Waste heat recovery is the process of capturing heat from waste streams of existing industrial process and using this heat directly, upgrading it to a more useful temperature, and/or converting it to electrical power or cooling. The energy generated from heat recovery, if not required by the process or industrial site can be exported to neighbouring facilities or to electrical or heat distribution networks. Waste heat recovery systems can offer significant energy savings and substantial greenhouse gas emission reductions. There is now increasing global interest in the development and application of heat recovery systems which is driven by government regulatory requirements with regards to emissions and emission reduction targets, rising concerns over the cost of energy and energy security and general environmental and sustainability considerations.
The waste heat recovery market is projected to reach $53.12 billion by 2018. Europe dominates this market and in 2012 the European market accounted for 38% of the global heat recovery equipment market. It is also expected that the Asia-Pacific region will experience the highest growth rate in the next five years of 9.7% per annum with China and India accounting for the highest number of installations of heat recovery units. For these projections to materialise, however, and for the European manufacturing and user industry to benefit from these developments, technological improvements and innovations should take place aimed at improving the energy efficiency of heat recovery equipment and reducing installed costs.