Recovery of waste heat for valorisation in the industrial sector

The project aims to demonstrate, at industrial scale, how thermal batteries can capture waste heat from production processes, store it efficiently, and deliver it back on demand as usable heat for industrial applications.

In many plants, large quantities of heat are released through exhaust gases, hot liquids, cooling systems, compressors, furnaces, kilns, or drying lines and are often unused because they are intermittent, at the “wrong” temperature level, or generated when there is no immediate heat demand. Thermal batteries address this gap by acting as a buffer between heat supply and heat demand, enabling energy recovery even when the process is not synchronized.

The demonstration will integrate a thermal battery system into an operational industrial environment, including:

• Waste heat capture (heat exchangers and integration with existing equipment)

• Thermal storage (charging the thermal battery under real operating conditions)

• Heat discharge and reuse for one or more industrial purposes (e.g., process heating, pre-heating, hot water/steam support, drying, space heating, or low/medium-temperature process steps)

• Control and monitoring to optimize charging/discharging strategies and ensure safe, reliable operation

The project will validate performance through measurable KPIs such as:

• Recovered energy (MWh/year) and recovery efficiency

• Reduction of fuel/electricity consumption

• CO₂ emissions avoided

• Economic viability (CAPEX/OPEX, payback time, cost per MWh of recovered heat)

• Replicability across different industrial sectors and heat sources

Ultimately, the project will provide a bankable reference case showing that thermal batteries can be a practical solution to improve industrial energy efficiency, reduce operating costs, and support decarbonization by turning currently wasted heat into a reliable energy resource. The project will be perfect fitting with call HORIZON-CL5-2027-05-D4-09: Demonstration of industrial excess/waste heat conversion to mechanical or electrical power.