How to deal with technical and economic constraints to recover waste heat in France?

International audience The aim of this paper is to give an overview of waste heat potentials in France (from manufacturing industry, datacenters, refineries, water treatment plants and waste incineration plants), and to analyse opportunities as well as technical and economic constraints for waste heat recovery. The study confirms a high theoretical potential for waste heat recovery (118 TWh). 60 TWh are at a temperature under 100 °C, 45 TWh between 100 and 200 °C and the rest above. The main source of waste heat is related to driers, condensers of cooling production units, furnaces and boilers. We can define and locate waste heat sources in France and compare them to heat demand. Moreover, a strong politic will in terms of energy transition allows for the emergence of organisations and infrastructures to recover waste heat implementing territorial symbiosis. This free waste heat is not systematically recovered and reused because of technical (fouling and corrosion of heat exchangers, difficulties to store heat) and economic constraints (financial security for the quality, quantity and regularity of supply, cost of a backup solution in case of failure, long investment payback). We present three existing business models, allowing to secure heat supply and increase confidence between involved partners.