Decarbonizing district heating in EU‐27 + UK: How much excess heat is available from industrial sites?

Pia Manz; Katerina Kermeli; Urban Persson; Marius Neuwirth; Tobias Fleiter; Wina Crijns‐graus

doi:10.3390/su13031439

Decarbonizing district heating in EU‐27 + UK: How much excess heat is available from industrial sites?

Pia Manz^*, Katerina Kermeli, Urban Persson, Marius Neuwirth, Tobias Fleiter, Wina Crijns‐graus

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Energy‐intensive industries across the EU‐28 release unused heat into the environment. This excess heat can be utilized for district heating systems. However, this is the exception today, and the potential contribution to the decarbonization of district heating is not well quantified. An estimation of excess heat, based on industrial processes, and spatial matching to district heating areas is necessary. We present a georeferenced industrial database with annual production and excess heat potentials at different temperature levels matched with current and possible district heating areas. Our results show a total potential of 960 PJ/a (267 TWh/a) of excess heat when the exhaust gases are cooled down to 25 °C, with 47% of the 1.608 studied industrial sites inside or within a 10 km distance of district heating areas. The calculated potentials reveal that currently 230 PJ/a (64 TWh/a) of excess heat is available for district heating areas, about 17% of todayʹs demand of buildings for district heating. In the future, widespread and low‐temperature district heating areas increase the available excess heat to 258 PJ/a (72 TWh/a) at 55°C or 679 PJ/a (189 TWh/a) at 25°C. We show that industrial excess heat can substantially contribute to decarbonize district heating, however, the major share of heat will need to be supplied by renewables.

Original language	English
Article number	1439
Pages (from-to)	1-34
Number of pages	34
Journal	Sustainability (Switzerland)
Volume	13
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3390/su13031439
Publication status	Published - 1 Feb 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This research was funded by the project sEEnergies, European Union?s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Action under Grant Agreement No 846463.

Funding Information:
Funding: This research was funded by the project sEEnergies, European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Action under Grant Agreement No 846463.

Publisher Copyright:
© by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Funding

This research was funded by the project sEEnergies, European Union?s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Action under Grant Agreement No 846463.

Keywords

District heating
Geographic information system
Heat decarbonization
Industrial excess heat
Spatial analysis

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.3390/su13031439Licence: CC BY

sustainability-13-01439-v2Final published version, 4.36 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

@article{b07b9400a4594f2591d626437c905143,

title = "Decarbonizing district heating in EU‐27 + UK: How much excess heat is available from industrial sites?",

abstract = "Energy‐intensive industries across the EU‐28 release unused heat into the environment. This excess heat can be utilized for district heating systems. However, this is the exception today, and the potential contribution to the decarbonization of district heating is not well quantified. An estimation of excess heat, based on industrial processes, and spatial matching to district heating areas is necessary. We present a georeferenced industrial database with annual production and excess heat potentials at different temperature levels matched with current and possible district heating areas. Our results show a total potential of 960 PJ/a (267 TWh/a) of excess heat when the exhaust gases are cooled down to 25 °C, with 47% of the 1.608 studied industrial sites inside or within a 10 km distance of district heating areas. The calculated potentials reveal that currently 230 PJ/a (64 TWh/a) of excess heat is available for district heating areas, about 17% of todayʹs demand of buildings for district heating. In the future, widespread and low‐temperature district heating areas increase the available excess heat to 258 PJ/a (72 TWh/a) at 55°C or 679 PJ/a (189 TWh/a) at 25°C. We show that industrial excess heat can substantially contribute to decarbonize district heating, however, the major share of heat will need to be supplied by renewables.",

keywords = "District heating, Geographic information system, Heat decarbonization, Industrial excess heat, Spatial analysis",

author = "Pia Manz and Katerina Kermeli and Urban Persson and Marius Neuwirth and Tobias Fleiter and Wina Crijns‐graus",

note = "Funding Information: This research was funded by the project sEEnergies, European Union?s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Action under Grant Agreement No 846463. Funding Information: Funding: This research was funded by the project sEEnergies, European Union{\textquoteright}s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Action under Grant Agreement No 846463. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.",

year = "2021",

month = feb,

day = "1",

doi = "10.3390/su13031439",

language = "English",

volume = "13",

pages = "1--34",

journal = "Sustainability (Switzerland)",

issn = "2071-1050",

publisher = "Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI)",

number = "3",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Decarbonizing district heating in EU‐27 + UK

T2 - How much excess heat is available from industrial sites?

AU - Manz, Pia

AU - Kermeli, Katerina

AU - Persson, Urban

AU - Neuwirth, Marius

AU - Fleiter, Tobias

AU - Crijns‐graus, Wina

N1 - Funding Information: This research was funded by the project sEEnergies, European Union?s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Action under Grant Agreement No 846463. Funding Information: Funding: This research was funded by the project sEEnergies, European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Action under Grant Agreement No 846463. Publisher Copyright: © by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

PY - 2021/2/1

Y1 - 2021/2/1

N2 - Energy‐intensive industries across the EU‐28 release unused heat into the environment. This excess heat can be utilized for district heating systems. However, this is the exception today, and the potential contribution to the decarbonization of district heating is not well quantified. An estimation of excess heat, based on industrial processes, and spatial matching to district heating areas is necessary. We present a georeferenced industrial database with annual production and excess heat potentials at different temperature levels matched with current and possible district heating areas. Our results show a total potential of 960 PJ/a (267 TWh/a) of excess heat when the exhaust gases are cooled down to 25 °C, with 47% of the 1.608 studied industrial sites inside or within a 10 km distance of district heating areas. The calculated potentials reveal that currently 230 PJ/a (64 TWh/a) of excess heat is available for district heating areas, about 17% of todayʹs demand of buildings for district heating. In the future, widespread and low‐temperature district heating areas increase the available excess heat to 258 PJ/a (72 TWh/a) at 55°C or 679 PJ/a (189 TWh/a) at 25°C. We show that industrial excess heat can substantially contribute to decarbonize district heating, however, the major share of heat will need to be supplied by renewables.

AB - Energy‐intensive industries across the EU‐28 release unused heat into the environment. This excess heat can be utilized for district heating systems. However, this is the exception today, and the potential contribution to the decarbonization of district heating is not well quantified. An estimation of excess heat, based on industrial processes, and spatial matching to district heating areas is necessary. We present a georeferenced industrial database with annual production and excess heat potentials at different temperature levels matched with current and possible district heating areas. Our results show a total potential of 960 PJ/a (267 TWh/a) of excess heat when the exhaust gases are cooled down to 25 °C, with 47% of the 1.608 studied industrial sites inside or within a 10 km distance of district heating areas. The calculated potentials reveal that currently 230 PJ/a (64 TWh/a) of excess heat is available for district heating areas, about 17% of todayʹs demand of buildings for district heating. In the future, widespread and low‐temperature district heating areas increase the available excess heat to 258 PJ/a (72 TWh/a) at 55°C or 679 PJ/a (189 TWh/a) at 25°C. We show that industrial excess heat can substantially contribute to decarbonize district heating, however, the major share of heat will need to be supplied by renewables.

KW - District heating

KW - Geographic information system

KW - Heat decarbonization

KW - Industrial excess heat

KW - Spatial analysis

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85100006221&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3390/su13031439

DO - 10.3390/su13031439

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85100006221

SN - 2071-1050

VL - 13

SP - 1

EP - 34

JO - Sustainability (Switzerland)

JF - Sustainability (Switzerland)

IS - 3

M1 - 1439

ER -

Decarbonizing district heating in EU‐27 + UK: How much excess heat is available from industrial sites?

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

UN SDGs

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this