Industrial Heat Pumps: Unlocking the Potential of Excess Heat Recovery

On November 26, the European Heat Pump Association hosted a webinar featuring three EU-funded initiatives: PUSH2HEAT, SPIRIT, and META BUILD, focusing on collaborative approaches between industrial and urban systems.

The Weissenborn mill, a major paper processing plant in Germany, has successfully implemented high-temperature heat pumps to capture waste heat, leading to a reduction of 453,000 cubic metres in natural gas usage and cutting annual CO₂ emissions by 231 tonnes. Reuven Paitazoglou from the Fraunhofer Institute presented this case study, highlighting the significant energy savings achieved through this technology.

Beyond individual installations, industrial heat pumps facilitate industrial symbiosis—a system where waste heat or by-products from one industry become resources for another. As explained by Lieven Demolder from the University of Ghent, such collaboration requires technical solutions along with supportive policy frameworks, infrastructure, and financial incentives.

In Spain, an innovative project demonstrated how waste heat from an urban district heating network was upgraded via heat pumps to produce steam for a metal processing plant. Laura Alonso Ojanguren of Tecnalia Innovation & Research shared this example from Catalonia, which annually saves 13,000 megawatts of thermal energy and reduces CO₂ emissions by 1,200 tonnes.

The webinar reinforced the adaptability of large heat pumps for various applications, setting a blueprint for future projects across Europe. By harnessing excess heat, industrial heat pumps present a promising path toward a sustainable and efficient energy system.