19.02.2024
Source: Energy & Management Powernews
The waste heat specialist Orcan Energy is expanding its partnership with the building materials group Cemex: Cemex wants to use the Munich-based company's heat-to-power modules at its sites worldwide.
Since 2022, six heat-to-power modules from Orcan Energy have already been producing up to 8 million kWh of electricity per year at the Cemex cement plant in Rüdersdof near Berlin, which is used for the company's own requirements (we reported at the end of 2021). The modules convert the waste heat generated during cement production into electricity and help the Rüdersdorf plant to reduce its CO2 emissions by around 3,000 tons per year. The partners now want to expand their collaboration, as Orcan Energy announced on 15 February.
The collaboration, which has so far been limited to Rüdersdorf, is set to expand into a large-scale decarbonization partnership. The global building materials company Cemex wants to test Orcan Energy's waste heat modules at several locations and analyze their benefits. The detailed data collection at several sites simultaneously should enable the partners to implement Orcan Energy's modular applications efficiently and quickly on a large scale in the second phase of the collaboration.
Orcan Energy is headquartered in Munich and was founded in 2008 as a spin-off from the Technical University of Munich. According to its own information, the company has so far marketed 600 modules with more than 7 million operating hours internationally. It only recently announced that it was expanding its production capacity in Kiel due to high demand (we reported).
Sergio Menendez, President of Cemex Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia: "Thanks to its modular solution, Orcan offers us flexibility in terms of both installation and contracts. This flexibility allows us to respond to any upcoming changes in our plants. We can already reduce our CO2 emissions now without restricting ourselves in the implementation of future technologies, such as CO2 capture, utilization and storage."
In principle, the Orcan Energy modules - so-called ORC modules (Organic Rankine Cycle) - work like a steam power plant. Instead of water as the working medium, an organic, e.g. carbon-based liquid with a low evaporation temperature is used in the process. The liquid is heated using heat exchangers and fed to the ORC modules to generate electricity.
Decarbonization of the cement industry
The production of cement is considered to be particularly energy and CO2-intensive. During production, 30 to 60 percent of the energy is usually lost in the form of heat. The cement industry is therefore looking for ways to reduce CO2 emissions and utilize waste heat. Given the huge potential in this segment, waste heat solutions could generate a total of 82 billion kWh of electricity and save 36 million tons of CO2 worldwide every year, estimates Orcan Energy.
Modular waste heat recovery is one of the solutions for increasing energy efficiency. It can be used flexibly in various applications. For example, the heat-to-power modules can be placed on the preheater and / or the pawl cooler. According to Orcan Energy, both heat sources can be used in combination or separately. If the provision of waste heat changes over time, the modules can be used at other waste heat sources and locations. This flexibility should ensure that installing the modules is always profitable
Author: Davina Spohn
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