The report presents research on the socio-economic and financial cost-benefit analysis of typical waste heat recovery operations from industrial or service facilities for integration into district heating networks. This research is part of a broader effort to promote energy efficiency and industrial decarbonization.

The aim is to lay the groundwork for developing a simple yet effective calculation tool for reasonably approximating costs and benefits for each specific waste heat recovery project.

The examination of waste heat recovery operations, both implemented and planned nationally, has allowed for the configuration of a limited number of system schemes that can serve as a common reference for evaluating major heat recovery scenarios.

In alignment with the European Commission’s guidelines for evaluating large infrastructure projects, various indicators have been proposed for socio-economic or more purely financial cost-benefit analyses.

The canonical formulation of the proposed indicators and the interpretation grids for results are discussed, along with the different introduction and evaluation of various financial parameters and cost and benefit items.

Significant effort was devoted to identifying the commercial costs of major system components and the associated management and maintenance costs for the projects. Collaboration was sought from numerous operators active in the district heating sector. The obtained information was compared and integrated with data from a comprehensive review of available literature, along with other data previously available from RSE activities.

Finally, a social cost-benefit analysis was conducted for three hypothetical projects with different types and amounts of recoverable thermal heat from waste heat, similar to implemented cases. The analysis highlighted the varying opportunities for implementation and potential challenges.