Page 10 - European Energy Innovation - autumn 2017 publication
P. 10
10 Autumn 2017 European Energy Innovation
COMMUNICATION
REEMAIN project, paving the way to
sustainable manufacturing of biscuits,
denim fabric and cast iron parts
By Anibal Reñones, REEMAIN project coordinator (pictured)
REEMAIN is an FP7 project about resource and and may affect the final product. Factories use to prefer a
energy efficiency solutions for factories. We have simpler (although more inefficient) 24x7 electricity-based
designed and tested during the last 4 years cooling water system rather than a more complex system
several innovative solutions in 3 different factories capable of taking advantage of the outside renewable cool
(cookies, textile and foundry) to prove that production air. The appropriate control of this energy technology is
can remain efficient and sustainable, while cutting energy key. In the textile factory, we tested the impact of organic
bill and CO2 emissions. We intended to reach these goals raw materials on the production processes and the use of
through waste energy recovery, production optimisation carbonic acid instead of sulphuric acid for the wastewater
and integration of renewables. Along the project, factory treatment. The key here was achieving higher levels of
owners faced energy efficiency improvement in a new way. sustainability and reduction of environmental footprint,
Usually, companies buy solutions. In REEMAIN we made without compromising quality and energy spent.
the factories the main characters, collaborating with them,
exploring the options for efficiency, helping them choosing One of the most challenging objective was the integration
the best solution and then making an evaluation without of renewables. Due to high costs, poor ROI and self-
bias. One example of tested technologies can be found consumption legal uncertainties, we did not integrate
in the biscuit factory where we took advantage of outside renewable electricity into factories. It i s more a market
cool air and save an enormous amount of electricity used constraint than a failure. Indeed, from the technical point
for water-cooling. Airside Free-cooling is a well-known of view, direct integration of small-medium shares of
technology for buildings but their usage into a factory is renewable electricity into a factory is quite simple, but
challenging because the temperature limits are very strict lot needs to be done at political level to foster the wide
adoption of renewables in the manufacturing sector.
Another challenge was to recover heat from the cupola
furnace in the Foundry factory. The high variations of
temperature and the harsh environment created by the
exhaust fumes put a lot of pressure on the heat exchanger
materials and on the control needed to recover as much as
possible waste heat. Current foundries need to waste a lot
of energy to cool down the exhaust fumes of their furnaces.
Hence, when the exchanger technology is mature it will have
a huge impact on these industries.
Among the different solutions created, we are particularly
proud of the simulation tool software that relies on
information such the technical description of the factories
including the envelope and how the different machines are
interconnected and create their products (cookies, metal
pieces or cool denim fabric in REEMAIN). The tool also
relies on data about production history and energy use.
With this information, the tool analyzes the working profiles
and gives the manager a preliminary advice where to save
energy and resources. Having identified these efficiency
spots and taking advantage of a digital model of the factory,
one can simulate different solutions, like a PV solar roof.
The simulations provide its optimal size so it covers enough
electricity demand and have an appropriate ROI. In this
case the tool informs about the percentage of renewable
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