CO2 saving processes

Waste Heat Recovery Unit

Systems tailored to harvest most of the waste heat out of industrial processes and transform them into electricity. A smaller carbon footprint, waste energy reuse, cost optimization and higher overall efficiency are only some of its advantages.

Waste heat recovery unit

How does a GEA Waste Heat Recovery Unit work?

Engineered to capture and repurpose waste heat from industrial processes, particularly exhaust and flue gases, this innovative technology effectively reduces reliance on fossil fuels, minimizes carbon emissions and lowers overall energy costs. 

The WHRU operates -often in conjunction with the Organic Ranking Cycle (ORC) due to the temperature ranges involved- transferring heat from flue gas to another medium through a heat exchanger, which can then be utilized locally or transported across the production site for various applications such as waste gas treatment, district heating or power generation. 

GEA delivers customized heat exchanger designed for each specific application, adjusting to factors like gas flow velocity, pipe dimensions and flue gas composition. This tailored approach, backed by GEA's extensive industrial experience across diverse sectors, ensures optimal performance and efficiency for each unique WHRU installation.
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Benefits of a Waste Heat Recovery Unit

  • Optimized design.
  • Self-cleaning operation for enhanced plant availability and efficiency.
  • Continuous Online Cleaning System for managing high dust contents exceeding 10g/m³ std. as well as dry, sticky and/or abrasive dust.
  • Operational cost reduction of up to 25%.
  • Flexibility in Heat Transfer Media. 
  • Both for thermal oils and pressurized water systems.

WHRU in the Cement Industry

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Process for WHRU in the Cement Industry

GEA has been supplying heat recovery systems for the cement industry for more than a decade. 

Both on the raw gas side upstream of an emission control system as well as downstream of an emission control system: GEA offers tried and tested waste heat recovery system that do not impact your production process while recovering a large amount of waste heat. On the raw gas side with sticky dust an online cleaning system is applied to keep heat transfer at an optimum over years. With this, GEA supplied WHRUs up to 6.1 MW thermal power, converting it to 1 MW of electrical energy via the ORC process and/or powering your SCR as well.

Currently applied to the glass industry for power generation via an ORC or for heating purposes, the system is ready to utilize waste heat for a CEBO® Carbon Capturing unit instead.

WHRU in the Glass Industry

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Process for WHRU in the Glass Industry

Special WHRU systems are available and already in use for both the kiln flue gas and the exhaust gas from the clinker cooler.  Especially for the difficult kiln flue gas with a high load of abrasive dust and demanding pollutants, GEA has supplied systems for > 6.5 MW thermal output, which have already been in successful operation for more than eight years. 
Thanks to GEA's expertise in emission control, the deposition of flue gas components on the heat exchanger surface is prevented to achieve very good heat transfer performance with minimum maintenance costs.

By additionally recovering heat from the clinker cooler side, either to operate a tail-end SCR unit or in combination with heat recovered from the kiln flue gas to supply the ORC process, thermal losses are reduced to an economical minimum. While GEA’s WHRUs already pays for itself by direct heating or electrical power generation now, it enables you to capture carbon dioxide emissions in the future by powering our CEBO® Carbon Capturing unit, complying with upcoming environmental regulations.

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