Sustainable & Clean Future

We Transform Energy Waste for a Better Future

Up to 72% of the industrial energy consumption is discharged as a by-product as heat. The discharged waste heat produced during industrial processes is usually qualified as low, medium and high-grade heat. While high/medium-grade heat, with temperatures between 650-200ºC, has been successfully used to produce electricity, low-grade heat, with temperatures below 100ºC, is much more difficult to utilise. Unfortunately, this low-grade heat comprises 63% of the total heat waste, with enormous implications regarding climate change and energy efficiency.

Energy Released

Primary energy 100%

Lost energy after conversion 72%

Low-temperature waste heat 46%

Energy Lost

<100ºC Heat

A lot of industries, including chemical, food and drink, data centres, manufacturing, iron and steel, and cement industries produce a large amount of low-grade waste heat. A wide range of different technologies has been developed for many years to recover and utilise this low-grade waste heat, which otherwise would be wasted. A brother of the widely used technique for recovering high-grade heat, the Rankine cycle, can also be utilised in low-grade heat.

The so-called Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC), with a different working fluid than water, has been proved as a promising solution to low-temperature heat sources into electricity. There has been an enormous increase in the research done around the ORC technology, mainly motivated by the policy plans and goals in climate change, transport and energy introduced by the European Union and also by the need of reducing the carbon footprint in the world and to create a more sustainable future.