SustainX, Inc., developer of an industry-leading, transformative technology for utility-scale energy storage using compressed air, today announced that it has received a U.S. patent giving it control over a technology combining cogeneration with isothermal compressed-air energy storage to turn waste energy into electricity. Another new patent establishes the company’s ownership of a control system for maintaining constant power to and from its energy storage system.

Cogeneration is the production of electricity using energy left over from some other process. For example, a conventional power plant discards heat not intense enough to make steam, wasting about 60 percent of the energy released from its fuel. SustainX storage technology can turn a portion of this waste heat into electricity, supplying a storage function and a cogeneration function at the same time. It is the only utility-scale energy storage option that can harvest additional electricity from low-grade heat.

“This cogeneration patent allows SustainX to expand the type of systems it develops, providing more market options,” said Dax Kepshire, Vice President and co-founder of the company. “This will allow us to help renewable energy projects fulfill their power requirements and existing fossil fuel plants to operate in a more environmentally-friendly manner.”