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WHEN WASTE HEAT IS NOT A BURDEN BUT AN ASSET

Harnessing waste heat is one of the biggest challenges in modern energy systems, while also holding great potential for environmentally and economically efficient preparation of usable heat. Waste heat is, therefore, heat that can be utilized elsewhere. What is waste heat, why does it occur, and how can it be cleverly utilized for greater savings are revealed in the following.
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In all cooling processes, heat is generated. This heat can either be waste if not utilized, or it can be used to heat something else. A clear example from everyday life is a refrigerator, which keeps its interior cool while releasing heat into the surroundings. As a refrigerator is a small appliance, the heat released is negligible and often goes unnoticed in the room. However, for larger industrial facilities with substantial cooling needs due to processing and production processes, envisioning them as enormous refrigerators is apt. These facilities consequently emit a significant amount of waste heat into the environment, which needs to be expelled into the air, rivers, lakes, or seas using fans and cooling devices. Processes requiring intensive cooling include cooling wine cellars, laser cutting, laundries, ventilation in mining shafts, food processing, and more.

Waste heat is low-temperature heat that cannot be directly utilized. It can be regarded as untapped energy, a valuable thermal resource already present that does not require additional acquisition – we just need to know how to harness it.

WASTE WATER THAT IS NOT WASTED

This waste heat can be seen as a burden, considered waste, or as a valuable asset that can be used to our advantage. At Kronoterm, we opted for the latter approach years ago, offering systems that harness waste heat to make it useful for other processes. Among the typical processes for which waste heat can be used are building heating and heating domestic hot water.

 

HOW CAN WE UTILIZE WASTE WATER?

The utilization of waste heat is possible through the air with an air-to-water heat pump and through water with a water-to-water heat pump. Let’s consider a specific example. Many industrial facilities often discharge waste water with a temperature of 30 °C into the environment, such as into the air or nearby waters (streams, rivers, etc.). Water at such a temperature represents a very favorable heating source, which Kronoterm knows how to exploit with a heat pump. Water at 30 °C is not inherently usable, but with a Kronoterm heat pump, it can be heated to 50 °C, and with a Kronoterm heat pump with boosters, it can reach over 80 °C. This heated water can then be used for building heating and domestic hot water, and it is also applicable in district heating systems.

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WASTE HEAT: THE GOLD WE THROW OUT THE WINDOW?

To illustrate how favorable a heat source with an initial temperature of, for example, 30 °C or higher is, let’s compare it to other heat sources utilized by heat pumps. Typically, water-to-water heat pumps efficiently harness heat from a thermal source, such as groundwater with a more or less constant temperature throughout the year, ranging between 8 and 12 °C. Air-to-water heat pumps, on the other hand, extract heat from the air, which can have a lower temperature than -10 °C in winter. If both types of heat pumps need to extract heat from sources with the aforementioned temperatures and prepare useful heat, which is utilized for space heating or hot domestic water at a temperature of 60 °C, it means they face a more challenging task than heat pumps (especially air-to-water heat pumps) that utilize waste heat with a temperature of 30 °C. The difference between the temperature of the thermal source and the desired temperature of useful heat is significantly greater – raising the temperature from 30 °C to 60 °C requires less input energy. Returning to the utilization of waste heat based on the above, waste heat with a temperature of, for example, 30 °C is simply too good a heat source to be discarded casually.

POSITIVE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS

Harnessing waste heat not only leads to a significant reduction in building operating costs due to primary energy savings but also has a substantial impact on the environment and a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. KRONOTERM, with the described technology, has successfully contributed to reducing environmental pollution and costs at Lušt, where the largest heat pump in Slovenia is installed – the KRONOTERM heat pump. You can read more about this successful visionary project here.

 

If you want to harness waste heat generated during the operational processes of your facility using a heat pump system and significantly reduce the operating costs of the facility, contact us, and we will design a comprehensive solution for you.


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