Waste heat-to-power with steam and organic Rankine cycles: Potentials and feed-in tariffs in the EU27+UK

Abstract

Industrial waste heat potential has been recurrently quantified in multiple publications. However, actual valorisation opportunities still need to be better assessed. This work focuses on waste heat-to-power potential in the EU27+UK.In a first step, the impact of waste heat-to-power deployment is quantified per country and major industrial sectors. It is demonstrated that 13’089 GWh/y of electricity, savings of 4’440 ktons/y of CO2, investments of 7’673 M€, revenues of 1’688 M€/y and 11’256 jobs would be generated in case industrial waste heat was solely used to produce electricity.In a second step, a major barrier – the lack of specific feed-in tariffs – is addressed. Based on real projects data, the necessary feed-in tariffs are determined and compared with renewable electricity prices of several EU countries. It is demonstrated that heat-to-power solutions would require similar levels of tariffs like solar and biomass. With tariffs ranging from 95–113 €/MWh, steam cycles present the lowest tariffs requirements, while large ORCs require tariffs between 132 and 172 €/MWh.With these results, this work highlights the relevance of waste heat valorisation and a major economic barrier for electricity production in the EU 27 + UK.

Keywords

• Waste heat-to-power
• Steam Rankine cycles
• Organic Rankine cycles
• Feed-in tariffs
• Production potential