ORC vs SRC

The global energy crisis and the interrelated issues of rising electricity prices and energy import dependency is forcing governments and policymakers to design new legislative frameworks that can rapidly support the transition to more balanced, independent, and sustainable energy systems.

In this context, the awareness of making better use of the energy being produced has gained much prominence, and policies to support improvements in energy efficiency in all sectors are being implemented in many countries worldwide.

Preventing heat waste or exploiting its huge potential in many energy intensive industrial processes has now finally been recognised as a critical measure to reduce fossil fuel consumption, energy dependency, and energy bills.

Waste heat recovery application trends in the cement sector

Cement is considered one of the world’s most energy-intensive and hard-to-abate sectors. In previous decades cement manufacturers have stepped up their investments in technologies that increase the efficiency of the cement production process and reduce their carbon footprint. Several technologies can be efficiently employed, even in combined use, to control carbon emissions, such as substituting clinker with SCMs, alternative fuels, waste heat recovery systems (WHR), and improved technologies in the pyroprocess. Carbon capture, utilisation, and storage technologies (CCUS) and green hydrogen are examples of other technologies under development for applications in the cement sector.

The huge potential of waste heat recovery in the cement sector has stimulated the adoption of WHR systems across cement plants worldwide. A recent market report by Global Market Insight states that the WHR capacity installed in the cement sector reached almost 2.5 GWe in 2022 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 11.8% in the period 2023 to 2032 to settle at 7.5 GWe by 2032. This growth will be driven by applications in the Asia Pacific regions, followed by Europe, while North America will give a boost to WHR penetration in cement, quadrupling installed capacity from 40 MWe in 2022 to 168 MWe in 2032.

The move towards the installation of heat recovery technologies in cement factories is further driven by the growing prominence of organic Rankine cycle (ORC)-based systems, which can recover a significant amount of heat even from medium and low-temperature sources.

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Read the article online at: https://www.worldcement.com/special-reports/11082023/orc-vs-src/