Good Practice: Use of waste heat from refining industry, Sweden

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Setting

Country: Sweden
Location: Göteborg and Lysekil
Project start date: End of 1970s
Project end date: ongoing
Technology keywords: District heating
Host sector: Oil industry
Ref: SETatWork Good Practice # 20

Objective of the Project

The objective of the project is to sell waste heat from the refining industry to district heating networks and to Volvo.

Technical Summary

Industrial excess heat is generated as a result of the industrial production processes such as refining. Some of the primary energy needed to run a production process is not consumed and must be cooled away if the process is to work. Traditionally the excess heat has been cooled away to the ambient air and/or water and is wasted. Using waste heat from industry in a local district heating network is a way of covering some of society's heat demand without causing any additional greenhouse gas emissions.

Preem has two refineries on the west coast: Lysekil refinery with a production capacity of 11 Mtons per year and Göteborg refinery with a capacity of 6 Mton per year. Both have good conditions to deliver excess heat as district heating.

At the end of the -70ies Preem started to install systems to recover waste heat and to deliver it to nearby district heating systems. The delivery to Volvo started in 1981. Sweden was the first country in the world to make use of these unexploited resources.

In Preem's refinery in Göteborg there are two systems installed that deliver waste heat to the Volvo factory in Torslanda and to the Göteborg district heating network. The latter was taken in use in 1997.

From the Preem refinery in Lysekil waste heat is delivered to the Lysekil district heating network.

In 2008 543.8 GWh of waste heat was delivered from the two refineries to the district heating networks of Göteborg and Lysekil. The saving of greenhouse gas emissions is estimated to correspond to 152,400 tons of CO₂.

See the Good Practice Case Study PDF file for further information

Environmental and Social Benefits

(Estimate of) Greenhouse Gases abated (in metric tons of CO₂-equivalent):
Annual: 152 400 tons

To find similar reports, click on a keyword below:
SETatWork: Sustainable Energy Technology at Work (2008-2010) : District Heating and Cooling : Heat Generation, Recovery and Use : Waste to Energy

Preem AB