INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRECISION ENGINEERING AND MANUFACTURING Vol. 14, No. 6, pp.

1029-1035 JUNE 2013 / 1029

DOI: 10.1007/s12541-013-0138-3

Exhaust Air Energy Recovery System for Electrical

Power Generation in Future Green Cities

Wen Tong Chong1,#, Sin Chew Poh1, Ahmad Fazlizan1, Sook Yee Yip2, Mei Hyie Koay3, and Wooi Ping Hew2
1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
2 UMPEDAC, Level 4, Wisma R & D, University Malaya, Jalan Pantai Baharu, 59990 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
3 Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia
# Corresponding Author / E-mail: chong_wentong@um.edu.my; chong_wentong@yahoo.com, TEL: +60-127235038, FAX: +60-379675317

KEYWORDS: Cooling tower, Energy recovery, Green technology, Renewable energy, Urban wind energy, Wind turbine

This paper investigates a technology-driven solution to supply a portion of energy demand in future green cities. An idea on
harnessing unnatural wind resources for electricity is presented. Two vertical axis wind turbines with an enclosure are mounted above
a cooling tower to recover part of the energy from the exhaust air. Guide-vanes are designed to create a venturi effect and guide the
wind before it interacts with the turbine blades. Diffuser-plates help to draw more wind and accelerate the exhaust airflow. Safety
concerns that may result from blade failure are minimized by the design of the enclosure. From the laboratory test and field test
results, there is no significant difference in the current consumption of the fan motor with the installation of the wind turbines. The
integration of the enclosure has shown an improvement on the turbine’s rotational speed which is 30.4% higher. The electricity
generated from this system can be fed into the electricity grid. For 3000 units of cooling tower (2 m outlet diameter powered by a
7.5 kW fan motor and operated for 16 hours/day), 13% of the energy to power the fan motor is expected to be recovered from this
system which equals 17.5 GWh/year.

Manuscript received: June 21, 2012 / Accepted: October 10, 2012

contributed by both industrial and residential sectors. The existing

NOMENCLATURE
GHG = Greenhouse Gas
TNB = Tenaga Nasional Berhad
VAWT = Vertical Axis Wind Turbine
RE = Renewable energy
DAWT = Diffuser Augmented Wind Turbine
1. Introduction
Nowadays, global energy consumption in both developed and
developing countries has increased rapidly due to population growth
and it is expected to double or more by the year 2040.1 In Malaysia
alone, total energy demand is growing at 5.4% per annum with 1.8%
average annual population growth rate. Eventually, the energy demand
in the year 2020 will be approximately 971 TWh with 33.4 million
populations. As a consequence, Malaysia is predicted to become a net
energy importer by 2020.2 This energy consumption growth is
energy resources for electricity generation in Malaysia mainly depend
on fossil fuels (oil, coal and natural gas) which contribute 94.5% of the
electricity generation while only a small portion of energy supplies
comes from hydroelectricity or others (solar, biomass, etc.). However,
the usage of fossil fuels brings negative impacts to the environment
such as greenhouse gases (GHG) emission. According to Ahmad et al.,
more than 90% of the energy related GHG emission is a result of the
CO2 emissions from fuel combustion globally.3 Currently, the increase
in the concentration of GHG emission has caused a notable rise of
temperature in the earth’s atmosphere (global warming) and thus
widespread melting of snow and ice at the polar ice caps. The melting
of ice causes the rise of sea level and lesser land can be used for an
increasing world population, along with the changes in climate.4
In terms of the economic aspect, the deployment of fossil fuels for
electricity generation will become more and more costly as these
resources are limited in supply and will be exhausted one day. Based
on the commercial tariff of electricity in Malaysia provided by Tenaga
Nasional Berhad (TNB), energy cost is USD 0.113/kWh and it is
predicted to increase by 10% annually.5 In parallel with a country

© KSPE and Springer 2013

 1030 / JUNE 2013 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRECISION ENGINEERING AND MANUFACTURING Vol. 14, No. 6
experiencing rapid growing energy demand and economic development,
the challenges of supplying sufficient and acceptable cost of electricity
can be addressed with the increase in the usage of renewable energy
resources for electricity generation. According to Shan et al., energy
saving and emission reducing technologies consist of three types, i.e.
resource conservation, energy economizing and environment-friendly.6
In this paper, the authors would like to present a novel application
of wind turbine to recover wasted energy in order to promote the vision
of energy saving and emission reducing. Thus, an innovative idea on
harnessing unnatural wind resources for electrical power generation is
introduced by installing an exhaust air energy recovery system above
an exhaust air system (cooling tower). The feasibility of implementing
the proposed system is investigated by conducting a laboratory test on
a scaled model of a cooling tower. An on-site testing was carried out
as well to further examine the reliability of the system. The main
objective of the design is to produce on-site clean energy generation
without causing negative effects on the performance of the original
exhaust air system.
2. Potential of wind energy in Malaysia
Renewable energy (RE) resources play an important role as
alternative energy sources to limit the dependency on fossil fuels for
electricity generation. Recently, numerous researchers have put RE in
the limelight and intensive researches were done to improve the
efficiency of RE resources for energy generation. All the works
emphasized the sustainability at the early design stages so that they can
perform with minimum usage of energy without producing hazardous
wastes.7 Among the RE resources, wind energy is recognized as the
fastest developing RE resource globally which is reported at a rate of
30% annually.8 Wind energy is clean and inexhaustible allowing a cost-
effective and sustainable energy system. However, the development
and current utilization of wind energy in Malaysia are immature due to
the fact that the country has low wind speed.
Malaysia’s climate is categorized as equatorial and its wind
condition varies throughout the year as it is governed by both the
Northeast (November-March) and Southwest (May-September)
monsoons.9 The wind speed in Malaysia is limited throughout the
year (free-stream wind speed, V∞ < 4 m/s for more than 90% of total
wind hours)10 making it an unreliable source for energy generation.
Based on the weather data collected and analyzed in Penang Island by
Tiang and Ishak, the mean annual wind power density is estimated to
be 24.54 W/m2 while the mean annual wind energy density is
estimated to be about 17.98 kWh/m2 per month.11 Sopian et al.
presented a wind energy potential analysis with Weibull distribution
function for a 10 year period (1982-1991) by collecting wind data
from 10 weather stations throughout Malaysia. He concluded that the
station in Mersing has the greatest potential with a mean annual wind
power density at 86.61 W/m2.12 In addition, there is a great potential
to apply wind energy generation system in Sabah (East Malaysia) as
there was a project with a 150 kW wind turbine set-up in Terumbu
Layang-Layang for power generation and water pumping in 2005 by
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. This project was demonstrated with a
good degree of success.13 Although the above stated areas show
promising results for the application of wind turbine, most of the city
areas in Malaysia e.g. Labuan or Kudat are not suitable for wind energy
generation.14
In order to extract maximum possible wind energy in a low wind
speed region, the design of a suitable wind turbine is crucial. The
existing problems of the wind turbine shall be taken into account
during the design stage, i.e. low efficiency and poor starting behavior.
The wind power can be expressed as below:
1 3
P = --- CP ρAV (1)
2
where Cp is power coefficient, ρ is air density, A is blade swept area and
V is wind speed.15 Based on equation (1), a slight increase in the wind
speed approaching a wind turbine will result in increase of power
output significantly since the wind power generation is directly
proportional to the cube of the wind speed. This theory is successfully
utilized by the diffuser augmented wind turbine (DAWT). DAWTs are
the hot topic to improve the output power of a wind turbine. It helps
to accelerate the wind speed by creating a separation region behind the
wind turbine where low-pressure regions act as a sucking effect to draw
more wind compared to a conventional wind turbine.16
One of the most recent experimental investigations on the diffuser
design of a horizontal axis wind turbine showed that the performance
of a diffuser-shrouded wind turbine is better in terms of power
coefficient. It was observed to be about four times higher compared to
a bare wind turbine.17 Besides, a further experiment was carried out by
Ohya et al.18 to examine the optimal form of the flanged diffuser.
Different lengths of diffuser were studied to design a more compact
diffuser. Chen et al. also conducted experiments to study the effects of
flanged diffuser on rotor performance. The results showed that the
flanged diffuser will significantly increase the power output, torque
output, and rotor rotational speed of the wind turbine with 30% solidity
rotor at 10-20 m/s wind speed.19
Despite the low and unsteady wind speed problems in Malaysia, an
innovative approach of extracting unnatural wind resource, i.e. exhaust
air system has been introduced in this paper for electricity generation.
The design is known as exhaust air energy recovery system and it takes
the advantages of the discharged airflow characteristic from exhaust air
systems which have consistent and predictable wind speed. There are
many forced ventilated situations available globally including ventilated
exhaust from air conditioning system.20 These situations allow large
deployment of the exhaust air energy recovery system. The designed
system is surrounded by an enclosure which comprises of diffuser-
plates and guide vanes for better wind turbine performance.
3. General arrangement and working principle of the
designed exhaust air energy recovery turbine system
Fig. 1 shows the general arrangement of the exhaust air energy
recovery system. This patented system comprises of two vertical axis
wind turbines (VAWTs) installed above an exhaust outlet in cross wind
orientation to harness the discharged wind energy. The discharged wind
energy from the exhaust air system is reliable for electricity generation
because it is strong and consistent, allowing VAWTs to operate with
 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRECISION ENGINEERING AND MANUFACTURING Vol. 14, No. 6
Fig. 1 General arrangement of the exhaust air energy recovery system
at the cooling tower outlet
minimum fluctuation. The design of the system also takes into
consideration the performance of the exhaust air system, where no
negative impact could be expected.
This system is supported by a supporting structure and it can be
installed above the exhaust air system either horizontally or vertically
depending on the orientation of discharged air relative to the turbines.
For instance, when the wind blows up in a vertical direction from
beneath, the whole system is installed in a horizontal orientation and
the supporting structure holds the transmission shaft on both ends of
the VAWT (generator at one side while bearing at the other side). In
contrary, the system is mounted in a vertical direction with the
generator placed on the floor when the discharged air is coming
sideways. An optimum position above the exhaust outlet is essential to
be determined for the installation of two VAWTs to avoid creating any
negative impact on the exhaust air system.
In order to capture the maximum wind energy from the exhaust air
system, both the VAWTs are integrated with an enclosure (equipped with
several guide vanes and two diffuser-plates). Guide vanes are arranged in
between the exhaust outlet and VAWTs to form multiple air flow channels
to guide the exhaust wind direction to an optimum on the turbine blade.
Furthermore, a significant increment on the discharged wind speed can be
obtained as a venturi effect is created. The suction effect that occurs due
to the low pressure region will draw more air for interaction with the
VAWTs and result in better self-starting behavior. Thus, the VAWTs can
rotate closer to its rated rotational speed and a greater amount of
electricity is generated from the system. In addition, there are two
diffuser-plates inclined outwardly at an optimum angle relative to their
vertical axis to further improve the discharged air flow characteristic. The
design of this system also takes the safety issues into consideration. The
enclosure acts as a safety cover to protect the entire system from public
or maintenance worker hazard in the event of blade failure.
This exhaust air energy recovery system has great marketing value
since there are many cooling towers as well as other exhaust air
systems around the world. Besides, it is an on-site green energy
invention as it does not contribute to any kind of pollution but instead,
it re-uses wasted air from the exhaust air system to conserve a part of
the energy consumption. The integration of this green technology with
a building should be able to obtain the green building index rating. Fig. 2
illustrates an artist’s impression of the exhaust air energy recovery
system on top of a high-rise building.
JUNE 2013 / 1031
Fig. 2 Artist’s impression of the designed exhaust air energy recovery
system on top of a high-rise building
Fig. 3 Set-up for laboratory test on a scaled model of cooling tower
4. Methodology
4.1 Laboratory test of the exhaust air energy recovery turbines on
a scaled model of cooling tower
The laboratory test was performed as an initial experimental
approach to investigate the feasibility of the energy recovery system.
The main concerns are the effect of the energy recovery system on the
exhaust air performance and the performance of the wind turbine. A
scaled model of cooling tower was built with an outlet diameter of
0.8 m (circular duct). The cooling fan was represented by a 0.7 m
diameter cooling fan. At the bottom of the cooling tower, there was a
gap with a distance of 0.195 m from the floor (with the air inlet area
of 0.5329 m2). As for the model of the exhaust air energy recovery
system, two 0.3 m diameter H-rotors were used and they were enclosed
within an enclosure. The VAWTs were positioned at a distance of
0.18 m above the fan outlet (measured from the VAWT transmission
shaft). Diffuser-plates were mounted on the outlet of the circular duct.
According to the experimental investigation carried out by Abe et al.,21
diffusers are best when inclined at 7o relative to the vertical axis. The
laboratory test set-up is shown in Fig. 3.
This laboratory test was performed in three configurations, i.e.:
1) Cooling tower model without wind turbines
2) Cooling tower model with wind turbines
3) Cooling tower model with wind turbines integrated with enclosure
 1032 / JUNE 2013 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRECISION ENGINEERING AND MANUFACTURING Vol. 14, No. 6

Fig. 4 The design and installation of a wind turbine on top of a cooling tower supported by the supporting structure

Several measurements had been recorded to identify the difference Table 1 Laboratory test results of the energy recovery system
among all the test configurations. The fan motor current consumption Cooling tower
Cooling tower
was measured by using a mini clamp meter at the power cable. A hot Cooling tower model with wind
Parameter model with wind
wire anemometer was used to measure the air intake speed of the model only turbines and
turbines
scaled model of cooling tower at four intake points after the rotational diffuser
Fan motor current
speed of the wind turbine had stabilized. Then, the rotational speed of 0.85 Ampere
consumption
the wind turbine was measured by a hand held laser tachometer.
Average intake air
1.97 m/s 2.28 m/s 2.14 m/s
speed
4.2 Field test of the exhaust air energy recovery turbine system on Discharged air
1.05 m3/s 1.22 m3/s 1.14 m3/s
an actual cooling tower flow rate
Field test was conducted to investigate the performance and reliability Turbine rotational
- 464 rpm 501 rpm
of the system on an actual cooling tower. Malaysia’s biggest cooling speed
tower manufacturer, Truwater Cooling Towers Sdn. Bhd., provided a
demonstration unit for this experiment. The outlet diameter of the ment. Then, the outlet wind speed was obtained by averaging the
cooling tower is 2 m and the cooling fan is powered by a 7.5 kW motor.22 velocities taken at 90o intervals on every circle.23 The discharged air
The exhaust air energy recovery system used a combination of a flow rate was calculated by multiplying the outlet wind speed with the
3-bladed Darrieus type VAWT (rotor diameter of 1.24 m) and a 2- outlet area. A laser tachometer was used to measure the cooling fan and
stage Savonius rotor. It was supported at both ends of its center shaft wind turbine rotational speed, and a 3-phase power meter was used to
and mounted above the cooling tower with an outlet diameter of 2 m. measure the power consumption by the fan motor.
The system was held by the supporting structure and mounted to the
main structure of the cooling tower (Fig. 4). The center shaft of the
rotor was shifted from the center of the cooling tower outlet at a 5. Result and discussion
predefined distance in order to get an optimum performance of the
wind turbine based on the measured velocity profile of the exhaust 5.1 Laboratory test of the exhaust air energy recovery turbine
air. The rotor height (distance between the nearest circumference of system on the scaled model of cooling tower
the VAWT to the outlet of the cooling tower was set at half of the Table 1 shows the measured results for all the three test
rotor diameter. The horizontal distance between the rotor shafts to the configurations obtained from the laboratory test. For the first
outlet center of the cooling tower was also at half of the rotor configuration (cooling tower model only), the average discharged air
diameter. The system was mounted onto the supporting structure at speed at the outlet of the scaled model of cooling tower was recorded at
both ends of the power-transmission shaft with the generator at one 4.15 m/s while the fan motor current consumption was 0.85 Ampere and
side and a bearing at the other. the average intake air speed at 1.97 m/s. The measured results for the
The field test was performed in two configurations, i.e: configuration were taken as baseline throughout the entire experiment.
1) Cooling tower model without wind turbines For the second configuration (cooling tower model with wind
2) Cooling tower model with wind turbines turbines), it was observed that the VAWTs were able to self-start and
In order to measure the air flow performance of the cooling tower, their average stabilized rotational speed was recorded at 464 rpm. The
a measurement standard developed by the Cooling Technology Institute discharged airflow rate of the cooling tower model showed 8.6%
has been used. The wind speed was measured by using a hot-wire improvement (from 1.05 m3/s to1.22 m3/s). This increment shows that
anemometer. Since the outlet duct is circular in shape, the duct was the integration of the VAWTs with the cooling tower is able to help the
divided into 5 concentric circular bands of equal areas for measure- fan to discharge more air to the atmosphere and thus the power
 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRECISION ENGINEERING AND MANUFACTURING Vol. 14, No. 6 JUNE 2013 / 1033

Table 2 Field test results on an actual cooling tower

Cooling
Cooling Percentage
Parameter Tower with
tower only Difference
wind turbines
Average
discharged air 10.545 m/s 10.363 m/s 1.73%
speed
Cooling tower
fan rotational 386.0 rpm 385.8 rpm 0.05%
speed
Fan motor power
7.048 kW 7.075 kW 0.39%
consumption
875 rpm
Turbine
- (free-running -
rotational speed
condition)

Fig. 5 Discharged air velocity profile at the cooling tower outlet
consumption of the fan would be reduced.
After the installation of the enclosure, the average rotational speed
of the VAWTs was further enhanced as it was recorded at 501 rpm.
There was no measurable difference observed on the fan motor current
consumption as it remained at 0.85 Ampere and minimum changes on
the airflow rate for all three cases. This scenario proves that the
installation of the exhaust air energy recovery system does not bring
any significant negative effect on the cooling tower performance.
5.2 Field test
5.2.1 Discharged air velocity profile of the cooling tower
Discharged air velocity profile measurement was conducted to
determine the position for the VAWTs for optimum performance. Fig. 5
shows the average discharged air speeds at the cooling tower outlet,
measured at five bands on every quarter. The graph shows that the
discharged air speed in the region between band 3 and band 4 is the
highest.
However, the lowest wind speed is observed at band 1 where the
region is close to the center as there is a belting cover blocking the air
flow. Wind speed at band 5 (close to the outlet outer radius) is low due
to blade tip loss, and the clearance between the blade tip and the inner
wall duct. Based on the measurement results, it is best to locate the
VAWTs at the region between band 3 and band 4 where the wind
speeds are strong.
5.2.2 Exhaust air energy recovery turbine system tested on an
actual cooling tower
This test was conducted to examine if there is any negative effect
on the cooling tower due to the blockage effect after the installation of
the exhaust air energy recovery system. Table 2 summarizes the results
from the field test.
During the test, the VAWT was spinning at 875 rpm in free-running
condition (no load application) with the average discharged air speed
from the cooling tower at 10.363 m/s. It was observed that the average
discharged air speed was slightly reduced from 10.545 m/s to
10.363 m/s with the presence of the VAWTs (1.73% lower). This result
shows that there is a minimum blockage effect when the system is
positioned above the cooling tower outlet. However, there was no
significant difference observed on the power consumption of the fan
motor where the increment was only 0.39% (from 7.048 kW to
7.075 kW).
6. Estimation of energy conserved
An estimation of energy that is able to be recovered through the
installation of the exhaust air energy recovery system is discussed in
this section. An optimized energy recovery system with 2 units of
VAWTs is capable of generating 1 kW of power when installed above
a cooling tower outlet with 2 m outlet diameter and powered by a
7.5 kW fan motor. If there are 3000 units of cooling towers (same
specifications and conditions) operating for 16 hours per day, the fan
power consumption is 131.4 GWh/year and a total of 17.5 GWh of
energy is expected to be recovered by the installation of the energy
recovery system in a year. This amount of energy recovered is 13% of
the energy consumed by the fan motor of the cooling towers.
7. Future Work
Further investigations are needed to obtain an optimum
configuration and to improve the efficiency of the designed exhaust air
energy recovery system. The blockage effect which is caused by the
integration of the VAWTs at the outlet of the exhaust air system that
may affect the performance of the exhaust air system will first be
investigated. It will cover topics such as the exhaust air flow
characteristics, fan performance, heat rejection effectiveness, system
efficiency, etc. to ensure the normal operation condition of the exhaust
air system. Over-heating problem that may cause fire or safety issue
from the fan motor current increment due to air flow reduction will be
focused upon as well as to ensure safety of the occupants in the
building. In addition, the impact of flow mixing between the exhaust
air and the natural turbulence in urban areas which may influence the
performance of the system (exhaust air system and energy recovery
system) will also be included in future studies.
 1034 / JUNE 2013 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRECISION ENGINEERING AND MANUFACTURING Vol. 14, No. 6
8. Conclusions
An on-site green energy generation system that converts the wasted
wind resource from exhaust air systems to electricity is presented. The
design of the exhaust air recovery system is expected to recover 13%
of the power consumption by the cooling tower’s fan motor. Besides,
it is built with wind power augmentation features (guide-vanes and
diffuser-plates) that greatly improve the performance of the VAWTs by
accelerating the on-coming discharged airflow.
Based on the test results obtained from the laboratory test, it is
proven that the energy in the discharged air is extractable by installing
the energy recovery system without affecting its original performance
significantly. The motor current consumption remains at 0.85 Ampere
for all the three testing configurations. Meanwhile, the VAWTs’
performance has been improved when they are integrated with an
enclosure as the turbine rotational speed was raised from 463.72 rpm to
500.98 rpm. Minimum blockage effect from the designed system was
observed during field test since the discharged airflow was reduced by
1.73%. The performance of the VAWT is expected to match its rated
power when exposed to this discharged air speed. Also, there was no
significant difference on the motor power consumption as it was
maintained in between 7.0 to 7.1 kW.
An optimized system with two VAWTs installed on a common
cooling tower (2 m outlet diameter and powered by a 7.5 kW fan
motor) is expected to recover 1 kW of power. This system is retrofit-
able to any exhaust air system, which makes it has a high market
potential. The electricity generated can be fed into the electricity grid
or used for commercial purposes. It is a green technology invention
with great potential of reducing CO2 emission that leads us to future
greener cities. The system optimization and blockage effect
investigation will be the next focus of this project. It will take into
account the exhaust air system performance, environmental impacts
and conformance to building regulations to ensure this design is a safe
and reliable energy recovery system.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors would like to thank the University of Malaya for the
research grants allocated for the development of this project which are
High Impact Research Grant (D000022-16001) and University of
Malaya Research Grant (RG113-11AET). A sincere gratitude is also
dedicated to the Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) for
Exploratory Research Grant Scheme (ER023-2012A). Special
appreciation is credited to Truwater Cooling Towers Sdn. Bhd. as well
for providing the facilities, fabrication material and manpower to
perform the field test.
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