The waste heat recovery market (WHR) in Germany and Europe remains unchangeably high. This also counts for the rest of the world. The commercial potential to recover the industrial waste heat in Europe is estimated at 2,000 PJ/a. In Germany, the market value of waste heat recovery exceeds €25 Billion/a. It is a growing high volume market as applications are so manifold across many sectors. Waste heat as a renewable energy source attracts more and more attention from the energy-intensive industries that are forced to secure their global competiveness.
For the market introduction we have chosen the cement industry, as cement production is one of the most heat wasting sectors accounting for 85% (9.6 EJ) of all energy used in non-metallic minerals production. Globally, the market potential for WHR in the cement industry is very huge (estimated to be about 15,000 MW globally) , and is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 9.32%.
The economic benefits are substantial energy cost savings, reduction of GHG emissions and the possibility of operating energy-autonomous applications. The fields of application can be found worldwide, where ever thermal processes happen, including the following:
- Decentralised energy-supply (B2B/B2C)
- Industrial process waste heat (cement industry, food industry, chemical industry, metal/glass/paper industry, plastic industry, textile industry, electrical engineering, atomic energy, crude oil/natural gas industry)
- Energy storage/heat store
- Solar thermic/geothermal energy
- Energy efficiency in residential/commercial buildings
With a successful implementation of the energy conversion technology with the support of funding from the SME instrument Phase 2, Thermolectric will enable target users to integrate its energy conversion technology for the use of low-temperature waste heat for energy production. They are either application-specific end users (private, public organisations, individuals), components manufacturers for integration in their own products/processes or system manufacturers.
