A method of conducting a process involving the generation of steam in which a hot process stream is generated. The hot process stream can be generated in any manner and can include a burner section of a steam methane reformer, a gas turbine of an integrated combined cycle, a combustion chamber used to pre-heat incoming air and oxygen for a blast furnace, an oxygen transport membrane system, and a gas turbine or natural gas engine that provided to compress air in a cryogenic air separation unit. Heat from the hot process stream is transferred to a thermoacoustic engine to recover work at high temperatures and to generate an intermediate temperature process stream therefrom. The intermediate temperature process stream is introduced to a steam generator to generate the steam.