Hannover – Germany, January 2017 – What do casein and whey have to do with Energy? In 2017, quite a bit actually: Two major exhibitors at the Hannover Messe 2017 (April 24-28) are presenting a leading manufacturer of milk and whey-based products as a paradigm for the industrial use of trigeneration. Using trigeneration, electricity, heat and cold can be generated in a combined, highly efficient process.

A detailed example: For a fully automated, modern filtration plant and a drum dryer, electricity and warm water, along with steam with an output of 780 kg/h at 11 bars and a cooling capacity of 450 KW at a flow temperature of 6 degrees C are needed for this complex manufacturing process. The block heat and power plant manufacturer 2G Energy AG was given the order to coordinate this process as economically, safely and optimally as possible. The design of a trigeneration installation was adapted around a block heat and power plant with an electric capacity of approx. 1.500 kW. In addition to the block heat and power plant, central components included an exhaust gas fired steam generator, a warm water generator with a 950 kW capacity, a hot water tank with a 100 cbm volume, and last but not least a sorption-chilling plant from Johnson Controls.

Ulrich Brinkmann, Branch Manager HVAC Deutschland at Johnson Controls Systems & Service GmbH in Essen, not only sees major, untapped potential to increase efficiency in the food industry. "Trigeneration solutions provide commercial advantages whenever high power consumption is present alongside a similarly high cooling load in year-round operation. These advantages increase analogous to the uptime of the plant. This also applies to many other operational areas such as data processing centers."

According to Dr Klaus Ramming of Kulmbacher AGO AG sorption-chilling machines start paying off after 7,000 hours of operation. At a panel talk at Energy 2016 Ramming stated that when making an investment decision, waste heat recovery is more important than saving money on primary energy sources. "A company that can economically use its waste heat should do so. Industrial companies that don’t use their heat directly should seriously consider sorption-chilling machines." In Ramming’s opinion, trigeneration is cost-effective for operations that require 150 kW cooling capacity or more.

At the Integrated Energy Plaza industrial heat use is showcased as a part of the future energy system; the technologies used are demonstrated at the neighboring group pavilion Decentralised Energy Supply. Providers of CHP plant technology (combined heat and power plants, gas and steam turbines), sorption-chilling machines, and virtual power plants, along with installation using waste heat (e.g., ORC) are exhibiting here.

Software and the expertise to deal efficiently with power and heat can also be found in Hall 27. At the Energy Efficiency Center visitors can learn about ways to save using efficiency technologies and services as well as best-practice examples. Energy related advisory services, contracting, building services engineering (cooling, thermal environments, ventilation, lighting), power management, and resource efficiency are issues at the expert forum which is organized by DENEFF, VDI Zentrum Ressourceneffizienz, KEA Baden-Württemberg and the Business Angels Netzwerk Deutschland. Consultants, and service and technology providers demonstrate how energy efficiency can reduce costs, energy can be purchased inexpensively, and efficiency leveraged. Visitors will connect with companies such as econ solutions, ifu Hamburg, and Averem Verfahrenstechnik.