ASES and South-West Supply Oy have implemented new heat recovery solutions for Terrafame's hydrogen plants, achieving significant savings in energy use and reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Two sites were identified in the project, where it was possible to utilize heat recovery technology by post-treatment of flue gases and steam, which is completely new in the hydrogen plant environment.
South-West Supply Oy is an expert in heat transfer solutions that offers innovative ways to utilize industrial energy flows. The new heat recovery system now implemented for Terrafame's hydrogen plants is the result of South-West Supply's expertise and product development.
The automation of Terrafame's hydrogen plants is already a familiar worksite for ASES. Terrafame recommended ASES to South-West Supply as the automation partner for the project, so choosing them for the project was natural. The role of the ASES team was to design and implement the automation to new heat recovery solutions.
"ASES team members are top-class experts in their field. They were pleasant to work with and things were handled quickly. ASES is a reliable partner for future projects as well," South-West Supply CEO Juha Mäntynen describes the cooperation.
Significant environmental impacts
One of the reforms implemented in the project was the recovery of waste energy from hot flue gases, which can be used to generate steam for the steam network in the Terrafame area. Another revamp was the recovery and control of the steam produced by the hydrogen plant for use again, instead of releasing it directly to the outside air.
The new technology used in the project, the heat pipe heat exchanger, is best suited for heat recovery of hot gases. Waste heat can be used immediately, e.g. in district heat production, air heating or even steam production, as is now utilized in Terrafame's hydrogen plants.
” This equipment has now produced 2,500 MWh of energy in just under two months, so it really works as planned”, Mr. Mäntynen states.
With the technologies now in use, the recovery of wasted energy is estimated to be 72,000 MWh, which corresponds to the energy consumption of approximately 2,500 single-family homes per year. The final amount of recovered energy depends on the actual production volume of the factory. By reusing waste energy, carbon dioxide emissions are reduced by an estimated 11,900 tons per year, which is equivalent to the CO2 emissions of approximately 4,000 passenger cars (95 g/km, 30 000 km/year).
Pictures: South-West Supply Oy
