Informally described as a “refrigerator in reverse”, by business development manager Chris Grapsas, the system uses Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) to generate usable power. “We take the waste heat from the engine jacket water – it’s pretty low temperature. Everyone else has high temperature but this is low-grade heat recovery, which no-one else is really doing in the industry right now.
“We take some of that heat – about 85 celsius - and we can generate around 125kw of power for the ship’s onboard use. It’s free power because it’s already there. It’s being wasted, and dumped into the ocean water. We’ve taken that heat and generated power that would be going to waste otherwise.”
The equipment is new to shipping and has yet to undergo sea trials, but Calnetix is confident, predicting the equipment could produce fuel savings of up to 6%. It could save they claim 210 tonnes a year of fuel, and may even allow vessels to take a generator offline in some cases, saving fuel and maintenance. “It offsets the power that the diesel genset would have to produce for the ship," he said
“The system is built on magnetic bearings – its oil free," said Grapsas. "Very reliable with very low maintenance. You basically plug it in and forget about it."
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