Decarbonization of Heat through Low-Temperature Waste Heat Recovery: Proposal of a Tool for the Preliminary Evaluation of Technologies in the Industrial Sector

Daniele Dadi (), Vito Introna and Miriam Benedetti
Additional contact information
Daniele Dadi: Department of Enterprise Engineering, “Tor Vergata” University of Rome, 00133 Rome, Italy
Vito Introna: Department of Enterprise Engineering, “Tor Vergata” University of Rome, 00133 Rome, Italy
Miriam Benedetti: Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA), 00123 Rome, Italy

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 19, 1-28

Abstract: In an industrial energy scenario increasingly focused on decarbonization and energy cost containment, waste heat is a resource that is no longer negligible. Despite the great abundance of waste heat, its recognized potential, and numerous technologies available for its use, the rate of waste heat recovery (WHR) is still low, especially at low temperatures (<230 °C). Non-technological barriers, such as the lack of knowledge and support tools, strongly limit the diffusion of WHR technologies. The work presented in this paper aims to overcome non-technological gaps by developing a simple and operational tool that can support companies in the preliminary stages of evaluating a WHR application. The methodology followed involved the development of specific data-based models for WHR technology sizing by correlating waste heat input characteristics with dimensional and economic parameters of the technologies evaluated. We considered the most representative technologies in the WHR scenario: organic Rankine cycles for electric power generation, heat pumps for thermal power generation, absorption chillers for cooling generation, and plate heat exchangers for low-temperature heat exchange applications. One of the significant strengths of the tool is that it was developed using real and hard-to-find technologies performance and cost data mainly collected through continuous interactions with WHR technology providers. Moreover, the interaction with the technology providers allowed contextualization and validation of the tool in the field. In addition, the tool was applied to three large companies operating in the Italian industrial sector to test its effectiveness. The tool applications made it possible to propose cost-effective solutions that the companies had not considered before, despite the high level of attention with which they were already approaching energy efficiency improvements. The result obtained demonstrates the applicability and innovativeness of the tool.

Keywords: waste heat recovery; organic Rankine cycle; heat pumps; energy efficiency; industrial sustainability; carbon neutrality; decarbonization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/19/12626/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/19/12626/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:19:p:12626-:d:933372

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().