Industrial waste heat offers a significant potential to reduce carbon emissions by integrating it into district heating systems. While technical modeling is extensive, an essential research question remains open based on observable practice, namely, why technically feasible industrial waste heat integration projects are often not realized. This article examines the enablers and barriers to industrial waste heat integration in Zeeland in The Netherlands and the Flanders region in Belgium. The analysis is embedded in a review of international studies, providing a broader context and highlighting lessons learned from systems worldwide. Key enablers identified in the study include supportive policies, innovative technologies, and strong collaboration between industries and municipalities. Barriers such as high upfront investment costs, complex regulatory requirements, and challenges in scaling infrastructure continue to constrain implementation. To address these issues, the research incorporates insights from a comprehensive set of stakeholder interviews followed by systematic qualitative analysis. Key quantitative findings reveal that projects are often stalled by prohibitively high capital expenditure, including capture costs reaching €10 million per source and transport infrastructure costs averaging €1 million per kilometer. These factors result in commercially unmanageable payback periods of 14 to 30 years, which are further exacerbated by a safety margin inflation of 10% to 30%. The findings highlight a course of action for stakeholders that reduces risk, improves coordination, and supports the development of sustainable, low-carbon district heating systems.
Farrokhifar et al. (2026) studied this question.