Waste heat for drying, water and food: What to track
Watch both the heat supplier and the product buyer
What this tab covers The attributes worth tracking regularly, with the latest value, the direction of travel and why each matters.Track both the host's heat supply and the user's own output, since either side can sink the project.
| Category | Attribute | Latest | Trend | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operational | Capacity factor and operating hours | Desalination and capture need year-round heat; drying and greenhouses are seasonal2 | ↕ volatile | Seasonal users struggle to reach 3,000 to 4,000 h/yr. |
| Techno-economic | Thermal efficiency over time (heat per unit output) | MED and MSF about 80.6 kWh heat per m31 | → stable | Rising heat use per m3 signals scaling. |
| Counterparty | Host counterparty credit and utilisation rate | Double exposure to heat supplier and product buyer5 | ↕ volatile | Host closure removes free heat. |
| Impact | t CO2e avoided per dollar invested | Grain dryer about USD 51.77 per t CO2 against sample average of USD 9.222 | → stable | Seasonal uses are much costlier per tonne. |
| Maintenance | Heat exchanger fouling and cleaning frequency | Gulf seawater at about 45,000 ppm with high biofouling potential; no cleaning interval found1 | → stable | Scaling cuts output and needs acid cleaning. |
| Policy | Local carbon pricing and penalties | EU ETS allowance (December contract) EUR 82.40/t on 5 October 2026 and EUR 88.3/t on 12 October 2026; EU CBAM definitive since 1 January 2026, certificates priced from ETS auctions; India CCTS compliance for about 490 entities in seven sectors (2025-26 and 2026-27, baseline 2023-24), BEE expected credits to be issued around October 2026 and first trading between November 2026 and January 2027151671718 | ↕ volatile | The carbon price sets part of the value of every tonne of fuel avoided; Indian obligated sectors (cement, aluminium, pulp and paper, refining, petrochemicals, textiles, chlor-alkali) are typical recovery hosts. |
| Technology-specific | Desalinated water cost | USD 1 to 2 per m3; about 0.5 for large plants (2012 data)1 | → stable | Waste-heat MED must beat RO on this metric. |
| Technology-specific | Capture solvent reboiler duty | about 3.5 GJ per t CO2 for 30% MEA (3.46 pilot, 3.53 stated in a cement study whose flows imply about 4.4, calculated)89 | ↗ improving | Lower duty means more CO2 captured per unit of waste heat. |
Sources
- Water Desalination Using Renewable Energy, Technology Brief I12 IEA-ETSAP and IRENA, 2012
- Not Just Hot Air: Low-Cost Decarbonization through Heat Recovery (Zahlan and Talan, Cadmus), ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Industry ACEEE, 2021
- Waste Heat Recovery: Technology and Opportunities in U.S. Industry (BCS Inc. for US DOE Industrial Technologies Program) US Department of Energy, 2008
- CBAM definitive regime European Commission, DG Taxation and Customs Union, 2026
- Comparative techno-economic analysis of the integration of MEA-based scrubbing and silica PEI adsorbent-based CO2 capture processes into cement plants (Jaffar et al.), Journal of Cleaner Production 414, 137666 Elsevier (open access, Ulster University repository), 2023
- Results from pilot-scale CO2 capture testing using 30 wt% MEA at a Waste-to-Energy facility (Vinjarapu et al.), Applied Energy 355 Elsevier (via RePEc IDEAS), 2024
- European carbon prices drop to 7-week low as market eyes upcoming policy agenda (EUA December contract, ICE data) S&P Global Commodity Insights, 2026
- European carbon prices rose to EUR 88/t in October (ICE data) GMK Center, 2026
- Compliance obligations under India's Carbon Credit Trading Scheme enter into force for seven sectors International Carbon Action Partnership (ICAP), 2026
- India to launch first carbon trading programme by October 2026 (BEE comments on CCTS credit issuance and trading) Outlook Business, 2026