Waste-heat recovery attracts less attention than other types of clean energy but a Chinese company is proving the technology can slash emissions at some of the world's largest corporations, and in some cases, generate a carbon credit revenue stream at the same time.

China Energy Recovery (CER) has made several announcements in recent months touting projects with energy-intensive companies linked to the global supply chain. Last month, I caught up with Roger Ballentine, a CER board member, consultant and former climate change point-man to President Bill Clinton, to talk about waste-heat energy recovery and its potential for fighting global warming.

"There is more opportunity in China than anywhere in the world," Ballentine said of waste-heat recovery.

CER is enjoying that prospect, Ballentine said, and has a nice problem: a backlog of orders. Yet the market is so big, CER couldn't ever do it alone.

It has targeted some Chinese heavyweights. For example, CER announced a $11.6 million contract in early November to build the world's largest straw pulp alkali recovery system with 12 MW of heat energy generation capacity. It will process 1,200 tons of black liquor daily that's generated in the pulp making process for the Shandong Tralin Group.

In early September, CER finished the installation of a second waste-heat recovery system for Two Lions Fine Chemical Co., the largest single sulfuric acid manufacturing facility in China.

Two Lions' first 54 MW heat recovery energy system was a success. The ROI on the project was less than two years from energy savings alone. On top of that, the Two Lions plant was approved to sell carbon credits for nearly 250,000 tons of carbon dioxide annually under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), the first for China's sulfuric acid industry. That will generate some $2.5 million in revenue annually.

The ROI largely depends on the industry, according to CER CEO Qinghuan Wu. For the sulfuric acid industry, the ROI is one year to three years and is based only on energy savings, not potential carbon offsets. Energy prices, size and the level of technological advancement all impact the ROI of the systems, which cost between $50,000 to more than $10 million.

CER has installed waste-heat energy recovery systems throughout the world, such as Egypt, Malaysia, Turkey and Korea but don't expect it to enter the more expensive U.S. market, Ballentine said.

There are, however, "more opportunities in the U.S. than conventional wisdom suggests," Ballentine said.

Waste-heat energy recovery systems deployed in U.S industrial facilities could generate as much as 20 percent of electricity needs without a lick of fossil fuel, Wu said.