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ENERGIX-Stort program energi

Reduction of energy consumption and climate gas emissions in industrial textile laundry processes

Alternative title: CleanTex

Awarded: NOK 0.89 mill.

Project Number:

282364

Project Period:

2018 - 2020

Funding received from:

Nor Tekstil is a national laundry company with 17 laundries around Norway. Total annual energy demand is approximately 90 GWh corresponding to 3500 houses. Much of the energy is used for steam production for the washing and drying processes. Excess heat from these sub-processes are today lost to the surroundings through excess steam. By replacing some of the fossil fuel steam boilers with high temperature heat pumps, the greenhouse gas emissions are reduced considerably in addition to reduced energy use by utilization of surplus heat internally in the processes. The project will develop a novel energy recovery system for the industrial textile laundry processes and demonstrate the concept by implementing a prototype of the steam compression system at Nor Tekstil in Trondheim. CleanTex is an innovation project for the industry with funding from the Research Council of Norway in 2018. The project is co-financed with Nor Tekstil AS, EPCON Evaporation Technology AS and Stenor AS, and the research partners are SINTEF and NTNU. The project is planned terminated in 2021 and will be led by SINTEF and Nor Tekstil will be project responsible. During the first period of the project measurements have been performed to map the different waste heat potentials and the quality of the surplus heat. The results show an absolute relative humidity of the air of 25%, which is far less than expect at the beginning of the project. Due to small amount of humidity in the air, direct compression of the air is thus, unprofitable both technically and financial. It is recommended to use the excess heat from the drying process to be uprated and utilized with a high temperature heat pump (HTHP). The investment of a HTHP is higher compared to MVR systems and the payback time is thus longer. The reduction in energy consumption is calculated to be 1GWh/year, which is 15% of the energy use of the boiler. Other energy saving measures could be preheating of the feed water and reducing the operating pressure of the boiler from 10 to 4 bar. The total energy saving potential is estimated to be 1.3 GWh/year and a cost reduction of 532 kNOK. Even though several energy saving concepts were presented, Nor Tekstil decided to end the project, based on too high investment cost for the alternative solutions. Nevertheless, the project has helped Nor Tekstil to thoroughly investigate their energy use on a component level, and several smaller actions may be made in the future.

Til tross for at prosjektet er avsluttet etter kartleggings- og evalueringfasen, er det gjennomført et grundig kartleggingsprogram som har gitt bedre innsikt i hvilke muligheter og begrensninger som ligger til grunn for effektive energireduserende tiltak i industrivaskerier. Det er i prosjektet identifisert flere mulige tiltak for å få mer effektiv utnyttelse av spillvarme, bruk av varmepumpeteknologi, og andre tiltak for redusert energibruk og miljøpåvirkning. Det er lagt vekt på at tiltakene må tilpasses du ulike vaskeriene når det gjelder prosessutstyr.Prosjektet har også vist at det er nødvendig å ta høyde for potensielle fremtidige endringer i prosesser som vil kunne endre behovet for energimengde, prosesstemperaturer og bruk av ulike energibærere.Prosjektet har medført nettverksbygging mellom forskningsinstitusjoner (SINTEF, NTNU) og industripartnere (Nor Tekstil AS,Stenor AS og Epcon Evaporation AS) som vil være til nytte ved gjennomføring av eventuelle fremtidige tiltak.

The main aim of CleanTex is to develop a concept for a climate neutral laundry facility in which fossil fuel based energy carriers are replaced by energy and cost efficient heat pump technology. CleanTex shall validate the technical feasibility of mechanical vapour turbo-compression from the excess heat available at Nor Tekstil and enable industrial roll out by 2020. The potential of CleanTex is to reduce the climate gas emissions of more than 14 000 tons CO2 and reduce specific energy consumption by 50-60%. Nor Tekstil is a leading national laundry company. Today, primarily fossil boilers are used to produce the steam required in the textile processing. Surplus heat from the textile drying is available, but at temperature and pressure levels that makes it difficult to utilize directly for textile processing. The aim of the project is to evaluate and verify an efficient heat pump system for replacement of the fossil boilers, reducing both the energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions of the textile processes. The energy saving potential is estimated to 50-60%. By reaching this potential Nor Tekstil would become the most climate friendly and efficient laundry in Europe. The technology can be transferred to similar processes in other industries. Nor Tekstil is continuously modernizing their facilities, offering the possibility to implement climate friendly technology at other locations in the following years. The consortium consists of leading R&D expertise, provided by SINTEF and NTNU, as well as supply industry, EPCON Evaporation Technology, ensuring technology transfer. CleanTex answers to the ENERGIX call on "energy use and conversion" in the industry and focuses on "more energy efficient production methods and processes" as well as "solutions for increased utilization and upgrading of excess heat, including cooling and heating methods".

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Funding scheme:

ENERGIX-Stort program energi