Waste Heat recovery potential assessment in the European Industry

Abstract

European primary energy consumptions (in the order of a few GWh/yr) are mostly due to industrial processes that are characterized by a multitude of energy losses. The ones taking place as waste heat streams in the form of exhausts or effluents occur at different temperature levels. Reducing or recovering such energy flows can contribute to a better environmental performance and an overall lower manufacturing cost. In this study the opportunities and the potential for industrial heat recovery in the European Union (EU) are addressed by identifying and quantifying primary energy consumptions in the major industrial sectors and their related waste streams and temperature levels. The waste heat potential and the Carnot potential are estimated using statistical data concerning the energy consumption of the industrial sectors of each EU country together with the factors proposed by Forman and collaborators (2016). To use these factors the individual processes of each industrial sector are classified according to their temperature range as Lower, Medium and High. The study also discusses the challenges that novel heat recovery or heat to power conversion approaches involve. A further and more precise (than the one based on Forman et al.’s factors) assessment of the energy recovery potential can be carried out using a methodology based on the latest statistical energy databases. It turns out that the overall EU thermal energy waste can be quantified to about 1 GWh/yr. The research presented in this paper has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 680599.