Manufacturing facilities consume vast amounts of energy, and a significant proportion of it is lost as waste heat. Every day, valuable thermal energy disappears through flues, vents, and exhaust systems. Heat recovery systems provide a practical way to capture this lost energy and reuse it productively.
At Process Energy, we have over 90 years of experience working with thermal equipment. In that time, we have seen how well-designed heat recovery systems can transform a facility’s energy profile to deliver substantial cost savings whilst supporting decarbonisation goals.
Understanding How Heat Recovery Systems Work
Heat recovery systems capture waste heat from industrial processes and transfer it to where it can be reused within your facility. Manufacturing processes such as operating machinery or heating systems generate large amounts of heat as a byproduct. Rather than venting this energy into the atmosphere, our systems recover it using purpose-designed heat exchangers.
In simple terms, hot gases or liquids pass through one side of a heat exchanger, while a cooler fluid, such as water, flows through the other. Heat transfers across the exchanger surface without the fluids mixing, warming the cooler stream and cooling the hotter one. We recover heat from sources such as exhaust gases, hot wastewater, and even low-grade heat streams. This recovered energy can then be used to support heating processes, preheat boiler combustion air, provide more space heating, or generate hot water to support other thermal processes across the site.
Our Heat Recovery Solutions for Manufacturing
We focus on core heat recovery applications that consistently deliver the strongest returns for manufacturing facilities.
Our Dryer optimisation approach in printing and coating industries can carefully reuse warm exhaust air and be either directly or indirectly used to heat fresh air supplied to the dryers, depending on pollutants such as VOC, dust and water. Our optimisation techniques often cut final exhausts in half and achieve 50% reduction in energy use.
Our boiler flue heat recovery solutions target exhaust gases that are typically discharged at high temperatures. By installing economisers and heat exchangers, we capture this energy before it is lost, using it to preheat boiler feedwater or combustion air and significantly improve overall boiler efficiency.
We can also combine low-grade heat recovery with heat pumps to boost waste energy temperatures from around 50 degrees to a more usable 90 to 120 degrees.
For sites operating Combined Heat and Power systems, we design CHP heat recovery solutions that capture waste heat from gas engines for productive use. CHP units generate substantial thermal energy alongside electricity, and recovering this heat can dramatically increase overall system efficiency.
Real Results: CHP Heat Recovery System in Action
The value of heat recovery is best demonstrated through real-world results. In a recent project, we installed a heat recovery system on a CHP gas engine at a manufacturing facility that had previously been wasting large amounts of thermal energy.
The system now captures 720 kWh of waste heat, delivering annual cost savings of £179,000. The project achieved a return on investment in under two years, showing that heat recovery is not only environmentally responsible but also financially valuable!
The recovered heat is now reused within the facility, reducing fuel consumption and cutting carbon emissions. We delivered the project end-to-end, from initial energy audit and system design through to installation and commissioning.
Our Approach to Heat Recovery Implementation
We work across a wide range of industries, including food manufacturing, textiles, printing and packaging, paper and pulp, and metals. Each sector presents its own challenges, from process contaminants to tight operational and financial constraints. Our solutions are always tailored to the specific demands of your site.
Our process begins with a detailed energy audit, where we calculate achievable savings and identify the most viable heat recovery opportunities within your operations. We take the time to understand potential risks and constraints, then design systems that integrate seamlessly with existing equipment and deliver long-term, reliable performance.
We bring deep insight into complex thermal processes, as our engineers have been operating in this space for decades, uncovering problem areas and successfully delivering solutions that bring long-term results. This expertise in how manufacturing sites tick allows us to maximise heat recovery while maintaining system reliability and compliance.
Whether your priority is reducing energy costs, lowering carbon emissions, or progressing towards Net Zero targets, heat recovery systems offer a proven and practical solution. With energy prices continuing to rise, contact our team to arrange an industrial energy audit and discover how much energy and cost your facility could recover.