Futuristic Approaches of Low-Grade Industrial Waste Heat Recovery

Energy deficiency and environmental deterioration are crucial challenges in the current world. About 50% of energy is being wasted due to inefficient energy conversion processes and a lack of execution of reliable recovery technologies. With rapid industrialization and improvement in the standard of life, there exists the enormous potential for recovery of waste heat from industrial processes and transportation systems. The transition of 10% waste heat into electrical power can enhance fuel efficiency by 20%. Apart from enhancing the overall efficiency with the economic outlook, waste energy recovery also helps to mitigate CO2 emission from thermal systems. In this context, a circular energy management strategy can be applied for effective utilization of waste heat in the form of heat and electrical energy. The effective harnessing of abundant renewable energy sources viz. solar thermal, photovoltaic (PV), biomass, etc., can reduce the dependency on primary energy sources and lead towards sustainable greener future. This review also emphasizes two prominent waste heat recovery technologies viz. Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) and thermoelectric generator (TEG). While integrating TEG, ORC or other additional features in moving vehicles, the weight has to be taken into account to secure the mass retribution within 5%.