Maximise the energy performance of industrial sites
The Orygeen teams have worked on:
Setting up a renewable energy strategy in France for a food & beverage company.
Defining the best cogeneration solutions and negotiating with a third party investor to maximise profits for a major chemical company.
Designing and financing a self-consumption photovoltaic solar energy system for a major food & beverage company.
Thermodynamic modelling of industrial buildings for a beverage producer to reduce heating/cooling costs and improve comfort.
Reducing the capital costs of replacing cold production systems in a food factory.
Development of a 5-year investment strategy in energy assets for a petrochemical platform.
Across an industrial site there are two types of energy consumption: the consumption linked to the process and that linked to the building. Not all industrial sites are alike: according to the type of activity, the consumption part of the process isn’t always the same, and the optimisation of the consumption of the building will be more or less interesting.
With certain industries, notably in the chemical, metallurgy and stationery sector, the process can represent 95% of the energetic expense of the site: it is so energy-intensive that the weight of the building’s and office’s consumptions become negligible.
With others in the luxury, packaging or mechanical construction industry, for instance, the weight of energy linked to industrial activity is more limited: up to 50% of the energetic expenditure of a site depends on the lighting, heating and eventually the air conditioning of the building and the offices.
To maximise the energetic performance of an industrial site at lower costs, a structured and systematic approach is needed.
1. Challenge the necessary energy needed to make the product and rethink the process
Are all stages of the flow process useful? Do they correspond to a product need? Could we imagine different technologies or another approach to the industrial process in order to diminish energy consumption?
Example of a chip production site: extract water by drying after the potato bleaching phase reduces the energy consumed during the frying process.
2. Recover all the possible heat and cold during the length of the process to maximise thermal integration
Does the heart of the industrial process produce heat or cold that are not yet being systematically recovered or valued?
Example of a Cognac production factory : reheat the wine which enters the still by using hot water coming from the cooling of alcohol vapors which exit the same still.
3. Optimise the production of utilities and the process equipment (furnace, dryer, shredder, laminator…)
The industrial process of a site employs utilities (vapor, hot water, cold water, compressed air, vacuum…) and the equipment which transforms the product. What can be replaced or adapted to reduce the energy consumption? Could a change in technology allow for the optimisation of energy efficiency in the process?
Example in a cheesemonger: replace an ancient 30 year old boiler with a new generation boiler with recovery systems for heat from fumes and micro-modulating burners and put into place a regulation system according to the outside temperature on cold groups (floating HP).
4. Rethink the exploitation conduct
To diminish the energy wastes, it is necessary to adapt the procedures, but also change individual behaviour. Controlling the energy consumption by logistics of supervision which then allow to measure the obtained results according to the fixed objectives, generate alerts, and install management rituals to correct the noted derivations.
Example in the chocolate industry: install a monitoring system of agitators on the chocolate shells to stop the constant agitation as soon as the chocolate is ready and involve the operators so they stop leaving automatic doors blocked in an open position between hot and cold areas.
5. Replace the energy consumed by renewable energy
If the geothermal is not possible in all regions, the production of heat by a cogeneration and biomass boiler is a foreseeable solution on the majority of industrial sites. The renewable electricity can come from a solar plants in self-consumption or from a supply contract of the PPA type.
Example in an important european telecom player : sign a PPA contract in order to supply ⅓ of its’ consumption in wind and solar energy for the assets located in the country.
6. Put into place measures of a management system for energy (eventually under the 1SO 50001 norm)
The management of energy in a company must lean on a process of continual improvement with fixed recurring objectives, an associated plan of action, the measure of results, the implementation of eventual corrective actions and the definition of the roles and responsibilities of each.
Example on a chemical site: the implementation of an ISO 50001 management system and its association with a solution of energy monitoring on the Significant Uses.
An energy challenge?
