It's low grade heat and the payback for the system might be prohibitive.
The French Engineering company Sofrite did something like this for a power generator running an irrigation pump in Senegal decades ago.
Solar collectors evaporated freon in a closed loop, which spun a turbine, which turned a generator that drove a floating pump mounted on a raft in the river.
There may just not be enough energy in gases with a delta T of ~200-300°F to make it pay.
Let’s hope this system generates enough electricity to run the pump that does all of the compressing.
Seems like a closed loop process to me.
Probably true. However, these gases can do a dandy job of providing hot water for the facility at no energy cost. The equipment isn’t expensive either.
In high humidity areas they provide plenty of heat to dry out a desiccant wheel and remove humidity from the air at no energy cost, reducing the load on the AC dramatically.