Cyclone’s waste heat power generator—comprising its 18 hp Waste Heat Engine, proprietary heat exchangers and electric generator—will be installed and field tested at Bent Glass’ facility over the following couple of months. This initial system will convert more than 500,000 BTUs of exhaust heat from the customer’s glass manufacturing furnaces into electricity, which will be supplied back to the power grid. The final system is expected to be cash positive in 12 months and provide a full payback to Bent Glass within three years.

Cyclone’s Rankine-cycle waste heat engine has been in development since late 2008, and during that time has undergone many months of advancements to increase durability, efficiency and power output. The same engine was shipped in March 2010 to Robotic Technology as part of a project sponsored by DARPA, an agency of the US Department of Defense.

People sometimes forget that there are no pre-existing ‘build-by’ design drawings for these engine systems—we have developed it all from the bottom up and that takes time. We know, however, that there is an enormous, underserved market for medium-range waste heat power generators, and we believe that our system will still be the first to effectively convert such wasted energy into clean, renewable, revenue-producing power.

—Cyclone’s CEO and technology inventor Harry Schoell