Project Team:

Principle Investigators:

• Prof. Aonghus McNabola, (School of Engineering)
• Prof. Padraig Carmody (School of Natural Sciences)
• Prof. Paul Coughlan (Trinity Business School)

Academic Collaborations:

• Dr. Godfrey Hampwaye (Southern African Institute for Policy and Research)
• Ms. Naminda Momba (Southern African Institute for Policy and Research)

Non-Academic Collaborations:

• Dr. Danny Museteka
• Ms. Mangiza Chirwa Chongo

Trinity Researchers:

• Dr. Madhu Krishna Murali – Research Fellow
• Dr. Roberta Bellini – Research Fellow

Funding Agency:

• Science Foundation Ireland
• Irish Aid

Location:

Zambia 

Participating Companies and Demonstration Sites:

Official partnership with Zambeef Products PLC, Zambia’s largest vertically integrated food retailing brand to try and recover heat at their manufacturing facilities.

Themes:

Water-Energy Nexus; Resource Recovery from Wastewater; Waste Heat Recovery; Drain Water Heat Recovery; Wastewater Heat Recovery

Description:

REHEATZ: Recovering Embedded Heat in Zambian food production

REHEATZ aims to develop and demonstrate a low-cost technology for recycling waste heat in wastewater at Zambian food processing facilities. The project will aim to reduce energy requirements for food production in Zambia; reduce the associated climate emissions; and ensure the potential benefits of these savings are realized within local communities.

The interdisciplinary team spans three tracks to enable a technological transformation, business transformation and societal transformation, to achieve the desired sustainable development goal impacts. The team includes interlinking expertise in Wastewater Heat Recovery (WWHR) technology development, the assessment of potential societal impact of technical innovation in developing countries, and the management of green process innovation within large organisations. The team also encompasses local industry expertise in meat production and expertise on food sustainability in Zambia.

Figure1: Proof of concept heat recovery system from the blowdown stream of a coal boiler