Pioneering a sustainable heat ecosystem for European industry
The EU-funded SUSHEAT(opens in new window) project has published two new infographics designed to demystify the complex thermal ecosystem underpinning Europe’s efforts to decarbonise its industries. Available on the project’s website, the visual material aims to raise awareness of how fossil fuel boilers can be replaced by advanced renewable-based heating solutions, reducing European industries’ dependence on imported energy. Industrial decarbonisation is one of the biggest challenges the EU faces in its pursuit of climate neutrality by 2050. The thermal energy needed by sectors ranging from food processing to chemical manufacturing accounts for a significant proportion of industrial energy demand, but its production relies heavily on fossil fuels. Addressing this problem, SUSHEAT is introducing technologies that replace fossil energy by harvesting energy from renewable sources and industrial waste. This is where the two infographics come in. Their goal is to help researchers, industry stakeholders and the wider public understand how these technologies capture, upgrade, store and deliver reliable, high-temperature heat for industrial use with the flexibility needed to handle fluctuating demand and varying conditions.
A visual of core technologies
The first infographic(opens in new window) details the project’s main technological pillars. Central to the system is a custom-designed high-temperature heat pump designed to convert low-grade heat sources, such as waste heat from industrial processes, ambient air and solar thermal collectors, into temperatures of 180-250 °C. This addresses a critical technological barrier, since few solutions exist today at this range, leaving a significant portion of industrial demand reliant on natural gas and coal. The heat pump is coupled with a novel thermal energy storage (TES) system that uses phase change materials to enable the storage of large amounts of heat in compact volumes. The system optimises heat retention and release, ensuring continuous operation even when renewable input fluctuates. Apart from harvesting energy from waste heat, the SUSHEAT ecosystem also includes concentrated solar heat generated using a linear Fresnel collector. This supports the heating process when weather conditions allow. Completing the group of core technologies is an AI-powered digital system – the Control and Integration Twin (CIT) – that controls the entire ecosystem. The CIT acts as the supervisory ‘brain’, dynamically scheduling heat storage, upgrading and delivery in real time to maximise efficiency and flexibility.
Closing the loop
The second infographic(opens in new window) explains the closed-loop, smart heat recovery concept, focusing on the practical integration of the SUSHEAT technologies in a factory setting. It maps the flow of energy: from waste heat collection, to low-temperature storage in a first TES tank, to heat upgrading using a high-temperature heat pump, to high-temperature storage in a second TES unit, and then on to use in an industrial process. Through this infographic, SUSHEAT demonstrates how its solution replaces fossil-derived heat with upgraded renewable and recovered heat, in this way reducing CO2 emissions without compromising the strict thermal and reliability standards required by industry. The entire system is being tested in lab settings using real-world data from two SUSHEAT partners: Pelagia, a food processing factory in Norway, and Mandrekas, a dairy producer in Greece. By transforming waste heat from a by-product into a valuable resource and integrating it with renewable energy, SUSHEAT (Smart Integration of Waste and Renewable Energy for Sustainable Heat Upgrade in the Industry) shows how European industry can reduce its carbon footprint while enhancing energy security. The project ends in 2027. For more information, please see: SUSHEAT project website(opens in new window)
