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Chinese firm prepares scale production of new energy power generator

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-04-23 19:34

A Chinese power equipment manufacturer is expanding production of a new type of power generator that can recover waste heat from industrial exhausts for power generation.

The Jiangxi Huadian Power Corp Ltd is building a production line that is capable of turning out 500 such screw expansion power generators a year, said Hu Da, chairman of the board of the company, on Thursday.

The facility will enter production by the end of this year, he said.

The generators put on show at the 2009 Beijing International Energy-saving and New Energy Technology Expo in March attracted attention from China's state leaders.

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"Both President Hu Jintao and Vice Present Xi Jinping stopped at our booth and listened to my presentation," said the manager.

He told the leaders that a nationwide popularization of the power generators can recover industrial exhaust from industrial boilers, and generate power several times larger than that generated by the world's largest hydropower station at Three Gorges.

The company based in east China's Jiangxi province has developed four types of generators with power ranging from 50 kilowatts to 1,500 kilowatts. The averaged price is set at 1 million yuan ($146,433).

The generator was applied in Tibet to make use of local terrestrial heat in 2007.

"A generator of 100-200 kilowatts can supply enough electricity for a village," said Wu Fangzhi, a member of the Terrestrial Heat Division of the China Energy Research Society.

He said that besides terrestrial heat, China has more than 400,000 industrial boilers. Those in cement and porcelain plants produce industrial vapor with temperature as high as 400 degree Celsius, which can be recycled into a powerful energy through the screw expansion generator.

While the generator collects the energy for power generation, it also purifies soot in the vapor discharge, he said.

The technology was developed by Hu Liangguang, a professor with Tianjin University. He said he used the screw expansion motion as power to start the engine.

He said the generator demands high-precision equipment to control the heat expansion in order to guarantee stable power generating.

The company has so far installed more than 40 screw expansion generators in steel, petro refining, thermal power plants in pilot production. The generators can work non-stop for up to 6,000 hours.

The company chairman said the company has invested 300 million yuan in the first phase production this year. If the market responds well, the company hopes to expand the annual production to 10,000 units by 2012.