New Energy World™
New Energy World™ embraces the whole energy industry as it connects and converges to address the decarbonisation challenge. It covers progress being made across the industry, from the dynamics under way to reduce emissions in oil and gas, through improvements to the efficiency of energy conversion and use, to cutting-edge initiatives in renewable and low-carbon technologies.
How an Italian steelmaker tackles waste heat recovery
8/5/2024
10 min read
Feature
Waste heat recovery can provide a useful energy efficiency resource across many ‘hard-to-abate’ industry sectors. Italian steelmaker ORI Martin has installed an innovative system using a large, utility-scale heat pump to provide district heating for a nearby town. New Energy World Features Editor Brian Davis reports from Brescia in northern Italy.
Effective waste heat recovery can help decarbonise ‘hard-to-abate’ industrial plants in energy intensive industries such as cement, glass, steel-making, pulp and paper, which currently dissipate 30–60% of the overall energy consumed to the atmosphere.
According to a European Union study in Applied Thermal Engineering, the potential for waste heat recovery from Europe’s key industries is estimated to be around 300 TWh/y (equivalent to 26mn t/y). Recovered waste heat can be used for both heat and power, to be consumed on site or distributed via local district heating and electricity networks.
There are currently over 10,000 district heating networks in Europe covering 13% of the heat market and supplying more than 60 million people. It is estimated that district heating could supply 30–50% of EU heat demand by 2050. However, the percentage of district heating is only 2% of market share in UK homes (about 12.9 TWh) due to the mass utilisation of natural gas for heat on the National Grid. By 2050, the UK government has set a target to connect 20% of buildings to district heat (about 95 TWh).