Your choices:
1 Biomass (digestible sludge); 2 Electricity; 3 Process heat
| What is your resource? | What do you want to deliver? | What is the service the customer wants? |
| 1 Biomass (digestible sludge) | District cooling | Comfortable indoor climate |
| Biomass (fermentable sludge) | District heating | Electricity |
| Biomass (solid) | 2 Electricity | 3 Process cooling (< 0 °C) |
| Geothermal | Fuel: Gaseous | 3 Process heat/steam (50 - 150 °C) |
| Sunshine | Fuel: Liquid | 3 Process heat (150 - 1000 °C) |
| Water | Fuel: Solid | 3 Process heat (> 1000 °C) |
| Wind | Local cooling (ind. house) | Transport |
| Residual oils/fats etc | Local heating (ind. house) |
In such cases that the end user wants process heat for an industrial process, there is reason to separate the temperatures desired in different ranges – unless the energy carrier is electricity.
Electricity, because of its unique content of exergy (100% for all practical purposes) can be used to produce any temperature ranging from cryogenic to more than 3000 °C (in plasma torches). The flexibility is (should be) reflected in the price for electricity as compared to other, less flexible, energy carriers.
The drawback with electricity for some high-temperature processes is the absence of a hot gas which is often used to attain temperature uniformity. With electricity as the energy carrier, such gas must be produced or provided by external means.