Industry Applications
Water Infrastructure Applications
Over 400 billion gallons of water flow through pipes every day in the United States serving the power, agricultural, drinking and industrial water sectors. In-conduit hydropower is an established form of energy recovery; generating clean, renewable electricity for water operators by taking advantage of gravity-fed systems that artificially dissipate pressure through valves. Bridging this nexus to various water operator application and emerging distributed, localized energy innovations leveraging existing water pipes and infrastructure is Rentricity’s goal. As the United States invests in the renewal of its aging water infrastructure, the timing is opportune for installation of in-conduit hydropower systems which can power small scale, distributed clean energy production. Rentricity’s in-conduit hydropower solutions will lead public and private water systems to reduce energy costs and create smart & sustainable water infrastructure.
Rentricity’s Flow-to-Wire system captures the excess pressure in solid pipe drinking water mains, irrigation penstocks, industrial plant inlets, dam releases and wastewater outfalls that would otherwise be lost, dissipated by valves. Instead, that excess pressure is converted into clean electric power which can be used on site or transported to the local grid provider. Wastewater, industrial outfalls, and recycling facilities that return water to natural bodies of water or reservoirs are potential sites for Rentricity’s systems, too.
Rentricity’s Sustainable Energy Management System (SEMS) provides a customized information and control including real-time system performance data, monitoring flow, pressure management, while optimizing clean energy production.
Whether your project is located at a reservoir release, at the inlet of your processing plant, or in a control vault for a large neighborhood zone, Rentricity has an clean energy recovery solution for you.
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City & Water Authorities
Mandated Releases, Treatment Plants, Distribution infrastructure including regulation vaults and Storage Reservoirs, Regulation Vaults and Flow Control Turnouts
Agricultural Irrigation
Large irrigation operations transitioning to solid pipe infrastructure and gravity-fed centerpivot operations.
Industrial Operations
Flow and pressure control infrastructure for Food/Beverage, Mining, Chemical & Pharmaceutical Facilities
Wastewater
Large facilities with solid pipe outfalls
Innovation Opportunities
Data Centers Cooling, Point-of Use Hydrogen, & Microgrid Integration
Drinking Water Operators
Over 50 billion gallons of water flows to city and town residents and office building every day in the United States. Rentricity specializes in clean energy recovery application to create In-conduit Hydropower for drinking water operations. Water continuously flows through mains and offers the capability to generate electricity year-round, 24 hours a day.
Over-pressurization occurs where water is stored at significantly higher elevation than the customers it serves, and must therefore flow downhill to reach them. Utilities typically install pressure reduction valves (“PRVs”) – devices that maintain pre-set pressure ranges – to relieve the excess pressure. However, PRVs do not perform useful work with the dissipated energy; instead, it is released as waste heat.
Rentricity’s energy recovery systems capture the excess pressure that would otherwise be ‘lost’ and convert it into clean electric power. Lastly, the installations help mitigate water utilities’ increasingly burdensome electricity costs, helping them become increasingly energy self-sufficient and sustainable.
Agricultural Irrigation Operators
The agricultural Industry uses over 100 billion gallons of piped water a day in the United States. Drought conditions are forcing irrigation system to consider new infrastructure options to reduce evaporation. Upgrading open channel concrete channels to closed-pipe infrastructure not only supports flood and drought conservation objectives, but creates the hydraulics for Rentricity’s in-conduit hydropower solutions.
Centerpivots driven by gravity-fed water flow offer another option to create a sustainable best practice for ranch and farming operations.
Adding in-conduit hydropower to your irrigations systems improves the overall sustainability of your operations with clean renewable electricity that can be sold to your grid operator or be used at local facilities.
Rentricity and its partners can bring a cost-effective in-conduit hydropower solution to support your irrigation infrastructure upgrades, now powered by your own flow of water.
Industrial Water Operators
Over 50 billion gallons of water flows through pipes everyday in the United States to industrial processing facilities. Mining, Food & Beverage, Pharmaceutical, and Petro & Chemical Plants can all take advantage of in-conduit hydropower to reduce electricity costs. Most plants deploy flow control or regulator valves to maintain required operational flow and pressures to maintain 24/7 operations at plants of various sizes.
Large, consistent gravity-fed water infrastructure to plants offer the greatest potential for energy recovery with in-process valve location also offering clean energy recovery potential.
Wastewater Operators
City or Industrial outfall, and recycling facilities that return water to natural bodies of water or reservoirs are potential sites for Rentricity’s Flow-to-Wire solutions. Open effluent channels that terminate into solid pipe infrastructure can be tapped for clean energy recovery which can be used behind-the-meter.
Rentricity targets control valves between collection batteries and clarifiers as well as piping between weirs and distribution infrastructure
Innovation Opportunities
Green Hydrogen Production
HydroCosm LLC, a spin-off of Rentricity Inc., is seeking to accelerate development of green hydrogen production, leveraging excess water flow and pressure found in solid pipe water infrastructure (Patent Application: 17/187,476).
Integrating commercially deployed technologies in a new form for small scale, distributed hydrogen production within existing and new water infrastructure will create another basis for establishing a “hydrogen highway” in the United States. Further, such distributed systems locate production of the hydrogen with the end-users, lowering cost by eliminating the need for transport and excess storage. And, given the ubiquitous nature of water pipes and valves, they advance geographic diversity of hydrogen production, including in rural and tribal communities.
The focus on this hydrogen production application within gravity-fed water systems will identify component suppliers, integration technology, production standards, infrastructure sustainability standards, regulation requirements and safety factors, and ultimately create economic and environmental benefits for ratepayers, industrial water operators and consumers, supporting the DOE Hydrogen Program’s goals. Rentricity has licensed its intellectual property to HydroCosm for the purpose of integrating and deploying the technologies required to achieve local, on-site, green energy production using water infrastructure.
In-conduit hydropower hydrogen solutions can provide a basis for new business models by untraditional players such as water operators, expanding good, safe union jobs.
HydroCosm’s innovation recovers green energy from ubiquitous water infrastructure and further enhances it with small, modular, and cost effective electrolyser, compression and dispensing technology.
Electricity generation using in-pipe hydropower, either separate from the grid or in concert with other renewables, is used to produce “just-in-time” hydrogen gas through electrolysis on-site for H2 fleets and/or in close proximity to fueling stations for consumer mobility applications. The components are optimized for clean energy and “just in time hydrogen” production by virtue of the flow and pressure readily available at a particular site. The optimized, algorithmic control systems will consist of a program logic controller and other electrical control devices that together will allow the green power produced by the turbine(s) to be used to electrolyze water minimizing storage and maximizing end user applications. The system will receive notifications of production requirements from a smart phone or vehicle-based telematics application. Excess power may be used on site or interconnected to the grid.
Data Centers
In some cases, cooling systems in data centers use large amounts of water to transfer heat.
Rentricity’s Flow-to-Wire can be installed at the inlet piping locations to recover clean energy that can be used behind the meter on site.
MicroGrid and Energy Storage Solutions
Microgrids are rapidly developing in city, university, data centers and corporate campus settings. Adding Rentricity to the mix of solar and wind renewable assets will improve the overall output due to the strong in-pipe hydropower capacity factors of 80% or better.
The onset of unpredictable weather patterns suggests the need for creative solutions to provide multi-day electric back-up power for water operations. This can be achieved by integrating a Rentricity Flow-to-Wire™ with energy storage technology. Battery and fuel cell banks can be energized by the flow of water entering a plant and can then be used as back-up to power operations, water treatment, and other critical functions.
Rentricity and its partners can bring a cost-effective solution to support your need for uninterruptible power supplies, now powered by your own inflow of water.
Our Featured Projects
Flow Control Vault, Halifax, Nova Scotia
Flow: 2.4 MGD
Pressure: ~40 PSI
kW: 32
Intertie: Tariff
WQA Cert: NSF /61/372
Startup: 2014
Vertical Turbine Installation
Water Treatment Plant, Keene, NH
Flow: 700-1200 gpm
Pressure: ~75 PSI
kW: 62
Intertie: Net-Metered
Raw Water
Startup: 2012
Multi-Turbine/Net Zero Energy
Irrigation System, Richmond, UT
Flow: 2-12 MGD
Pressure: 175-250 feet
kW: 360
Intertie: Net-Metered
Raw Water
Startup: 2016
8,000 Acre Multi-Site/3 Turbines
Above Ground Regulator Station, Anchorage, AK
Flow: 4-5 MGD
Pressure: ~35 PSI
kW: 45
Intertie: Net-Metered
WQA Cert: NSF 61/372
Startup: 2021
Main Distribution System