Waste heat is generated from the exhausts of fume incinerators, combustion engines, glass melting furnaces, and cooling water from furnaces and convective, conductive, and radiation heat losses from combustion engines and cement kilns. Waste heat is also generated from process off-gases. Heat losses in several industrial processes can be curtailed by using waste heat recovery systems. Such systems involve the capturing and reuse of waste heat for combustion air preheating, steam generation, load preheating, power generation, space heating, and waster preheating.
The burgeoning demand for electricity from the petroleum refining, cement, chemical, paper and pulp, natural gas composition, and metal production and casting industries will help the waste heat recovery market to advance at 6.8% CAGR during forecast period. According to P&S Intelligence, the market will generate a revenue of $70.5 billion by 2022. Owing to the high prices of conventional energy sources such as oil, gas, and coal, such industries are focusing on the recovery of waste heat, as it will allow them to reduce their operating costs.
Waste heat recovery systems offered by Ormat Technologies, General Electric Company, Harbin Electric International Company Ltd., China Energy Recovery, Siemens AG, Amec Foster Wheeler PLC, Dongfang Electric Corporation, ABB Group, and Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems are used in pre-heating and steam and power generation applications in several end-use industries. In recent years, the soaring demand for the efficient use of available energy in order to facilitate climate protection and sustainable development, has resulted in the large-scale deployment of waste heat recovery systems in various industries.
Geographically, Europe emerged as the largest user of waste heat recovery systems in the recent past, due to the rising implementation of environmental policies aimed at curbing industrial harmful emissions in the continent. Whereas, Asia-Pacific (APAC) is expected to adopt waste heat recovery systems at the highest rate in the coming years, owing to the growth of the cement industry in the region. Moreover, the booming energy demand and toughening environmental protection regulations will also boost the usage of such systems in the region in the foreseeable future.
Furthermore, North America is expected to hold the second position in the waste heat recovery market in the forthcoming years. This can be primarily ascribed to the mounting focus of the manufacturing sector on fuel efficiency and surging investments being made by manufacturers on technological improvements and optimum economic returns in the region. Additionally, the increasing compliance for environment stability and escalating focus of governments on the development of renewable and sustainable alternative energy sources will propel the deployment of waste heat recovery systems in the region in the coming years.
Therefore, the rising electricity demand from the manufacturing sector and surging need for alternative and clean energy sources will encourage the adoption of waste heat recovery units in the foreseeable future.
