Project Background
An industrial park with a steel fabricator, a food processor, and a data center faced rising energy bills and a carbon target. Each plant vented useful heat to atmosphere.
The Integrated Approach
- The steel plant's high-dust exhaust was recovered with an isolated plate air-to-air exchanger, never a rotary wheel, to avoid fouling and cross-contamination.
- Recovered heat preheated the food plant's process air through a separate isolated plate unit, so exhaust never mixed with supply air and hygiene rules were met.
- A district heating loop carried excess heat to nearby offices.
- The data center's server heat was reused via water-loop recovery.
Results
Fuel use fell, the park's carbon intensity dropped, and a planned ORC unit became viable once the waste-heat stream was concentrated. Air-to-air plate exchangers were the cheapest first step and de-risked later investment.