Cooking up energy efficiency, pizzeria style

McMaster University engineering students, Pizza Pizza chain advance waste energy recovery project

Knowledge + energy efficiency + pizza = POWER.

At least, that’s the equation for engineering students at McMaster University in Hamilton, ON—whose Pizza Oven Waste Energy Recovery (POWER) project is researching ways of capturing waste heat, one pizzeria at a time.

By installing a PVR-sized thermoelectric generator on the chimney of a commercial oven, the McMaster students have calculated that a restaurant would save about $6,000 a year. The generator captures heat and converts it to electricity—powering the restaurant’s lights and sales terminals, while also providing heat.

The POWER project, which also involves Thermal Electronics Corporation and Acrolab, is using restaurant chain Pizza Pizza as an industry partner for its research. With more than 500 locations across Canada and up to seven ovens per store, Pizza Pizza is hoping to cook up some significant energy efficiency savings.

When it comes to ovens, “we waste more heat than we use,” Jim Cotton, associate director of the Institute of Energy Studies and a founder of the POWER project, tells Maclean’s.

That’s especially true of a pizza oven, which is kept at 260 degrees Celsius during store hours and 150 degrees overnight—with only a small fraction of the natural gas used to heat the oven actually cooking the pizza.

And because it just wouldn't be right to let your pizza-induced hunger go unsatisfied, here's your Monday morning do-it-yourself quick-fix:

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