Turning Waste Heat into Electricity: Kanin Energy Secures $100 Million to Power Industry

Imagine a factory that’s already producing a lot of heat – not because it wants to, but because the process simply needs it. Historically that heat just wafts away, a silent loss on the balance sheet. Kanin Energy thinks that’s a missed opportunity, and with a fresh $100 million injection they’re set to change the game.

The money comes in two equal chunks: $50 million from S2G Investments and another $50 million from the Canada Growth Fund. It isn’t a grant, it’s equity – investors are betting that turning waste into power is not just good for the planet but also good business.

Why does it matter? In many heavy‑industry operations – think oil refineries, cement kilns, steel mills – as much as 58 % of the energy that’s burned never makes it into the final product. It ends up as hot exhaust or steam that simply dissipates. Kanin’s solution grabs that leftover heat and runs it through an organic Rankine cycle (ORC) turbine. The principle is old – ORC tech has been around for over four decades – but the twist is using it on‑site, right where the heat is born.

Here’s how it works in plain English: the waste heat vaporises a specially chosen organic fluid. That vapor expands, spins a turbine, and the turbine turns a generator that feeds electricity back into the plant or the local grid. No extra fuel is needed, no new emissions are added – it’s basically recycling energy that would otherwise be wasted.

“Waste heat has largely been an under‑used solution,” says Marisa Sweeney of S2G. “As grid constraints tighten and electricity prices climb, the incentive to capture that heat is getting stronger.” And she’s right – on‑site generation can shave off a chunk of a plant’s electricity bill while also providing a more reliable baseload supply.

Kanin already has a working pilot at the University of Dayton, and its pipeline now totals roughly 50 MW of waste‑heat‑to‑power capacity, some of it already under construction. One of the more visible projects is the Mewbourn WHP Power Project in Weld County, Colorado, which will tap heat from a local industrial process and feed power straight to nearby users.

The company’s business model is dubbed “Energy‑as‑a‑Service.” Instead of a plant having to finance, build, and operate its own waste‑heat plant, Kanin does the heavy lifting and the client simply pays for the electricity they receive. Janice Tran, Kanin’s CEO, puts it plainly: “Industrial facilities already hold the solution to their own energy challenges – they just need the right partner to make it happen.”

Beyond the dollars saved, there’s a clear emissions story. By converting heat that would have been released into the atmosphere into usable power, plants can cut their carbon footprints without changing the core production process. That’s a win for regulators, investors, and the communities that live nearby.

Yannick Beaudoin of the Canada Growth Fund summed it up nicely: “Investing in scalable cleantech solutions strengthens Canada’s economy and helps create new, reliable power for heavy industries.” With this fresh capital, Kanin plans to scale up its waste‑heat‑to‑power projects throughout the United States and Canada, targeting sectors where heat is abundant and electricity costs are climbing.

In short, what used to be a puff of wasted steam could soon be a steady stream of clean electricity. It’s a modest concept, but one that could reshape the energy picture for some of the dirtiest corners of industry.