Process heat

Process heat refers to the application of heat during industrial processes. Some form of process heat is used during the manufacture of many common products, from concrete to glass to steel to paper.

The required temperature of the process varies widely, with about half the industrial process heat having critical temperatures above 400 °C (752 °F). These higher-temperature processes can generally only be supplied by dedicated supplies like natural gas or coal, although pre-heating from other sources is also common in order to reduce fuel use. Those processes operating below the average can draw on a much wider variety of sources, including waste heat from other processes in the same industrial process.

Process heat accounts for approximately 30% of all the fuel use in the manufacturing sector, and is the target of significant efforts to introduce new forms of carbon neutral process heat supplies. Biomass is already in widespread use in industry, while geothermal, concentrated solar power and nuclear power remain experimental and are not currently economically competitive.