By Dr. Andreas Sichert, CEO, Orcan Energy
Energy Efficiency – First fuel of a sustainable global energy system
Global decarbonization efforts and associated changes in the energy landscape are increasing in pace and scope, impacting the need for reliable and cost-competitive CO2-neutral power sources. However, in order to respond to these evolving market conditions of sourcing low CO2 electricity, meeting or exceeding national or regional CO2 emission standards, and demonstrating appropriate ESG performance, corporate decision-makers need readily deployable solutions today.
A well-known and highly effective way to address decarbonization and project energy demand is to increase energy efficiency. The IEA has described this as “the first fuel of a sustainable global energy system” in their online publication Energy Efficiency – Topics – IEA. In industrial processes, a common way to increase energy efficiency is to recover waste heat. However, with low fuel, electricity and CO2 prices over the past decade and limited incentives to really push waste heat recovery, its potential has remained largely untapped, both in terms of deployment and innovation. To underline its potential, according to a 2023 McKinsey report (Unlocking the potential of waste heat recovery | McKinsey), more than 3,100 TWh of waste heat could be converted into clean electricity worldwide.
Heat-to-power: 2nd generation ORC from Orcan Energy
That waste heat recovery, which can be easily deployed on a large scale in any industry, has a significant future in the global energy transition is a potential that Orcan Energy recognized early on. As a spin-off from the Technical University of Munich in 2008, the German cleantech scale-up Orcan Energy, which today has its own production and R&D facility, +70 employees and a strong strategic and financial base of cooperation partners, has developed a technology that converts waste heat into clean, CO2-free electricity based on second-generation Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) technology. By significantly downsizing the established technology, standardizing components of otherwise highly customized equipment and offering a modular product solution, Orcan Energy is able to convert small and medium waste heat sources and temperatures, starting from 80°C, into usable, cost-effective energy.
With more than 600 Orcan Energy energy modules marketed worldwide and over 7 million hours of operation, the technology is commercially proven and directly contributing to today’s energy transition. The company has a growing list of reference cases in industries such as cement, metals, automotive, oil and gas, power generation, and marine in different geographies and environments from Asia to North America.
The benefits of converting waste heat to electricity
Converting waste heat into electricity pays for itself. Not only does the use of waste heat significantly increase the energy efficiency of a system, but it also saves money because the electricity generated would otherwise be purchased from the grid or from a fuel source. In addition to cost savings, waste heat recovery significantly reduces Scope 2 emissions under the Greenhouse Gas Protocol.
Waste heat recovery can also be directly combined with process cooling. A good example is the downstream oil and gas industry. There are many processes that require cooling, often with high maintenance and costly air coolers. The use of Orcan Energy’s modules eliminates the need for air coolers (except for redundancy). The waste heat can be converted directly into electricity, resulting in additional savings on existing coolers. A further benefit of using modular ORC systems is that as the heat sources are phased out or demand changes, the installed units can be reduced and reused in other locations or, where feasible, sold to other customers in a secondary market.
To enable customers to benefit from these and other advantages of modular waste heat recovery as quickly and easily as possible, Orcan Energy offers its customers an all-inclusive package — from engineering to turnkey construction, commissioning and financing of the plant, operation and maintenance, and, if necessary, disposal or resale of the plant. Depending on the project location, the company uses a network of local partners.
Applications in the Canadian market
As Orcan Energy already has a wealth of knowledge from a number of representative waste heat recovery installations that it believes are applicable to the Canadian market – e.g. Cemex (Europe) in cement production, Chevron (USA) in oil & gas wells producing an increasing ratio of water to oil & gas, Glencore (Germany) in metals & recycling, Bertelsmann Printing Group (Germany) in pulp & paper combined with district heating and Frutura (Austria) with a geothermal application – and observing the current transformational pressures on the oil & gas sector for which it could provide solutions, Orcan Energy sees great potential in introducing its technology to the Canadian market. Exhibiting at the upcoming Global Energy Show in Calgary from 11-13 June is one of a number of initiatives in this regard, demonstrating the company’s desire to engage with new Canadian partners and potential customers alike, as well as underlining its continued commitment to the North American market as a whole.
Originally published in IGNITE V8.
