Orcan Energy puts waste heat recovery system on freighters

07.05.2026

Source: E & M powernews

Orcan Energy has commissioned a 100 kW ORC system for waste heat recovery on a Hagland Shipping vessel. Three more installations are to follow.

Munich-based waste heat specialist Orcan Energy has installed and commissioned the first of four planned ORC systems on a ship owned by Norwegian shipping company Hagland Shipping. This was announced by the company on May 6. The company is using a 100 kW "efficiency PACK", which converts waste heat from the ship's propulsion system into electrical energy. The system was commissioned on a cargo ship in the Hagland fleet.

The system uses two sources of heat from the main engine: the exhaust gas and the high-temperature cooling water from the ship's main ABC engine. According to Orcan Energy, the system generates electricity for on-board operation from previously unused thermal energy. This should reduce fuel consumption. The ships' CO2 emissions should also be reduced.

The first commissioning marks the start of the next phase of the project. Orcan Energy plans to install three more systems on sister ships of the shipping company. Hagland Shipping is thus pursuing the goal of reducing the fleet's energy consumption and using existing propulsion systems more efficiently. "As we are continuously looking for ways to reduce the environmental footprint of our fleet, the use of waste heat is a logical step," said Paal and Oivind Aanensen, Co-CEOs of Hagland Shipping.

Orcan Energy is positioning ORC technology as a solution for decarbonizing existing shipping fleets. The company points out that the systems are comparatively easy to integrate into existing energy structures. In addition to reducing emissions, Orcan Energy also cites savings in operating costs as a goal of the technology.

The project was implemented together with other partners from the maritime supply chain. The Dutch shipyard Royal Bodewes supported the integration of the system on board. The Norwegian sales partner Gear Consult AS supported the project on site.

In principle, the Orcan Energy modules - known as ORC (Organic Rankine Cycle) modules - work like a steam power plant. Instead of water as the working medium, an organic, e.g. carbon-based liquid with a low evaporation temperature is used in the process. The liquid is heated using heat exchangers and fed to the ORC modules to generate electricity.

Also for data centers

Orcan Energy had previously announced that it was also expanding its business area to include AI data centers (we reported). The company is thus addressing bottlenecks in grid connections and supply chains for generation plants, the waste heat specialist announced on April 2. According to Orcan, the new offering aims to "solve the massive energy bottleneck in the hyperscale sector". Operators of large data centers are increasingly confronted with long waiting times that delay the expansion of capacities.

With Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) technology, the company can enable data center operators to convert unused waste heat into base load energy. The systems convert waste heat from existing generation plants into electrical energy. According to the company, this allows up to 35 percent additional power to be provided on site.

Orcan Energy AG is a German cleantech company headquartered in Munich that develops turnkey energy efficiency solutions for converting waste heat into base load electricity. Founded in 2008 as a spin-off of the Technical University of Munich, the company says it has so far marketed 600 modules with more than 7 million operating hours internationally.

Author: Heidi Roider