What Is Process Heating?
Process heating is used to raise or maintain the temperature of materials in manufacturing processes. For example, process heating technologies supply thermal energy to transform raw materials like limestone, metallic ores, and silica into materials like cement, iron, glass, and other intermediates, leading to a wide variety of industrial and consumer products.
Why Is RD&D Into Process Heating Important?
Heating is the process responsible for the largest energy demand in the manufacturing sector. In 2018, process heating accounted for 51% of the energy used onsite.
Since about one-third of the energy consumed in process heating is ultimately lost as waste heat, innovative heating methods have the potential to improve overall energy efficiency. Electromagnetic heating, for example, can reduce thermal losses by delivering energy directly into materials, with less heat lost to the environment. Lowering the amount of energy used and wasted can reduce costs to American businesses and increase manufacturing productivity.
ITO Research in Process Heating
The Department of Energy's (DOE's) Industrial Technologies Office (ITO) funds research, development, and deployment (RD&D) projects to reduce energy use and emissions from process heating. Addressing the wide variety of processes and industries, often with unique and common process heating requirements, will require a portfolio of solutions, including:
- Electrification of process heating, such as electromagnetic heating technologies which can reduce energy losses by delivering heat directly into the target material.
- Use of thermal energy sources like nuclear, hydrogen or biofuels.
- Transformative low- or no-heat technologies, which achieve similar end products to current processes while using significantly less thermal energy.
- Waste heat management technologies such as industrial heat pumps.
- Flexible combined heat and power (CHP) systems, which allow facilities to adjust the ratio of heat generation to power generation as needed.
This portfolio approach to optimizing technologies for process heating will enable individual plants to determine the best options for their needs, given the application, economics, geography, and other factors.
Additional Resources
- DOE, Thermal Process Intensification: Transforming the Way Industry Uses Thermal Process Energy, 2022
- DOE Industrial Heat Shot
- DOE, Quadrennial Technology Review 2015, Technology Assessment 6I: Process Heating Systems
- Resources and technology tip sheets