Power generation and heat recovery from industrial waste heat within advanced CO2 thermodynamic power cycles (Power CO2)

Waste heat from industry is a significant issue in the UK. Each year around 48 Terrawatt hours (TWh) of waste heat are produced, around one sixth of the UK’s overall industrial energy use. Of this figure, approximately 11 TWh could potentially be recovered for useful purposes. With a third of the world’s energy consumption attributable to industry, of which around half is waste heat, the market for an effective solution is therefore considerable.

Celsa Manufacturing (UK), backed by funding from the Transforming Foundation Industries (TFI) challenge, developed a project to assess the benefits of specifically designed energy conversion technologies for maximising the use of waste heat, compared to existing systems.

“The waste heat issue across the foundation industries is one that, if tackled, could help make substantial strides towards net zero goals, as well as bringing other economic and productivity benefits,” says Eoin Bailey, UK Innovation Manager at Celsa.

This project’s aim was to use novel technology to create an innovative trans-critical power cycle for energy conversion systems. “Focusing on the most heat-intensive foundation industries, steel and glass, this technology would replace the more traditional CO2 liquid pump with a combined compressor and vapour-liquid ejector system,” says Bailey. “Together with our project partner Venturi Jet Pumps, the system created under the project attempts to create a thermal-to-electrical conversion efficiency target of 30% - double the current state of the art results.”

Researcher wearing a high visibility jacket using a pyrometer to measure the temperature of industrial equipment

The project brought together the design engineering work of Celsa and CR+, the industrial expertise of Glass Futures and Glass Technology Services, with academic research from the University of South Wales, to expand upon previous work in heat capture from furnaces. This time, work incorporated low-grade heat more efficiently in a more circular production initiative. Starting in a lab environment under industrial specifications, the project then aimed to assess the capabilities of the new system for gas transfer, before considering how to progress to prototypes in industry itself.

Looking at the results achieved, Bailey added: “The project made good progress testing the concept, with the lab-based efforts providing valuable data for better understanding how the compressor and ejector concept worked for the transfer of heat gases. The project has also fostered a number of new relationships and collaboration opportunities with different stakeholders, as well as how the process of learning and developing the tools can be made more efficient in future between academia and industry. This includes the new skills, training, processes and environmental criteria that are needed for waste heat innovations to be more successful.”

As a result of these findings, further funding will be sought by the project partners to help move this project closer to the next stage of prototype activity, as well as how other similar project research avenues could be undertaken for connected heat transfer ideas.

A pressure gauge on industrial equipment
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