Reusing wasted heat exhausted from power plant stacks can support endless greenhouses to help feed the world’s population.
Ronald Stein, P.E. is an engineer, columnist on energy literacy at America Out Loud NEWS, and advisor on energy literacy for the Heartland Institute and CFACT, and co-author of the Pulitzer Prize-nominated book “Clean Energy Exploitations.”
Sid Abma’s company Sidel Systems specialized in the design and installation of warm water heating systems for the commercial greenhouse industry. His passion is to deliver maximum energy efficiency to everything.
Co-authored by Ronald Stein, P.E. and Sid Abma
Published America Out Loud NEWS
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and datacenters are coming and so are the natural gas power plants that will be required to provide continuous uninterruptible electricity to power a lot of these facilities. These power plants today can operate at well over 90% Energy Efficiency.
The natural gas power plant that has produced electricity can further benefit humanity via the waste exhaust that would normally be put into a chimney and vented into the atmosphere, which is a waste of heat and a waste of CO2.
Rather than exhausting hot gases up power plants chimneys, the exhaust can be utilized in greenhouses, typically through a cogeneration system. The recovered heat energy can be used to warm greenhouses, and the CO2 fertilizes the plants, and all contributes to feeding the world’s population.
A Combined Heat and Power (CHP) power plant, also known as cogeneration, is a highly efficient energy system that simultaneously produces both electricity and useful heat from a single fuel source. The process involves using a “prime mover,” such as a gas turbine or engine, to generate electricity and then capturing the waste heat from the prime mover for thermal applications like heating or cooling buildings. This integrated approach significantly increases energy efficiency and reduces fuel consumption compared to generating heat and power separately, leading to lower operating costs and fewer carbon emissions.
The CHP process in the power plant involves treating the exhaust with catalytic converters to reduce any harmful components in the exhaust.
- Exhaust Gas Treatment: The exhaust gas is passed through a selective catalytic reduction (SCR) unit and an oxidation catalyst to remove pollutants like nitrogen oxides (NOx) and non-methane hydrocarbons (NMHC).
Within the combusted exhaust is heat energy that was not used to create electricity. The Sidel SRU Flue Gas Condenser was developed in the early 1980’s to recover the waste heat energy from the exhaust of the boilers used to heat these commercial greenhouses.
Today, over 2.5 million square feet of Greenhouses are using this “recovery of wasted heat” technology every day for increasing energy efficiency and to provide cooled CO2. The cooled exhaust, CO2, is being used in commercial greenhouses for CO2 enrichment. Even the created water in the exhaust has a purpose. The Sidel SRU Flue Gas Condenser is being used today in many other applications such as processing plants, hospitals, petrochemical plants, universities, commercial laundries, and State prisons.
To make the most of the elements from future power plants combusted natural gas exhaust, a greenhouse becomes a perfect partner. The SRU recovered heat energy will be piped over and will be used to maintain the perfect growing environment for a multitude of different food crops. The CO2 in the exhaust will be piped over and injected into these growing environments as a fertilizer that will increase fruit and vegetable size and quantity. The condensate water will have nutrients added and then be used to irrigate these crops.
To apply this technology in power plant applications is a natural forward progression. In Utah at the Current Creek power plant this technology is today being applied, heating 30 acres of commercial greenhouses owned by Houweling Nurseries.
All this happens because the owners of the power plant decided to improve their energy efficiency from 50% to 97% by redirecting the combusted exhaust and utilizing the heat energy and the CO2 and the water to better uses.
Utilizing the wasted heat in the exhaust from natural gas power plants can support endless greenhouses to help feed America and the world’s population.
The AI Centers, datacenters, power plants, and greenhouses will be operating for generations, providing good paying community jobs to parents, kids, and grandkids and food for the population.
The technology condensing flue gas heat recovery, provides beneficial use for heat and emissions that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere. This increases plant yield while reducing the economic costs of energy for the greenhouse.
Everyone WINS, with produced electricity and food.
- Increased Plant Growth: Elevated CO2 levels in greenhouses accelerate plant growth and increase harvest yields.
- Reduced Energy Costs: By recovering waste heat from the exhaust for heating, operating costs for the greenhouses can be significantly reduced.
- Sustainable Operation: This closed-loop system reuses byproducts, turning potential pollutants into a valuable resource for plant cultivation.
Greenhouse Benefits:
- CO2 Fertilization: The carbon dioxide from the exhaust is naturally used by the plants, a process known as CO2 enrichment, which can significantly boost plant growth and yield.
- Heating: The heat from the exhaust provides efficient heating for the greenhouse.
Utilizing the exhausted energy from power plant stacks is a Win-Win situation for all. All this is because the power plants improved their energy efficiency to 97% just by utilizing the exhaust – the heat and CO2 emissions. A good deal for everybody.
- The new AI Centers and datacenters are going to create a lot of new jobs.
- The new power plants are going to create a lot of local professional jobs.
- The new greenhouses will help feed the world’s growing population and create hundreds of new good paying jobs for the local community.
Utilizing waste heat that is normally exhausted from power plant stacks can support endless greenhouses to help feed the world’s population. It also reduces wasting natural gas.
“Today, over 2.5 million square feet of Greenhouses are using this “recovery of wasted heat” technology every day for increasing energy efficiency and to provide cooled CO2.” Wow, almost 58 acres of Greenhouses. Where is this small farm?
Great concept!
Which holds the most waste heat in a CCGT plant, the condenser cooling water or the stack”
Well, there’s been all this talk of carbon capture. Even if this had a very low efficiency it would still be a massive improvement over anything else I’ve seen.
I like this idea for no other reason than the greens will squirm trying to discredit it.
The best I can say is that this may not necessarily be a bad idea.
I have serious doubts that except for very limited circumstances, the economics can be made to work.
Several problems:
The first is that greenhouses are expensive.
Second, the places where this would be the best are places where it is cold most of the year. However, those are also the places where few people live. So who would be building power plants in the middle of nowhere.
One of the imputed ‘negatives’ of thermal power plants is they ‘waste heat’. The graphics to illustrate this are agreeable to AI, but too moronic to be placed here. Waste heat is only wasted if it does not accomplish useful work, as pointed out by Sadi Carnot in 1824 and by this blog.
In the intervening 200 years, Defenders of the Faith in Renewables apparently have not understood that wind and solar are Carnot-limited, but the waste heat generated so too low grade, it cannot be recovered.
Modern co-generation wrings out the maximum feasible value from the ‘waste’ heat while leaving the CO2 for plant fertilization. Nice, but not understood by OurWorldinData, among others.
‘All this is because the power plants improved their energy efficiency to 97% just by utilizing the exhaust – the heat and CO2 emissions.’
97% seems a tad high, but what do I know?
If the heated exhaust includes fixed nitrogen – NOx – why not use it? NOx can be converted to nitrate fertilizer.
Adding a catalytic converter just adds expense and removes a benefit.
The NOx will convert to nitrous or nitric acid aerosols in humid air. Adding some bicarbonate to the soil mix or vermiculite, or perhaps adding an alkali filter to the gas stream, will convert the acids to sodium nitrite or sodium nitrate, which the plants can use.
Also, how do non-methane hydrocarbons survive the ~1200 C combustion temperature? If they are present, could they be oxidized away by injecting oxygen gas into the ~500 C exhaust stream?
Anyway, high power efficiency is a good thing. But not because it reduces CO2 emissions.
Turns out that Gavin Newsom’s business-friendly policies have driven Houweling Nurseries out of California,
The story says they’ve laid off their remaining workers in a move to Arizona. Evidently also to Utah.
To Houweling’s credit they’ve offered jobs to all their workers who will make the move with them. Do the authors know how that worked out?
Hmm, why not tow a trailer with a little greenhouse on top while driving your conventional car. The unused energy that comes out of your tailpipe would do the same trick and hey, you could directly drive to the next farmers market and let your clients harvest right on the spot.
Yeah sarcasm all over an idea that looks in general good on paper but in reality turns out to be very difficult to realize….as so many pipe dreams of these days.
Ah, it it uses Natural Gas as the prime source and we can’t have that that now can we!
It can get pretty warm in a lot of the US and the world in the summer. In these cases you may need to actually cool a greenhouse, not warm it during this time. I think siting may be a big deal in this to get the overall efficiency up.
But yes, it works to some extent.
For perspective- US farmers grow 40,000 ac of potaoes, 100,000 ac of peas and 92,000,000 ac of corn annually. An ac is over 40,000 SQ ft…..Crops grown in greenhouses are generally limited o salad greens & tomatoes- foods with very low nutritional density..Greenhouses require expensive, high maintenance infrastructure, including a good deal of artificial lighting and it’s attendant energy usage during the short day, winter months.
I certainly applaud these heat and gas recovery efforts. I think the article is a bit too glowing.
While this will work, it will probably require the right circumstances and and very sharp operators to be profitable, especially in the north. The heat losses from greenhouses are huge and winter light levels are very low in the northern latitudes.
From article:”… and fewer carbon emissions.”
This idea seems to defeat the purpose of having a greenhouse attached. Or are little phrases like this now embedded in our writing?
Iceland has had greenhouses fed by steam energy for years.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.visiticeland.com%2Farticle%2Fthe-greenhouse-revolution-in-iceland%2F&psig=AOvVaw1jP2lWSSN3wrtcnHrxTe77&ust=1760110314329000&source=images&cd=vfe&opi=89978449&ved=0CBYQjhxqFwoTCIClpK24l5ADFQAAAAAdAAAAABAE
Unfortunately, I tripped up and stopped reading the above article upon hitting this false sentence in its first paragraph:
“These power plants today can operate at well over 90% Energy Efficiency.”
and this was specifically in reference to natural gas fueled power plants.
The most efficient natural gas combined cycle power plant in terms of demonstrated thermal (energy) conversion to electricity is 64.18% and was achieved by Siemens Energy Global GmbH & Co (Germany) at SSE Thermal’s Keadby Unit 2 Power Station in North Lincolnshire, UK, verified on 21 May 2024. (https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/431420-most-efficient-combined-cycle-power-plant )
“These [natural gas] power plants today can operate at well over 90% Energy Efficiency.” — Seriously? I’d like to see a cite for that. Most large power plants operate at 30 – 40% thermodynamic efficiency. They get higher efficiency by internally recycling heat to warm fuel going into the burners. Besides, how do you intend to efficiently move the heat from the plants to the greenhouses? How many greenhouses can actually be built around power plants? Also, those CHP plants are not very popular. Per Statista, in 2010 there were only 267 of them in the USA, and only 200 in 2022. So there’s no interest, unless a recent surge. I’d like to see a cite for that as well. I have not seen any data on CHP thermodynamic efficiency, but I doubt it’s 90%. Or they would be popular. I’d give you 2 stars, but for some reason the server will not let me rate your paper.
I wonder what it costs to just ship the food from where it is summer to winter areas. You won’t need the expense of the greenhouse. If shipping really is cheaper, then all the efficiency gains are meaningless. With or without the greenhouse, heat has to be dumped. And the food does its CO2 to O2 thing anywhere, so no CO2 reduction anyway.
This is all good but we need to celebrate diversity. I am in favor of gas, coal and nuclear.
Wow, CO2 is plantfood !! Whodda thunk it, Oh wait, everybody except the zealots.
From 2016:
https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/goddard/carbon-dioxide-fertilization-greening-earth-study-finds/