Your guide to industrial heat recovery
Instead of generating heat, industrial heat recovery systems are all about making use of what you already have.
With that in mind, they can be a great way to reduce your business’ impact on the planet and lower your energy bills.
Here, we’ll explore everything to do with industrial heat recovery – and where heat pumps fit in.
What is industrial heat recovery?
First things first, you’re probably wondering what exactly heat recovery is.
In essence, heat recovery is all about taking warm air or water that would otherwise be wasted, and making it work a little bit harder for us.
For instance, in an office, air circulating becomes stale and is replaced by cold air that has to be heated up. Without a heat recovery system, the warm, stale air will simply be expelled into the atmosphere.
On the other hand, a heat recovery system will recycle that warm air to ensure you’re making the most of it.
Heat recovery is especially important in industrial settings, as industrial and manufacturing processes often use heat – whether it’s for cooking or curing paint.
Instead of expelling this heat into the environment afterwards in the form of warm air or water, a heat recovery system can make sure it’s being reused – benefitting both your business and the environment.
What is an industrial heat recovery unit?
An industrial heat recovery unit captures the warm air that would normally be emitted into the surrounding atmosphere.
This includes heat waste that’s generated in areas such as blast or spray booths, such as hot exhausts and gases.
The unit then stores this warm air and uses it to heat up fresh air coming into the workplace.
A traditional heat recovery unit won’t replace the need for a heating system – like a boiler. But it will help your heating system to work more efficiently by making use of the warm air you already have.
On the other hand, using a heat pump for heat recovery can tick both boxes – we’ll get to that later!
What are the benefits of industrial heat recovery?
Heat recovery comes with a whole host of benefits – especially in industrial settings where vast amounts of heat would otherwise be lost.
Here are just some of the advantages to adding a heat recovery system to your industrial facility.
Improve efficiency
In most industrial facilities, there’ll be processes that release significant amounts of heat – such as exothermic processes and thermal oxidizers. Meanwhile, other processes require significant amounts of energy to function – like Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) generators, steam ejectors, or simply heating your building.
Heat recovery systems can help you redirect the energy released by the waste heat producers to fuel the waste heat consumers – helping you reach maximum efficiency.
Lower your energy bills
By reusing heat that would otherwise be lost, you’ll be able to avoid using excess power to heat your workplace or power certain industrial processes.
In this way, you can reduce your energy bills and overall operating costs.
Maintain a constant temperature
You can use your industrial heat recovery system to monitor your industrial facility’s temperature and keep it stable.
With that in mind, it’s a great way to ensure the climate is spot-on for both your workers and the materials they’re working with.
Reduce your impact on the environment
Industrial heat recovery systems are all about reducing waste.
In doing so, they help you use less power to heat your building or fuel waste heat consumers – benefitting the environment.
Improve air quality
As well as recycling waste heat, industrial heat recovery units help to improve your industrial facility’s air quality and cleanliness.
This is because they’re able to remove excess contamination from the air.
How do industrial heat recovery units work?
There are several different types of heat recovery systems.
However, at the heart of all of them is some form of heat exchanger.
In a traditional heat recovery unit which works through a ventilation system, the heat exchanger sits at the top of your building – normally in your loft or on the roof.
Pipes feed down from it into the rooms below, which draw heat from outgoing air and pass it into the air that’s coming in from outside.
There are several different ways of transferring this heat. However, the goal is always the same: to trap heat and use it to create warm, clean air.
Here are some examples of heat recovery units that are common in commercial and industrial settings.
Thermal wheel heat recovery
Thermal wheels are the most efficient heat recovery units out of all the ventilation systems.
They consist of two large wheels that turn in opposite directions to transfer heat. One wheel draws in the exhaust while the other releases clean, heated air.
Due to their size, these units are only normally used in large commercial and industrial settings.
Heat pipe heat exchangers
Heat pipes use a tube system and refrigerant to extract heat from the exhaust air and transfer it to the incoming fresh air.
These pipes can be either horizontal or vertical. Where they’re horizontal, they use wicks to capture the heat. Meanwhile, vertical pipes use evaporation.
Heat pipe heat exchangers are most often used in commercial buildings and hospitals.
Plate heat exchangers
Plate heat exchangers are amongst the most popular heat recovery systems, as they can be used on a smaller scale than thermal wheel heat recovery.
They use a series of metal or plastic plates to transfer heat from the extracted air to the incoming air. Both air streams pass over the plates, but they never touch.
Plate heat exchangers are also common in commercial buildings and hospitals.
Heat pumps
While different from traditional heat recovery units, heat pumps are becoming more and more popular for heat recovery in industrial settings.
They use a network of pipes and a refrigerant to transfer heat from one area to another.
Depending on what type you choose, they can also draw heat from the outside air or from the ground – negating the need for a separate heating system like a boiler.
How can heat pumps be used for industrial heat recovery?
Similarly to traditional heat recovery units, industrial heat pumps can capture the low-grade heat that would otherwise escape a building.
They can then transfer it to incoming air so that it can be reused for industrial processes or other purposes – such as heating offices.
At Clade, our heat pumps are ideal for industrial heat reclaim as they operate at higher temperatures, delivering useful heat with a high COP or efficiency.
As we only work with natural refrigerants, you can also be confident that your system is fully environmentally friendly. After all, our natural refrigerants have low global warming potential (GWP) , zero ozone depletion potential (ODP) and don’t contain harmful PFAS.
As well as being a certified B Corp, our expert design team have years of industrial experience in order to assess, design and implement a reclaim system.
Heat pumps vs traditional industrial heat recovery systems
Wondering how heat pumps compare to traditional industrial heat recovery systems?
Well, they’re more efficient, cost-effective and do a better job at reducing carbon emissions in the long run. Here’s the lowdown.
- Full heating system. While traditional heat recovery systems don’t replace the need for a separate heating system, heat pumps do! Depending on what type you choose, they can extract ambient temperatures from the ground, water or air, warm it up and bring it into your building for natural heating.
- The cycle can be reversed. Unlike traditional heat recovery systems, heat pumps can also reverse the cycle. This means they can work as cooling air conditioners too.
- They use less electricity. Heat pumps use less electricity to run than traditional heat recovery systems and are very energy-efficient, meaning lower running costs.
- Low maintenance. Heat pumps require less maintenance and are also safer than traditional heat recovery systems.
- Eco-friendly. Heat pumps are very effective at reducing carbon emissions. Water source heat pumps, for instance, can reach high efficiencies of up to 600%! If you opt for a natural refrigerant heat pump, you can also be confident your choice of refrigerant won’t have any damaging effects on the environment.
Make us a part of your heat recovery plans
Investing in a heat pump to handle your industrial heat recovery is a no-brainer.
Not only will you be able to reduce your impact on the environment and lower your energy consumption by recycling waste heat. But you’ll also benefit from a green heating system to boot!
At Clade, our natural refrigerant industrial heat pumps are efficient, eco-friendly and cost-effective (read about how we do heat pumps better in our dedicated blog).
Plus, our expert design team has over 30 years of total experience in energy transformation, sustainable energy and innovation. So, you can be confident you’re in safe hands.
Get in touch to learn how we can design and implement an energy recovery system that meets your business’ needs exactly.