Adoption of Waste Heat Recovery Technologies: Reviewing the Relevant Barriers and Recommendations on How to Overcome Them

Abstract

The wide adoption of heat recovery technologies in industry is hampered by specific “barriers” related to both technical and non-technical issues. This paper attempts to determine these barriers and make recommendations on how to address them. First, a literature review of related material is presented. Among numerous barriers, the main ones identified are (i) lack of information, (ii) lack of technology knowledge, (iii) technology risks, (iv) high initial and running and maintenance costs, (v) lack of financial support and lack of governmental incentives, (vi) size and available space limitations, (vii) lack of available infrastructure, (viii) production constraints and risk of production disruptions, (x) risk of the system negative impact on the company operations, and (xi) policy and regulations restrictions. Then, based on the above, a structured questionnaire on barriers to the adoption of waste heat recovery (WHR) technologies was prepared and issued to a number of industries throughout the European Union. Upon analyzing the questionnaire, an assessment of the importance and negative impact of each of the above-mentioned barriers is made. Subsequently, strategies and recommendations on how to overcome the barriers is reported. These recommendations are hoped to be adopted as far as possible in the packaging, installation, commissioning, and demonstration of new and old WHR technologies.

Industrial Waste Heat Utilization in the European Union—An Engineering-Centric Review

“…As noted in the papers published by Christodoulides et al [22,48], the major limitations and barriers to the widespread adoption of waste heat recovery technologies are as follows (in order from the most common to least common, according to the reported survey results):…”

“…120 • C), e.g., thermoacoustic, electrochemical, piezoelectric, or pyroelectric systems. Transcritical CO 2 cycle Medium-High [32] Trilateral flash cycle Ultra-Low-Medium [77] Ultra-Low [22] Waste heat boiler Medium-High [2] Ultra-Low-Medium [48] At temperatures above ca. 200 • C, well established technologies are prevalent if the source of waste heat (e.g., flue gas) is clean [50].…”

“…The main weakness of heat pipes-primarily in cases when the working medium is solid at ambient temperaturesis their "frozen" startup [122]. The application of heat pipes is common not only in thermal management (typically in the IT sector or the automotive or power generation industries) [120], but also in glass production or solar concentrators [48]. Major benefits of heat pipe application in terms of CO2 emission savings have been observed in the iron and steel and (petro)chemical industries and in cement production [12].…”