Wastewater is definitely a worthy source of heat in the toolbox of so called ESCOs (energy service companies). In the context of our 6th partner meeting in Antwerp, external experts were invited to give an insight to their current challenges in the field of heat recovery.
Partnerships that power wastewater heat recovery projects
Noven is such an ESCO company, that designs, finances, builds, operates and maintains energy heating systems. The company is using a hybrid combination of sources in order to create a more robust energy supply system and to achieve a higher overall efficiency. Noven realized a project together with our project partner Aquafin using wastewater heat recovery combined with other heat sources such as borehole thermal energy storage to provide sustainable heating for large-scale buildings. The learnings from that project were shared during the presentation.
The role of buildings in climate change.
According to the latest Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction 2024/2025 UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) Buildings account for ~ 32% of global energy-related CO₂ emissions. Most of this comes from burning fossil fuels (coal, oil, gas) for heating, cooling, and powering appliances. If a building’s electricity comes from coal or gas power plants, its carbon footprint is high.
Buildings play a major role in climate change, that´s why there´s a good opportunity for ESCO´s to deal with this sector. The building of the future consits of several renewable energy sources, such as geothermal heat pumps, PV, and wastewater heat recovery. By realizing such
projects, Noven already have had good experiences with wasterwater as a well-functioning source.
What struck most in Loïc Vervaeke´s presentation was the fact, that even in winter times, when the very coldest temparatures reach 4°C, the capacity of the heat extractors to extract heat from extreme cold waste water still remains funcional. Nowadays for Noven checking nearby wastewater heat potential (collector, WWTP) has become standard practice in the companie´s pre-project business development.
Heat exchanger technologies for wastewater systems
Geert van
Rens, representative of dutch based company Syntraal, also has been invited to the ResNRJwater meeting. Syntraalis operating in six different european countries. They are performing energy consulting with an emphasis on "Aquathermal energy". He introduced different types of heat exchangers which are especially useful for wastewater and effluents - the cleaned wastewater.
Van Rens gave an overview of the existing techniques and also the limitations of the techniques, as well as some examples of projects that are actually realized, in which Syntraal is also being part.