This paper proposes and analyzes recycling of optical phonons emitted by nonradiative decay, which is a major thermal management concern for high-power light emitting diodes (LED), by introducing an integrated, heterogeneous barrier cooling layer. The cooling is proportional to the number of phonons absorbed per electron overcoming the potential barrier, while the multi-phonon absorption rate is inversely proportional to this number. We address the theoretical treatment of photon-electron-phonon interaction/transport kinetics for optimal number of phonons (i.e., barrier height). We consider a GaN/InGaN LED with a metal/AlGaAs/GaAs/metal potential barrier and discuss the energy conversion rates. We find that significant amount of heat can be recycled by the barrier transition cooling layer.