4th Generation DHC: using waste heat for sustainable comfort

The residents of the Nieuwe Wipwei district in the Dutch city of Roosendaal will soon be comfortably warm. Waste heat from the local SUEZ waste processing plant will be used to provide reliable, affordable and sustainable heat for various districts in the city. Together with BAM and the municipal energy provider of Roosendaal, Thermaflex has expanded the innovative, low-temperature heating network with the connection of the Nieuwe Wipwei district. This is a big next step in realizing the city’s sustainability targets.

With an eye on the future, Duurzaam Energiebedrijf Roosendaal (Sustainable Energy Company Roosendaal) took the initiative to implement a Smart Climate Grid for the heat supply of a local college and residential district in 2012. To this end, it makes use of clean waste heat of 42° Celsius from a local waste processing plant operated by SUEZ – energy that would otherwise be lost. Already, this has cut the college’s energy bill by 50%. The connection of the new residential quarters to this unique district heating network marks an important milestone: heating individual homes based on the only low-temperature district network in the Netherlands. By using low temperature (LT) waste heat, heat loss is significantly lower while ensuring a much higher thermal energy yield. In this way, sustainability and comfort go hand in hand.

In order to minimize disturbance for current residents, the partners took up the challenge to implement the entire network within 3 weeks, while at the same time securing a future-proof solution. To this end, a collaboration between Thermaflex (knowledge partner and specialist in the development and production of prefabricated distribution networks) and BAM Infra (expert in infrastructure and network installation). The Cradle to Cradle Certified™ Silver Flexalen piping system, delivered with plug-and-play Flexalink house connections proved to be the ideal solution for this project. The expertise and structured approach by BAM also proved to be highly effective in the rapid installation of a reliable Low Temperature (LT) network, whereby disturbance to the local environment was kept to a minimum.

Wondering what that looks like in practice? Check it out in the project video!

For Roosendaal, this is only a start. Of the 60 MWh waste heat capacity of the processing plant, only 5 MWh is exploited. The success of this network expansion affirms the potential to expand it in the near future. Not only in the Netherlands, but all over the world waste heat offers a much better alternative to conventional gas-fired heating; such abundance is available globally. With these types of innovative and highly scalable concepts, Thermaflex and its partners demonstrate that the transition to sustainable energy while assuring optimal levels of comfort at lower energy bills is a challenge we can easily handle collectively.

Source: Thermaflex