Environmental and economic analysis of industrial waste heat recovery with hybrid heat pump application

Today, increasing energy demands and environmental concerns have made energy efficiency a necessity from both economic and ecological perspectives. High energy consumption in industrial facilities increases costs and raises CO₂ emissions. Therefore, waste heat recovery and the use of renewable energy are among the fundamental goals of sustainable production. Energy efficiency is important not only for reducing consumption but also for lowering greenhouse gas emissions, protecting the environment, and strengthening the economics of the business. In this context, heat pump technologies, which extract energy from low-temperature sources and make it reusable, stand out as effective, environmentally friendly, and efficient systems in both heating and cooling applications. In this study, waste heat from a cooling tower generated during the production process in an industrial facility was recovered through a water-source heat pump and integrated into the facility's heating system. The heat pump increased the heat energy by using low-temperature water and reused it in the process. During periods when the waste heat was insufficient, the system was supported by natural gas boilers, thus creating a hybrid operating model between the heat pump and the boiler. As a result of the implementation, natural gas consumption and electricity usage were significantly reduced, leading to lower energy costs and a substantial decrease in CO₂ emissions, thereby providing notable environmental benefits. The findings indicate that the proposed system achieves an annual natural gas saving of 6,788,251 kWh and a net financial gain of 5,703,864 TL. Additionally, the payback period of the investment is calculated as 2.41 years, demonstrating the economic feasibility of the system. Overall, this case study highlights that the widespread adoption of hybrid heat pump systems in the industrial sector can make significant contributions to Türkiye’s energy transition and carbon emission goals.