There are five primary areas of industrial heat applications: food processing, paper industry, chemical industry, petroleum and coal processing, and primary metal industries. Relative use of process heat in these industries is shown in Table VII for two developed countries, the U. S. (1994) and Germany (1989).

Industrial process heat is mainly used in the form of steam at appropriate temperature and pressure conditions. The demand is usually steady and there is no seasonal variation and hence quite suitable for supply by nuclear power. The only problem is that the source must be nearby as heat loss in transit is considerable.

There are three cases of commercial use of nuclear process heat in Canada, Germany and Switzerland. This is shown in Table VIII. The application to the heavy water production facility in Bruce, Canada was the largest use of nuclear process heat and it has operated very successfully for over 20 years. The six other industries the Bruce complex provided process heat were plastic film manufacturing, ethanol plant, apple juice concentration plant, alfalfa dehydration, cubing and pelletizing plant, a greenhouse, and an agricultural research facility.

The total potential market of industrial process heat is large and of the same order of magnitude as district heating. It is estimated to be between 240 GWt and 2900 GWt2. However, the demand in terms of size varies; some 50% of the users need less than 10 MWt, 40% need sizes from 10 to 50 MWt, and only 10% need sizes greater than 50 MWt3. Very few need a large amount of process heat as in the Bruce example in Canada. The market is also very competitive as small fossil fuel units can provide the needed steam.