The Waste Heat Assessment and Resource Mapping (WHARM) project, an initiative that aims to map and assess waste heat from urban cooling applications, has been launched by a research team led by London South Bank University (LSBU).
The project, which is funded by the EPSRC through the Reef-UKC network, will focus on energy intensive sectors such as data centres, supermarkets, cold storage facilities and industrial sites, and seek to explore opportunities for reuse on site or ‘export’ to other sectors.
Situated in Birmingham, UK, WHARM is a partnership between LSBU, Aston University, Birmingham City Council, Star Refrigeration, and Skilled Mapping.
Birmingham City Council already has a dedicated Climate Change Strategy in place, under which it aims to reduce carbon emissions by 60% by 2027.
‘Building knowledge’
“The WHARM project is a great initiative, bringing together industry leaders and academics to provide a blueprint on how to approach waste heat with data, ultimately building knowledge that can support the decarbonisation of our cities and industries,” commented Dr Henrique Lagoeiro, research fellow at LSBU and project lead.
The project will generate a georeferenced database to identify, map and characterise waste heat from cooling systems in the city, and develop economic models to quantify the cost of capturing and repurposing this heat.
It will also engage with stakeholders to address challenges such as high costs, business model uncertainties, and mismatches between heat supply and demand.
Quantifying waste heat
“We often hear off the cuff remarks about how much waste heat there is, but what we really need to know is a more granular level or place, quantity, quality, and cleanliness so we can advise on whether to boost it back up on site with industrial heat pumps or make available to neighbours to use in district heat networks,” added Dave Pearson, group sustainable development director of Star Refrigeration and Royal Academy of Engineering visiting professor to Edinburgh Napier University.
“Just like materials recycling, we hope to define a value basis for waste heat so it could even be sold.”
EPSRC is a funding body for engineering and physical sciences research in the UK, supporting innovations that drive a sustainable and resilient economy. Reef-UKC is a research network focused on integrating renewable energy with clean cooling technologies, aiming to improve energy efficiency and reduce environmental impact through system-level research and sustainable business models. Read more here.
