The Waste Heat Explorer (WHE) is a WebGIS application to visualize the waste heat potentials from industrial sources and sewage water and provide users, respectively companies the opportunity to add their own waste heat information! The WHE is capable of interactively validate the economic feasibility of an usage of the Waste Heat.




                               


The mitigation of Global Warming triggered by accelerated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions requires changes in the energy supply towards renewables. Many thermal and mechanical processes generate waste heat.

Utilisation of waste heat or surplus heat is a basic principle of DH systems. The integration of waste from industrial processes has been identified as a major research area in the EU strategy on heating and cooling. Technical and non-technical barriers exist and hinder the wider use and integration of secondary heat sources such as heat from industrial production processes or heat from wastewater flows. If companies use this waste heat, they can often reduce their own energy consumption, save energy costs and increase their own competitiveness.


Within the first “MEMPHIS” project, a methodology was developed to access information about waste heat from industrial and service sectors as well as sewage networks by using publicly available open data. The methodology localizes the annual potentials with spatial resolution. However, the successful integration of waste heat potentials into the DH networks is often limited by

  • the seasonality of the heat demand and the possible mismatch with the waste heat availability
  • the locational mismatch of waste heat sources and the DH network
  • the temperature mismatch as many DH networks have higher supply temperature levels than the available waste heat 
  • the long payback periods due to potentially high investment costs, together with rather low revenues from heat sales especially in summer times. 


Therefore, the MEMPHIS 2.0 project focuses on collecting additional, relevant information for the utilization of waste heat sources that is included in the online evaluation tool called Waste Heat Explorer. This includes information for time-resolved waste heat availability, detailed temperature levels and potential changes of future waste heat availability as well as the assessment of new waste heat sources. Additionally, a techno-economic assessment tool for analysing the feasibility of waste heat utilization projects is included in the Waste Heat Explorer.


In the project, 5 case studies - in the project partner´s country - were selected: 

  • Graz in Austria
  • Göttingen in Germany
  • Trento in Italy
  • Bolzano in Italy
  • Ospitaletto in Italy


The project is funded by International Energy Agency (IEA) District Heating and Cooling. General information about the IEA Programme District Heating and Cooling including CHP can be obtained from the website http://www.iea-dhc.org/home.html or from the Operating Agent (AGFW e.V. Dr. Andrej Jentsch).