Many appliances, like air conditioners, light bulbs and boilers, were designed and engineered before energy efficiency was top-of-mind. Consequently, according to a recent report by McKinsey & Company, energy inefficiency needlessly costs North Americans $130 billion per year. Eliminating such waste, which includes tonnes of carbon emissions, has become a priority for many cleantech companies, including Montreal-based Sofame Technologies.

Founded in 1984, Sofame engineers and manufactures custom, direct-contact heat recovery and hot water heating systems. Its technology is designed to extract heat from flue gas and return the energy in the form of hot water or pre-heated make-up air. Most boilers built today, for example, use indirect contact and are only 80% efficient, meaning that 20% of the heat they produce is wasted. Sofame’s technology is designed to recover 99% of heat energy.

The company supplies a variety of products, including Percotherm, a direct-contact condensing stack economizer, Percomax, a direct-contact water heater, and Launrec RBT, a wastewater heat reclamation system. Because Sofame custom-builds projects for customers, processing time, from ordering the device to having it up and running, could be between six and 24 months. Once installed, though, customers could see a return on investment in as little as six months, amounting to a 10-40% reduction in energy costs.

But like all clean technology, the benefits go beyond cutting costs. By making use of energy that would otherwise be lost into the atmosphere, Sofame’s products help to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which in turn helps building owners attain Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design (LEED) certification.

One of the most exciting projects that Sofame has worked on in 2009 is Princeton University’s waste heat system. The reduction of CO2 emissions is a top priority for the university, so the energy plant team at the facility are constantly looking for ways to increase the efficiency of their processes. Optimizing the recovery and reuse of waste heat is an obvious avenue to explore. The new system they have installed, which includes Sofame’s Percotherm direct-contact heat recovery unit, is expected to lower fuel consumption an additional 11%.

Sofame aims to be a leader in North American heat-recovery solutions. Recently, though, the company has broadened its vision by entering into a memorandum of understanding with Saab Financial Reach to expand into Eastern Europe.

For more information on the company and its products, visit www.sofame.com.

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