At Turnbull & Scott (T&S), we believe industrial waste heat has real potential as a source of Clean Heat for buildings. We are currently working on an exciting project that we hope will contribute to a greater amount of industrial waste heat being fed into buildings and heat networks.
We have been delivering industrial heat recovery systems for many years and are well aware that many of our industrial customers generate more recoverable waste heat than they can reuse themselves.
In recent years, as heat transfer specialists, we have also become actively involved in Thermal Energy Storage (TES) R&D projects with our clients. While the storage of thermal energy for later re-use is a growing area of interest in renewable energy, transporting waste heat from where it is generated to where it is needed is often considered only through costly pipework infrastructure, with large-scale waste generators and heat consumers typically being prerequisites. From our work around TES, we have identified a gap in the development landscape for transportable TES units to serve a section of the heat market where a permanent pipework infrastructure is not feasible for various reasons.
Transportable or mobile TES units (M-TES) could offer industrial customers, keen to capture waste heat but with no viable on-site re-use requirement, an outlet and income stream for their ‘waste’ heat. Potential consumers of this waste heat include almost any enterprise, including heat networks, with a requirement for heated water.
To support the development of this M-TES concept, in 2023 we were awarded a Green Heat feasibility study grant from The Scottish Government to explore the transportability of recovered heat. This work resulted in the development of a first-generation Mobile Thermal Energy Store (M-TES) Design Tool.
In December 2024, we were subsequently awarded a Scottish Enterprise SMART:SCOTLAND grant, an R&D feasibility study grant, to advance the scope and performance of the first-generation M-TES Design Tool. This will enable us to produce thermal models that demonstrate the financial feasibility of an M-TES unit and underpin the development of a prototype. This SMART:SCOTLAND project began on 6th January 2025 and will run for 18 months.
If successful, this project will result in the development of a design tool that allows our customers to determine the financial feasibility of selling their excess heat to specific users via an M-TES unit designed and manufactured by us at our factory in Hawick, where we have been building industrial heat exchangers and other heat transfer products since 1933.
