SCA’s German plant saves energy by discarding fossil fuels
September 07, 2015 - Sweden
The SCA plant in Neuss, Germany, has managed to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 1,275 tons a year by abandoning fossil fuels for all its heating and hot water production. Thereby, the facility has also decreased the total energy consumption by 2 per cent.
Continuously optimizing production processes to reduce energy consumption has the highest priority for SCA. Therefore, the SCA plant in Neuss is investing in heat recovery. Since October 2014, all heating and sanitary systems at the plant are operated with the waste heat that arises from the paper production.
The project started in 2011. An expert group at the factory investigated how to make good use of the waste heat from the paper production. The group concluded that the exhaust air to the drying hoods of the paper machines was sufficient to operate the plant’s complete heating and hot water system.
To start with, the project group installed a heat recovery system in the exhaust ducts. In the first step, the district heating system only heated the intermediate ceiling of the paper mill. Subsequently, the supply was expanded to include all buildings as well as the heating of the hot water and sanitary systems, according to a press release.
Bernd Bichbeimer, plant manager in Neuss, said, “We have integrated as many employees as possible in the planning and implementation of the project. We were able to implement the last two phases with the existing knowledge in the factory without involving an external engineering office.”
Martin Marx, project manager and energy & technical site support leader at the Neuss facility said, “We installed a pipeline on the outside walls of the buildings and built pipeline bridges over the roads that separate the buildings. Most of the installations were carried out with the help of cranes and work platforms. We built in stages to reduce the CO2 emissions as fast as possible. In the next step, we transferred the hot water supply for all employees to the new heat recovery system. We pressed the pipes to significantly reduce the fire load.”
Continuously optimizing production processes to reduce energy consumption has the highest priority for SCA. Therefore, the SCA plant in Neuss is investing in heat recovery. Since October 2014, all heating and sanitary systems at the plant are operated with the waste heat that arises from the paper production.
The project started in 2011. An expert group at the factory investigated how to make good use of the waste heat from the paper production. The group concluded that the exhaust air to the drying hoods of the paper machines was sufficient to operate the plant’s complete heating and hot water system.
To start with, the project group installed a heat recovery system in the exhaust ducts. In the first step, the district heating system only heated the intermediate ceiling of the paper mill. Subsequently, the supply was expanded to include all buildings as well as the heating of the hot water and sanitary systems, according to a press release.
Bernd Bichbeimer, plant manager in Neuss, said, “We have integrated as many employees as possible in the planning and implementation of the project. We were able to implement the last two phases with the existing knowledge in the factory without involving an external engineering office.”
Martin Marx, project manager and energy & technical site support leader at the Neuss facility said, “We installed a pipeline on the outside walls of the buildings and built pipeline bridges over the roads that separate the buildings. Most of the installations were carried out with the help of cranes and work platforms. We built in stages to reduce the CO2 emissions as fast as possible. In the next step, we transferred the hot water supply for all employees to the new heat recovery system. We pressed the pipes to significantly reduce the fire load.”
SCA is a global leading hygiene and forest products company located in Sweden. (GK)