New initiative set to make profit from waste heat

Power engineering company Mitsui Babcock and the Carbon Trust are working together on a new initiative to sell waste heat to other businesses.
Connective Energy, which is also being run in conjunction with Tridos Renewables, will see £20m invested in to capturing waste heat, rather than releasing it into the atmosphere and contributing to global warming. The waste heat will be piped to other nearby businesses to be used as heating.
One of the first companies to get involved looks set to be brick manufacturer Wienerberger. The company will receive excess heat from a local site that generates electricity from landfill gas. The heat will be used in the furnaces where the bricks are dried.
Alistair Fraser, head of strategic development at Mitsui Babcock explained the process was relatively simple: “The engineering mostly consists of a heat exchanger and a series of pipes. However the buildings to which the heat is pumped must be within a few miles of the heat source, otherwise too much energy will be lost in transportation.”
The principle behind the scheme is similar to those used in combined heat and power plants, where waste heat from electricity generation is recycled to local housing estates. “There is less scope for these types of projects in the UK because most large power plants are situated quite a way from settlements,” added Fraser.
According to Tom Delay, chief executive of the Carbon Trust, Connective Energy will also make money. In fact, it is estimated reused heat could be worth as much as £1bn.
“Waste heat can be captured and delivered relatively cheaply. Because of this, it can be sold to the recipient at a profit,” he explained.