Heat Recovery at High Temperature by Molten Salts for High Temperature Processing Industries.

Waste heat is a problem common to high temperature processing industries as a significantly underused resource, often due to challenges in economic heat valorization. Secondary aluminum recycling and ceramic processing were identified as key examples with economically recoverable waste heat. Several challenges are inherent; these processes are batch-based rather than continuous with corrosive particulate-laden flue gas over a wide temperature range. The EU H2020 Smartrec project aims to develop a technology capable to recover heat at high temperature from industrial processes. It is being coordinated by UK-based company ALTEK, with the rest of the consortium being made up of companies from EU countries. The Smartrec project is aimed at developing a modularized standard heat recovery solution integrated with thermal energy storage (TES) and a knowledge-based software tool. Smartrec has been designed for industrial applications such as secondary aluminum (furnace), ceramic (kiln), cement (kiln) and flat glass (furnace) industries with a very harsh and corrosive environment. The concept of Smartrec is based on the utilization of a Heat Transfer Fluid (HTF) stable at high temperature (≥600°C) such as molten salts. Through a Heat Pipe Heat Exchanger (HPHE) the heat at the exit of heat source is transferred to the Heat Transfer Fluid (HTF) which is circulating within the Smartrec loop. When the input waste heat source is available, HTF will simultaneously transfer heat to the user end process via a user end heat exchanger (HX) or to a thermal energy storage (TES). When the exhaust stream is unavailable, the TES will supply the needed thermal energy to the HTF which in turn will transfer it to the user end process via the user end HX. The validation at industrial level of the abovementioned technology is currently ongoing as part of the Smartrec project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]