As Ohio manufacturers, start-ups and individuals look to impact � and benefit from � the emerging green economy, an Akron-based company is developing a product to capture waste heat and solar thermal energy, converting it into electricity.
Today about 60 percent of heat generated by burning fossil fuels is wasted, released into the environment, according to two-year-old rexorce. And every day, the sun shines down enough thermal energy to power the world's demands for a year.
Now, rexorce -- A privately held company founded by CEO Philip Brennan and CTO Michael Gurin -- is developing the ThermafficientTM heat engine. This system recovers thermal energy from industrial and commercial waste heat, solar thermal, bottom and top cycling in power plants and other sources.
That energy, in turn is converted into electricity to power Ohio's homes and companies. The company has a growing intellectual property portfolio that protects the novel means by which their engine harvests heat and creates power, heat and shaft work.
The founders of rexorce describe their work as pursuing "profit with a purpose, by providing innovative solutions to the world's energy challenges." Its aim is to radically improve the way thermal energy is sourced, produced, distributed and consumed.
"The reason I got involved is because I have passion to help find a real solution to the energy challenge," Brennan said.
Individuals and companies are becoming more aware of the environmental impact of their activities, and increasingly are looking for ways to curb that impact. Now, rexorce has the potential to tap into a large area of wasted and renewal energy sources.
The company was founded April 1st, 2007 and employs 17 people, mostly engineers. The company soon will bring on two more employees, and has received millions in financial support from the state including from Jumpstart and the Ohio Third Frontier. Most recently the company was awarded $1.5 million from the Innovation Ohio Loan Fund.
That support has allowed the company to make great progress, says Brennan, who previously worked for several Fortune 50 companies as a packaged goods marketer. His partner is a veteran engineer who has done contract development work for NASA, BMW and Caterpillar.
"We are in the final stages of development with deployment of a commercial scale system with two industrial partners in Q1 and Q2 of next year," Brennan said.
A commercial launch is planned for late 2010, and will be marketed in steel, cement, pulp and paper, petrochemicals, oil and gas sectors.
Source: Philip Brennan, rexorce
Writer: Feoshia Henderson