CERAWeek 2024: Decarbonization Through Waste Heat to Power

CERAWeek 2024 brought forth a lot of inspiring insights, and we were excited to be part of the conversations shaping our energy future.

If you missed Kanin’s presentation by our CEO, Janice Tran, or didn’t get a chance to stop by our booth at Houston Energy Transition Initiative (HETI), we’ve got you covered! We’ve outlined some key findings from our discussion on waste heat to power solutions. 

For further questions contact us to learn more.

CERAWeek explored the strategies for an energy world in rapid transformation. Foremost thought leaders, policymakers and executives from across energy, finance, technology, and governments convened at CERAWeek 2024 for dialogue, shared learnings and connectivity, covering the following themes:

• Energy Markets
• Policy and Geopolitics
• Company Strategies
• Power Markets in Transition
• New Supply Chains for Net Zero
• Capital Transition
• Technology and Innovation
• Climate and Sustainability

More specifically, the important topic of industrial decarbonization was center stage and brought together forwarding-thinking heavy industrials and solution providers like Kanin Energy, which provides waste heat to power solutions.

There is great potential in heat wasted at industrial facilities where 42% of energy actually ends up as “work” and the remaining 58% of becomes rejected energy, including waste heat. Industrial decarbonization represents a massive opportunity to impact climate change, as the industrial sector accounts for roughly a quarter of all emissions. 290,000 petajoules of waste heat are released from heavy industrial operations every year. By focusing on transforming this waste heat into carbon-free baseload power, we can shift towards cleaner production processes and reduced carbon emissions.

Heavy industrials have made voluntary commitments to meet net zero goals or competitive decarbonization goals by 2030 and 2050 respectively, however as we near those dates, meeting these goals becomes increasingly difficult. The need for near-term decarbonization technologies increases, which underscores the importance of waste heat to power and other solutions capable of delivering immediate progress.

KANIN’S WASTE HEAT TO POWER PROCESS:

Kanin’s role as a turnkey developer means that we deliver projects from end-to-end, covering project financing, engineering, construction, operation, and maintenance for the life of the project. Kanin is technology agnostic and adapts to the best solution for each application, considering each partner’s industry, facility specifics and more.

Many industrial processes vent exhaust flue gas, which contains a significant amount of wasted thermal energy that can be converted into electricity. The waste heat-to-power process works by utilizing commercially proven technology such as an Organic Rankine cycle where electrical power is generated from heated working fluids. 

Using this process, Kanin delivers carbon-free baseload electricity generation, thereby offsetting power produced from fossil fuels. The ability to capture wasted energy and produce Waste Heat to Power is viable in many different industries, including, but not limited to:  

• Cement & Building Materials
• Natural Gas
• Metals
• Biomass
• Refineries
• Hydrogen
• Glass
• Chemicals & Fertilizers

WHP is zero-emission generation powered by heat from industrial processes and equipment that would otherwise be lost to the environment.

Learn about work that Kanin is doing by checking out our latest press releases.

CASE STUDY: NATURAL GAS MIDSTREAM WASTE HEAT TO POWER APPLICATION

Tallgrass Energy is a co-owner in the REX pipeline, one of the largest natural gas pipelines in North America, that relies on compression generated by natural gas turbines. These gas turbines produce a constant stream of high temperature exhaust gas, which can be utilized for a waste heat to power project. 

Kanin has designed bespoke systems at each compressor station to optimize for waste heat recovery generation. Kanin’s value add includes managing and delivering the projects, sourcing power and environmental attribute offtakers, managing key functions including power scheduling and market compliance, and effectively serving as an extension of Tallgrass Energy’s team with subject matter expertise in all technical and commercial aspects of waste heat to power project delivery.

This project will generate baseload 24/7 electricity that will be sold to the University of Dayton to offset 100% of their electricity needs and reduce its carbon footprint by 71%. Our partner benefits by creating an additional revenue stream and being an industry leader. Read more here.

WASTE HEAT TO POWER & OTHER SOLUTIONS:

Waste heat to power is unique in how it complements other industrial solutions such as carbon capture and hydrogen, but can be deployed immediately.

CARBON CAPTURE & WASTE HEAT TO POWER:

Kanin is reviewing the implications of combining post-combustion carbon capture (PCC) and waste heat to power, and we have observed that the two systems are not mutually exclusive. The WHP installation generates electricity by cooling down exhaust fluid from ~450°C to 130°C. Whereas post-combustion carbon capture requires the exhaust gas to be further cooled down to around 60°C. The carbon that has been captured by liquid solvent needs to be heated to ~120°C to release a rich CO2 stream and to regenerate the solvent. This can be achieved with waste heat from the ORC. Some of the waste energy from the exhaust can be used to produce the required steam for the carbon capture process. Exhaust gas requires some preconditioning (SOx, NOx, and particulate removal) for the post-combustion carbon capture process.

HYDROGEN & WASTE HEAT TO POWER:

Kanin is reviewing the implications of how hydrogen generation can integrate with waste heat to power, as this has been a major topic of conversation.

The WHP process produces Hydrogen via electrolysis, a method wherein electrolyzers utilize electricity to convert regular water (H2O) into useful gases: pristine hydrogen (H2) and oxygen (O2). These electrolyzers are composed of two electrodes (anode and cathode) separated by an electrolyte. WHP advantages for Hydrogen production are two-fold as it is able to provide clean baseload electricity for hydrogen production and can avoid additional costly interconnection to the grid.  Further, the baseload generation profile of WHP satisfies the hourly clean energy supply requirements of the latest proposed rulemaking for access to federal green Hydrogen production credits. 

POLICY & WASTE HEAT TO POWER:

The 45V Guidance on Green Hydrogen PTC was released and provides directives and recommendations for the production of green hydrogen utilizing the Power-to-Gas (PTC) technology. This makes operations more expensive, but it sets the industry on the right path from the start for true GHG reductions. As standards move beyond annual REC procurements, this incentive will further catalyze technologies that can provide 24/7 carbon-free energy, such as WHP. Moreover, this helps drive down costs and make the technology more accessible for industrials that want to decarbonize their operations.

CONCLUSION:

CERAWeek 2024 showcased the pivotal role of innovation and collaboration in shaping the energy industry’s future, inspiring attendees to drive positive change in the global energy landscape. We look forward to seeing everyone next year!