This is a good idea. The cooling towers at large power generator produce tremendous clouds of steam. All that heat, going to waste. If they can recover some of it with this technique, more power to them. (ha, ha.)
There are similar ways to reduce waste heat in other systems that have been neglected. Such as: thermoelectric chips attached to the outside of truck exhaust systems. See: http://www1.eere.energy.gov/vehiclesandfuels/pdfs/deer_2004/session4/2004_deer_kushch.pdf One of early and most elegant demonstrations of thermodynamics was the triple expansion marine steam engine, which extracts power from steam three times, from progressively larger, lower-pressure cylinders. Also called "a compound steam engine." It must have seemed like getting something for nothing! When steam engines began rapidly improving in the early 19th century, engineering journals published records for the most work done per ton of coal for competing models. Kind of like today's "top 500 supercomputer" list. (http://www.top500.org/) It was race to build the most efficient engines, using empirical methods. Before the development of modern thermodynamic theory, some people wondered if there was a upper limit to efficiency, or if would continue to improve asymptotically forever. They finally perfected piston steam engines in the late 19th century, with a "thermodynamically perfect" version. I don't recall who made it, but there is a model of the engine in the Smithsonian. Ironically, just at this time internal combustion engines and steam turbines were being developed. Technology often reaches its acme and final flowering just as it becomes obsolete. - Jed
