“The system takes waste heat from the paper mill's cogeneration installation at 85-90°C, and recovers it to generate steam at 165°C”
TECNALIA is working with the Italian paper manufacturer Cartiere di Guarcino, manufacturers BS Nova and Cannon Bono Energia and TU Berlin to demonstrate a new system based on an absorption heat transformer for generating steam in industry.
Improving energy efficiency by recovering waste heat is key to decarbonising industry. More specifically, high-temperature heat pump technologies have been identified as having great potential for use in the food, paper, chemical and pharmaceutical industries.
Demonstrator at a paper mill in Italy
TECNALIA is part of a collaboration working on developing heat recovery technologies that respond to the needs of these industrial sectors, particularly steam generation, within the framework of the Push2Heat initiative.
Consequently, TECNALIA is responsible for the demonstrator which is running at the Cartiere di Guarcino paper mill in Italy. Once the plant requirements had been analysed and defined, work continued on the planning and engineering phase, leading to the manufacture of the absorption heat transformer (AHT) and the steam generation module (SGM).
The use of steam is widespread in many industrial processes. It is used in a variety of sectors and for a variety of purposes. The development of heat upgrade technologies (HUT) that can generate steam may contribute to the decarbonisation of industry.
Combination of an absorption heat pump and a steam generation system
The demonstrator combines absorption heat pump technology with a steam generation system.
- The system takes waste heat from the paper mill's cogeneration installation at 85-90ºC, and recovers it to generate steam at 165ºC.
- The advantage of the absorption heat transformer is that it is a thermally driven heat pump, so electricity consumption is extremely low. This is of interest when we have large amounts of waste heat at medium temperature, and a need for recovered heat at higher temperatures.
The equipment developed was transported to Italy, integrated into the plant and is currently being commissioned, coordinated between the technology partners, the engineering team and the plant itself.
The first performance tests will be carried out once the commissioning process is complete.
