Industrial excess (waste) Heat-to-Power conversion based on organic Rankine cycles

Better use of process excess/waste heat represents a significant source of energy savings for industries. The conversion of excess heat back to electricity would also improve energy efficiency, mitigate the increase of electricity consumption due to industrial electrification and thereby reduce the load on the power grids. This will also facilitate balancing the grid due to intermittent supply of electricity from renewables and so contribute to reduce GHG emissions.

Accounting for the results of previous research[[]], proposals are expected to integrate an industrial excess heat-to-power conversion system based on Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) and demonstrate the system operation in industrial environment at an output power level of at least 2 MW, with improved cost efficiency compared to existing solutions

In order to reach this goal all the following development areas need to be covered:

• Optimisation of thermal cycles and mixtures of fluids or additives for different temperature levels of recovered heat and constrained industrial environment, in terms of efficiency and economics (CAPEX, OPEX).
• Development/improvement of design tools at components and system levels.
• Development/improvement of materials and components: heat exchangers, turbomachinery (including advanced sealing technologies), waste heat recovery unit, power generator and electronics, etc.
• Integration and demonstration of the system in industrial environment; optionally heat storage can be integrated as well in the system.
• Technical, and economical life cycle assessment of heat-to-power systems adapted for at least 4 energy intensive industrial sectors, to demonstrate economic viability, define business cases and exploitation strategy.
• Evaluation of the potential impacts in terms of primary energy savings (GWh/year) in industry (heat recovery) and potential primary energy savings in the power generation sector, assuming full deployment in EU Member States and (as far as data are available for the calculation of the impact) in Associated Countries, and at global level by extrapolation.
• Dissemination of the technical and economic benefits, notably (but not only) to the communities of the relevant Horizon Europe private-public partnerships.