Comparative assessment of heat recovery from treated wastewater in the district heating systems of the three capitals of the Baltic countries

Abstract

Urban cities have a great potential for the sewage wastewater (WW) and treated WW but this heat resource is still underutilised in many European cities, including the three Baltic capitals of Tallinn, Riga, and Vilnius. The aim of this paper was to evaluate the integration of waste heat (WH) into a district heating (DH) system via absorption heat pumps by using key performance indicators (KPIs) in the fields of energy, environment, economy and social sphere in the three Baltic capitals. The paper presents a three-step methodology that develops an innovative multi-dimensional approach to energy poverty analysis and includes the three main drivers of energy poverty: fuel prices, household income, and energy efficiency. The paper shows that the integration of WH is economically feasible from the consumer's point of view and reduces energy poverty, especially when the price of fuel increases.