Tech Trend: How heavy industry can leverage waste streams to meet energy demand

Waste — whether its heat or non-recyclable materials — can be captured and transformed into electricity, yielding impressive carbon savings. This report dives into the innovative solutions startups and corporate partners are developing.

The decarbonization of heavy industry is one of the most important — and formidable — challenges in reaching net zero. There is, however, a great opportunity to lower carbon emissions by utilizing resources we already have. Recovering materials from waste streams in manufacturing plants could provide reliable sources of energy that could lower the plants’ carbon intensity. Biomass-rich materials, including biochar, refuse from construction and demolition, municipal waste, and the super-hot exhaust and low-grade heat given off by machinery are untapped resources.

The demand for technology solutions that upcycle industrial waste heat is growing. Macroeconomic factors, including industrial carbon pricing and carbon-border adjustments by jurisdictions like the European Union as well as pressure from investors for large firms to reduce Scope 3 emissions within their supply chains are driving increased interest. “As carbon pricing schemes become more ubiquitous and the price within those schemes begins to increase, the math is changing,” says Mick Malowany, senior manager on the corporate innovation team at MaRS. Capitalizing on these emerging technologies could offer industrial players a reliable and cost-effective way to gain a competitive advantage in the long term. The most successful firms will be those that make smart decarbonization decisions by investing early in technologies that mitigate their own emissions.

Sectors with the most potential to utilize waste streams:

• Steel
• Cement
• Chemical
• Nuclear power plants
• Data centres

Several startups, working with scientists and forward-looking corporate partners, have made significant inroads in developing innovative technologies that can transform industrial waste streams into carbon reduction and energy efficiency programs. “There are so many people looking at these problems with new technologies,” says Robert Cumming, head of sustainability and public affairs at Lafarge Canada.

This report features insights from leaders at Holcim Group, Gerdau, ArcelorMittal Dofasco, Ash Grove Cement. As well, it highlights innovations from Canada’s startup community:

• Ekstera’s pilot project with global steel company Gerdau aims to harness the waste heat from the arc furnace and reuse the energy in the factory.
• Kanin Energy is helping energy infrastructure company Tallgrass implement heat recovery technologies.
• CHAR Technologies is working with ArcelorMittal Dofasco to replace fossil fuels with biochar in steel production.
• Enersion’s reversible heat pump uses waste heat to cool buildings in the summer and heat them in the winter. It is gearing up to launch two projects this year.
• Extract Energy’s innovative heat engine uses a shape memory alloy to transform waste heat into clean electricity.