Waste Heat Boiler Explained: Making Steam From Heat You Already Have
Waste Heat Boiler
A waste heat boiler does what its name says: it makes steam from heat that would otherwise be wasted. Placed in the path of a hot exhaust or process gas, it transfers that heat into water to raise steam, producing useful energy from a stream the plant was already generating at no extra fuel cost.
How Recovery Works
Hot gas from a furnace, engine, turbine or chemical reactor is passed over banks of water-filled tubes inside the boiler. The gas gives up its heat to the water, which boils into steam for process use or to drive a turbine. Because the fuel was already burned for the original process, the recovered steam is effectively free energy, boosting the plant’s overall efficiency.
Why It Matters
In energy-intensive industries, flue gas and exhaust can carry away a third or more of the fuel’s energy. Capturing even part of that as steam cuts fuel demand, lowers emissions and often pays for the boiler quickly. Waste heat boilers are a core part of nearly every combined heat and power and waste-to-energy plant, where they turn exhaust into additional power instead of letting it escape up the stack.
Learn More:
Turn Exhaust Into Steam
Klean Industries engineers waste heat recovery into its turn-key waste-to-energy and biomass systems, capturing heat the process already produces.
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