Heat recovery gives lost energy a new lease of life

This West Flemish waste processing plant incinerates 65 million kilograms of residual waste that no longer qualifies for recycling or reuse. For the most part, the heat was already being converted into electricity but, thanks to the new heat grid, the process has come full circle.

We designed a system with a control range of between 1 and 15 kW that recovers the heat from the incineration circuit and brings it to the substations via the heat exchangers. Incidentally, the entire project was custom-designed in-house and constructed by our own team. The heat grid can prevent 10,000 tons of CO2 emissions a year and has the capacity to push up that figure even further.

Via the substations some 15 kilometres of pipes transfer heat to the offices of the company itself, to its neighbour’s production process and to 700 homes, some 10 apartment blocks and several municipal buildings in the area. Part of the track runs under the Leie River, at a depth of 15 metres. These pipes did not form part of our brief, but were laid by an external partner.

The entire system was placed in a building we had constructed ourselves and even contains a backup system that can take over in the event of malfunctions or whenever maintenance is required. Now the businesses and families connected to the grid have all the sustainable heat they could wish for.