'Recycle' Waste Energy

"For every three units of fuel — like coal, natural gas or oil — that are burned to make electricity, two are lost in the process, most of it as waste heat that just drifts away, says [Tom] Casten, who is chairman of Recycled Energy Development, a company that works with industrial clients to capture waste heat to produce clean electricity."

"With rising fuel prices taking a bigger bite out of the profits of the nation's manufacturers, Casten says many of them could save a lot of money, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, by capturing that waste heat and recycling it to produce power.

'There are many industrial processes that emit high-temperature exhaust," he explains. "You can use that high-temperature energy to boil water, make steam, and drive an electric generator.'"

"That's according to Casten, and the comparison shows that with the clamor to go green and use solar and wind power, there's vast potential in energy recycling that is available right now. Energy recycling saves ArcelorMittal tens of millions of dollars a year in energy costs, and the company says it reduced carbon dioxide emissions by 1.3 million tons a year."

"This type of energy recycling is commonplace in Northern Europe and Japan (it's one of the reasons ArcelorMittal is actively utilizing the technology in its U.S. plants). Denmark generates close to 55 percent of its electricity this way. In the Netherlands and Finland, the figure is closer to 40 percent, and in Germany it is 35 percent. But in the U.S., energy recycling accounts for just 8 percent of the nation's electrical power, according to the U.S. Department of Energy."

"So why isn't it done more often here?"

David Schaper, National Public Radio