Reducing industrial energy consumption and emissions
Despite the growing number of proven ways for the industrial sector to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, such as the use of renewable energy, the recovery of waste heat and energy and the more efficient use and recycling of materials; many industrial processes have still no existing low emission alternative. These high-emitting industries require measures like carbon capture and storage to reduce emissions over the long term.
The challenge
In the industry significant amounts of energy are lost via the stack. Recovering said energy before it gets lost can both reduce the overall energy consumption of the plant and provide valuable energy sources for their further use. Waste heat recovery technologies make this possible.
Fortunately, there are many different methods for heat recovery. Choosing the appropriate one depends on criteria such as the quality, quantity and nature of the heat source. As an example, heat pumps are useful for heat recovery at low to medium temperature applications and in the food industry, where the potential sources of waste heat are mainly associated with heating and refrigeration systems, hot streams of water or air and heat from processing operations.
Our take – Global challenges require an experienced partner
GEA recently received an “A” grade -the highest possible- in the climate assessment published by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP). In addition, we are part of the MASCI Global Sustainability Index, with an “A” rating as well.
Energy recovery technology
By utilizing waste heat from industrial exhaust gases, we reduce the demand for external non-renewable energy sources. GEA’s energy recovery systems utilize Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) plants to convert recovered waste heat into usable energy outputs such as process heat, compressed air, district heating, or cooling air. This approach lowers customer carbon footprints, optimizes energy efficiency, and improves overall process economics.
Low energy and utility demand
GEA designs resource-efficient processes optimized for minimal energy consumption. Our plants are engineered for effective reagent utilization by targeting precise temperature windows, optimizing reactant distribution, and refining retention times using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling.
GEA has also advanced its RSP scrubber design into the LRS wet gas scrubber, which achieves higher pollutant removal efficiency while reducing operational expenditures (OPEX) by more than 20%.
Gas cleaning and CO2 separation.
Often, waste gases contain high levels of CO2 that can be separated and used within the chemical plants or to produce synthetic fuels. To successfully separate CO2 from the exhaust gas, the previous separation of additional critical disturbing substances is necessary. GEA provides with diverse effective solutions, like its fine gas cleaning plants, to remove pollutants from the waste gas and ready it for the CO2 separation process.
Proven technology provider with decades of success backing us.
Our unrivalled experience in the process industry is reflected in our more than 4,000 reference units for emission control installed around the globe and in our pioneering, we are the proud builders of the first ESP in Europe and strive every day to stay as one of the three top market leaders for the chemical industry in the world.
When Chemistry Works With Engineering
GEA is taking bold action helping manufacturers worldwide embrace more sustainable, less wasteful and more energy-efficient and cost-effective procedures and processes.
