Recovering heat that is lost in the process. Delhi pilot.
Hospitals in India generate toxic medical waste that must be incinerated. Retainergy recovers the waste heat from that process. The first installation, at Biotic's facility in Delhi, is in operation and supplies hot water to the plant – electricity and cooling are the next steps.
Without heat recovery, the exhaust leaves the incinerator at about 600 °C. Its heat is only partly recovered as steam – the rest is cooled by a gas‑fired unit and released into the air.Retainergy 1.0 is in operation: a heat exchanger in the exhaust supplies hot water at about 90 °C to the plant's processes, including the autoclave, replacing a gas-based solution. Next steps, in dashed boxes: electricity from an ORC unit and cooling from an absorption chiller.
One waste stream, power, heat and cooling.
Conventionally, the heat is only partly recovered as steam. The rest is cooled by a gas-fired unit and released into the air, adding to Delhi's urban heat island. Retainergy 1.0 now recovers heat as hot water for the plant's own processes. The next steps are electricity from an ORC (Organic Rankine Cycle) unit and cooling from an absorption chiller.
Power
An ORC unit converts the recovered heat into electricity – for the plant's own use or sold to external users.
Next stepProcess heat
A heat exchanger in the exhaust supplies hot water at about 90 °C to the plant's processes, including the autoclave, replacing a gas-based solution.
In operationCooling
Absorption chillers turn heat into cooling for the plant and adjacent buildings – a starting point for industrial symbiosis.
Next stepA testbed in a plant that runs every day.
The heat recovery system is installed and in operation at Biotic Waste Ltd's incineration facility in Delhi, and a joint venture has been formed. If the solution meets the technical, regulatory and commercial requirements, it will be rolled out across India and, later, in neighbouring countries.
- MAY 2024Pilot project initiated
- DONEHeat recovery installed and commissioned in Delhi – hot water for the plant's processes
- NOWPlanning electricity (ORC) and cooling (absorption chiller); market research for scaling up
- LATERRoll-out in India, other industries and neighbouring markets
An Indian–Swedish collaboration.
The partners combine hands-on operation of medical waste incineration with capacity building, engineering networks and environmental research.
Biotic Waste Ltd
Leading operator in bio-medical waste management, serving 11 000+ healthcare facilities from five plants.
Heatnet Global
International capacity building for decarbonising heating and cooling, with a network of engineering partners.
IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute
Independent research institute with a large team in Mumbai working on water, infrastructure and waste.
Help take the pilot further.
We welcome industry partners at an early stage, to make heat recovery from incineration affordable, standardised and easy to retrofit.
Peter Anderberg, Overall Project Leader · Heatnet Global