Techno-economic optimization of the industrial excess heat recovery for an industrial park with high spatial and temporal resolution

Abstract

With increasing heating and cooling demands, decarbonisation of the heating and cooling sectors is key to achieving a carbon–neutral energy system. Using industrial excess heat in heating systems helps offset emissions by reducing the use of fossil fuels. While several studies have analysed the temperature of heat availability, the cost of extending or constructing the heating network and techno-economic feasibility, it is important to consider all aspects together to achieve a comprehensive design of industrial excess heat recovery. This study proposes a method to link an energy system optimisation tool with a spatial analysis tool and an exergy analysis tool to achieve a comprehensive design. An iterative soft link is implemented between the energy system model and the spatial analysis tool for high spatial and temporal resolution. The developed method is applied to a case study of an industrial park in Greece. Scenarios are developed to assess the robustness of the developed method and the system profitability of excess heat recovery. The scenarios indicated that the profitability of excess heat depends heavily on the price of natural gas with the share of excess heat increasing from 10% to 45% with a 20% increase in natural gas prices in cases where heat pumps are needed for temperature boosting. In cases where heat pumps are not needed, excess heat indicates higher system profitability with a share of around 40% and reduces the emissions by around 50 times. The method provides robust results in considered scenarios with convergence within four iterations.