Waste Heat Recovery Policy

Waste heat recovery (WHR), i.e. the recovery and reuse of by-product heat from a process/facility that would be otherwise rejected to the environment, is often a valuable cost-effective approach to improve overall industrial energy efficiency. With the advent of technologies and evolving demands of energy services, the scope, economics and potential for WHR have become increasingly dynamic in nature, particularly in the context of developing countries where both energy-intensive manufacturing and energy demand are increasing. The growth of global WHR market is expected to be 6.8% compound annual growth rate during 2016–2022. WHR has various benefits, including monetary savings, reduced environmental pollution and emission, energy security of the nation, public health. An appropriate WHR policy could provide a framework to channelize the whole process into a win–win situation for all stakeholders, such as the industry/users (e.g. iron and steel, glass, ceramic, textiles, cement, solar PV and thermal systems), the suppliers, the Government and even the public at large. The overall objective of the policy on WHR in various industry sectors is to optimize the benefits, such as mentioned above, by achieving short-, medium- and long-term goals. Some of the technological solutions already in place include cogeneration through WHR, regenerative burner, low-temperature organic Rankine cycle power generation, heat pump, thermo-photovoltaic cells/systems, thermo-chemical systems, high-efficiency recuperate, etc. The success will also depend on various socio-economic parameters, such as availability of land, project finance, research, manpower. The greatest challenge to prepare the WHR policy, as presented in this chapter in a step-by-step approach to overcome the same will be to take all the stakeholders into confidence and device it in harmony with intervening policies in place, in order to attain the mission and vision of this policy to utilize its full potential for public good.