For example, when a 100-kilowatt system or a larger system installation is required, we can enlarge the system by installing a small system inside it. Thus, we can start electricity production in a much shorter time."
RePG Energy Chair Hüseyin Karayağız pointed out that Türkiye ranks fourth in terms of geothermal resources in the world, and with the technology and devices we have developed, all those geothermal resources that could not be converted to electricity before can be converted into electrical energy now.
Underlining that systems such as oil and natural gas cause great harm to the world, Karayagiz emphasized that natural resources should be used as much as possible in energy production. "Fortunately, our country has this chance due to underground hot water reserves and solar resources, and the technologies that use these resources will become much more important from now on," he added.
Sharing the view that Türkiye is in a position to meet its own electricity needs with its underground hot water, Karayağız said: "It just needed to be developed technologically and turned into a machine. This is just a start, we need to expand our energy potential first in our country and then to the world with the 'Zero Waste Heat' approach."
