The project began in 2017, when an excellent opportunity for collaboration between two industrial clients was detected with the possibilities for energy savings and improvement in sustainability. The availability of thermal energy was present at one plant and high demand for steam at the other plant. An additional advantage is that both facilities are adjacent to each other in the city of Burgos.
The project began with basic engineering and a feasibility study where all the energy variables were analyzed for a 10-year time horizon, including variables such as steam demand, hot flue gas availability (flow and temperature) and furnace aging rate. Subsequently, the profitability was analyzed taking into account the investment cost, savings in gas consumption, future auxiliary consumption of the installation and maintenance costs.

The technical solution proposed was the installation of a boiler to recover heat from the hot fumes of the two glass melting furnaces downstream of the electrostatic precipitator. The steam generation rate of the boiler is 6.5 Ton/h at 10 bar(g) for a power of 4.5 MW. The feed water is sent to the boiler from the brewery’s thermal degasser located at the boiler house, over a distance of more than 350 meters over the roofs of the brewery. The saturated steam is then returned to the main steam header in the brewery boiler house.

Finally, following the award of the turnkey project in 2019, the detailed engineering and fabrication of the recovery boiler began.

AITESA scope included civil works, mechanical installation of the boiler and all its support structure, complete piping, pumping system, and the implementation of the complete control system that allows the fully automatic and safe operation and regulation of the whole installation. The impact of the Covid-19 restrictions affected the progress of the works, and the closure of factories casued delays in material supplies. However, through determination, team work and excellent communication the plant entered the testing phase in August 2020 with start-up in September of the same year.

After more than 3 years of operation, the results of the project could not be more positive. The boiler has availability values close to 100%, the result of a solid and robust design and control system, and good operation and maintenance.

As a result, expectations have been exceeded both in terms of savings in natural gas consumption and CO2 emissions, by more than 13% above the forecast, up to a total of 65%, for the brewery, and a reduction of almost 200ºC in the temperature of gases in the chimney at the glass factory. These figures are even more significant if we take into account the situation resulting from the war in Ukraine and its impact on the price of gas and energy.