Heat recovery: this is how much energy the new water circuit saves
With new systems, PKV can recycle its process heat even better – and save as much natural gas and therefore energy and CO2 as up to 825 households consume per year.
PKV has invested almost seven million euros in this efficiency project, which is now going into trial operation. The company had a total of 1,300 meters of new piping laid and installed a 1,000 cubic meter storage tank made of 44 tons of stainless steel.
The investment is doubly worthwhile: up to 16,500 megawatt hours of energy can be saved per year through clever heat recovery – that is as much as up to 825 average single-family homes consume per year (assuming 20,000 kWh per house). Accordingly, less natural gas has to be purchased and the new technology prevents the release of up to 3,300 tons of CO2 per year.
And how does it work? In future, cold process water will be preheated by exchanging energy with warm waste water from production. This means that preheating will require considerably less energy – and ultimately less natural gas. The new storage tank also means that water can be used at different temperatures as required and less cooling or preheating is needed. This efficiency project is funded by the Federal Office of Economics and Export Control (BAFA).