Lynn Mueller is the Chairman, CEO, and Co-Founder of Sharc Energy Systems (SHRC / INTWF). Sharc Energy has a patented system of recovering thermal energy from wastewater. Tune in to The Stock Podcast to hear Lynn describe one of the most interesting heat recovery and energy recycling systems around today. It’s a truly fascinating interview about a company and a technology that could alter the course of natural gas demand going forward.
The concept of sewage heat recovery is one of the most interesting energy technologies I’ve ever heard of. But I need to be clear, I’m not an engineer and I don’t have firsthand experience with the SHARC heat recovery system. And if you’re like me, when you hear the phrases sewer water, heat transfer, and energy source – you might get a little confused. I certainly was. After a full year of semi-regular conversations over dinner about the sewer heat transfer project with my wife who’s an engineer, I still don’t completely understand the science
That being said, it does work. Just think about an air conditioner. Your air conditioner is a heat exchange system. During the summer months, an A/C unit cycles the warm air inside your house through a heat exchange system. The warmth in the air is pulled out, and the air that comes out of the unit is cooler. If you have an air conditioning unit, and you stand close to it while it’s running, you’ll feel the warm air that was removed blowing away from the a/c unit.
SHARC’s heat recovery systems do something very similar. When you take a shower, most normal people use hot water. That hot water was warmed by a water heater. In most cases, the water heater uses natural gas as an energy source. The energy in natural gas is extracted by burning the gas, which then transfers the energy into the water. The energy presents itself as a higher temperature. Just like the natural gas molecule, you can remove the energy or heat from the water molecule and transfer it somewhere else using a heat transfer system. And that’s essentially what a SHARC system does.
There are a few things I’d encourage listeners/readers to consider. First, a thought from someone who believes in global warming. Now, I’m going to wade into some waters that, based on my technical knowledge and skill set, I probably shouldn’t be wading through, but ignore the economics for a second – the systems that SHARC manufactures significantly reduce carbon emissions. And they do that by recycling energy. A very important concept here is thermal efficiency. I know for some I’m committing a cardinal sin, but if you’d like to learn more you should check out the Wikipedia page that describes thermal efficiency for heat engines as the fraction of the energy added by heat (primary energy) that is converted to net work output (secondary energy). The point is that the thermal efficiency of a SHARC system is extremely high.
Second, we talked a bit about the cost of a system. As a former wind developer, I love the fact that Lynn mentioned the cost of a wind turbine. One of the reasons I loved the reference is that it gives me the chance to wade into some more familiar waters! Today, the wind turbine itself costs around $1M per megawatt (MW) (give or take a couple hundred thousand). But that’s just the cost of a wind turbine. To build a wind energy facility, there are a lot more costs involved – development expenses, transmission, permits, substation, etc. The all in cost is far north of $2M per MW. As Lynn mentioned, a SHARC system is only about $0.5M/MW!
The last reason I think all of this is so interesting relates to the market opportunity for sewage heat recovery and for SHARC Energy Systems. The US Dept. of Energy (DOE) estimates that 40B dollars’ worth of energy is flushed down the toilet every year – no pun intended.
SHARC’s ticker on the Canadian exchange is SHRC and the ticker in the US on the OTC is INTWF.
