Use of renewable energies and solar energy: process heat and electrification

The energy transition – whether industrial, transport-related or private – has for some time now been demanding increasingly resilient solutions for process heat. Many companies want to consistently reduce or completely eliminate their use of fossil fuels, preferring instead to use electricity from renewable sources and consistently tapping into waste heat potential wherever possible. This involves not only CO2 reduction and climate protection targets, but also operational safety and high availability, wide controllability and economic integration into existing infrastructure. It is crucial that energy flows in the plant are stable and technically clean.

CAW supports the use of renewable energy through electric heat generation and efficient heat recovery. Robust, industrial-grade electric heaters are the key option when process heat is to be generated directly from electricity. This is particularly suitable in combination with photovoltaics, wind power or a fully electrified site concept. Extremely precise power control allows load profiles to be smoothed and process requirements to be reliably met. In hybrid concepts, an electric heater supplements existing fossil fuel-fired systems to cover peak loads or optimise operating modes.

At the same time, CAW designs customised waste heat recovery systems, economisers and other heat exchangers for utilising waste heat from combustion systems, TNV/TAR plants or process exhaust gases. Where a moderately constant temperature level is available, an ORC plant can generate additional electrical energy and increase overall efficiency. Thermal oil systems always serve as a stable heat transfer circuit to efficiently distribute and transfer energy between sources and consumers.

CAW considers available energy/fuel sources, heat generation systems, consumers, control requirements and operational and plant safety as a complete system. This results in holistic concepts developed in close cooperation with plant operators, which make renewable energy technically usable and at the same time run reliably in everyday industrial operations.