The Federal Environment Ministry is providing approximately 350,000 euro funding for an Interquell GmbH pilot project, based in Großaitingen in Bavaria, for the implementation of an innovative energy concept. In keeping with the spirit of the new energy era the company has established a new facility for steam generation that will reduce energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. Funds are being provided from the Environmental Innovation Programme.
Interquell GmbH manufactures products for the food industry and animal food stuff. The generation of steam is a vital part of the production process. The new facility will combine the generation of electricity and steam. The project will demonstrate, for the first time in Germany, how various technical components can be combined to enhance energy efficiency.
The facility can produce 1,463 megawatt hours of electricity and 2,963 megawatt hours of thermal energy annually. The annual fuel requirement of the steam boiler can be reduced by 3,500 megawatt hours to 23,300 megawatt hours by means of a CHP facility and optimising steam generation through use of an economizer, a heat value exchanger and flash steam. Primary energy demand would be reduced by a total of 2,789 megawatt hours and carbon dioxide emissions lowered by 700 tons.
An upstream micro gas turbine converts 33 percent of energy input into electricity. The remaining 67 percent is fed directly into the turbine’s waste gas burners as thermal energy in the form of hot exhaust air. The resulting decoupled heat can then be used to heat the production building through use of a downstream heat value exchanger.
Thus the Environmental Innovation Programme is supporting the first-time large-scale application of such an innovative technology. This project must extend beyond the state of the art in technologies and should have a demonstrative character. In principle, the Interquell GmbH project can be transferred to other companies such as launderettes, breweries, butcher’s shops or hospitals.