Investigation of the potential of thermophotovoltaic heat recovery for the Turkish industrial sector

Thermophotovoltaics (TPV) are the use of the photovoltaic effect to generate electricity from a high-temperature thermal (infrared) source. This study deals with to provide an overview of heat recovery by TPV from industrial high-temperature processes in Turkish industrial sector. The paper reviews the relevant facts about TPV technology and the high-temperature industry and identifies three principle locations for TPV heat recovery. For each location, one example process is assessed in terms of applicability of TPV impact on the existing process and power scale. Knowledge of these factors should contribute to the design of an optimum TPV system. In the TIS, the total technical–potential energy recovery in the high-temperature industry using deployed and demonstrated heat recovery devices for product, flue gas, and wall heat recovery was estimated as 447.8 PJ/year. However, an estimation from 22.40 PJ/year to 67.45 PJ/year can be achieved according to the TPV efficiencies. Also, the paper estimates the range of possible energy savings and the reduction in CO emission using TPV in the high-temperature industry. It is expected that this study will be very beneficial in developing energy policies of countries in terms of the usage of waste energy efficiency.