Waste heat

Many industrial processes produce waste heat that can be used as a heat source in district heating. Waste heat can therefore replace heat, that otherwise must have been produced differently, which results often in positive ecological as well as economic effects. Typically, waste heat is used as part of a base load in district heating grids, as it must be used at the times when it occurs.

In Denmark for example, there is a potential for using three times as much waste heat compared to the status today. The untapped potential corresponds to the heating in 128,000 households.

In Austria the situation is similar. According to the Austrian-Heatmap, there was a potential of 2,828 GWh per year of waste heat above 100 °C and of 8,469 GWh per year of waste heat with lower temperatures in 2015. In that time only 1,542 GWh were injected per year.

The Roadmap differs between high temperature waste heat, which can directly be feed-in into the district heating grid and low temperature waste heat, with a temperature level below the grid temperatures. Hence, low temperature waste heat has to to be brought to a higher temperature level fist before it can be feed-in into the district heating grid, by using heat pumps for example.

Please select type of waste heat

vfnjdl

Low temperature waste heat                            High temperature waste heat 

Go back to previous page