Waste heat utilisation in industry. Why the energy transition is our responsibility.
More than 160 terawatt hours per year.
That is the amount of waste heat generated by German industry that was reported to the Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control (BAFA) via the waste heat platform in 2025.
This corresponds roughly to the annual energy requirements of around 10 million households – while at the same time primary energy is used to generate additional process heat in industry.
As a managing director and engineer with a passion for thermodynamic processes, I am convinced that the energy transition gives us the engineering responsibility to make better use of existing waste heat.
The energy transition gives us the engineering responsibility to make better use of existing waste heat.
Don't waste your waste heat
Concrete projects demonstrate that this potential is not just theoretical, but economically feasible.
For example, we saved over 43,000 tonnes of steam per year and reduced annual operating costs by more than £1.5 million at an existing plant in the paper industry with a holistic heat recovery concept. The ROI for this project was less than one year, and more than 5,000 tonnes of CO2 are saved annually.
Even in projects where the driving temperature difference after the first or second heat recovery stage is no longer sufficient to directly heat or cool processes, it is still worthwhile to bring this waste heat back to a usable level – for example, with customised heat pump solutions.
Not as a standard off-the-shelf solution, but developed specifically for each project and tailored to the respective requirements in collaboration with our customers.
It is crucial to understand the customer's application and to work backwards from the customer benefit to the overall solution – as a responsible engineering service in plant construction and as a sustainable contribution to defossilisation in industry.
Such projects show that the energy transition is not only one of the greatest challenges of our time. It is also a business opportunity – especially for German SMEs.
It is up to us to tap into this potential responsibly. We must take action. Together. Now.
Sascha Paulus
CEO
