Intergen has started up operation of a natural gas cogeneration plant for the production process of a plant for the production of steel and steel by-product semi-finished products, located in the province of Lecco

The plant is based on a MWM TCG 2020V16 1560 kWe cogeneration unit installed in a container for outdoors equipped with a heat recovery system for the production of steam and hot water. The cogenerator works with a total efficiency of 87% in transforming primary energy, i.e. natural gas, with 43.2% output as electricity and 43.8% as heat output from the engine.
The self-produced electricity is entirely used in the plant. In Intergen’s “custom” philosophy, the technological solution was optimised for the specific use of the customer’s heat carriers and is perfectly integrated into the production process. The heat recovered from the cylinder jackets, for 770 kWt, is used to heat the hot water circuit to 90 degrees which is used to maintain the temperature in the tanks where processing is performed on the steel semi-finished products.
800 kWt of energy is recovered from the fumes which supplies a high efficiency boiler that generates steam at 120 degrees at the pressure of one bar. The steam is used for thermal treatments of the semi-finished products.

Once again the system installation solution is perfectly integrated with the existing plant, optimising space and dimensions with customised technical solutions. From a design standpoint all of the spaces around the system have been enhanced to make them easily accessible and usable for operating and maintenance operations. In addition, specific “space saving” solutions have been adopted to meet the customers requests who asked to reduce the system overall dimensions on the ground as much as possible. The recovery of heat for the production of steam has been housed on the weight bearing structure of the container, as have the free standing radiators which are positioned on dedicated shelves.
All of the electrical and thermal parameters are monitored and measured for a continuous control of the high efficiency cogeneration status, which lets the customer access the dedicated incentive program through the energy efficiency tags (White Certificates).

The cogeneration plant permits an important reduction in energy supply costs thanks to the self-production and consumption of electricity equal to approximately 11 GWhe per year. In addition the heat recovery as hot water and steam makes thermal energy available that was previously produced with separate equipment. The high overall efficiency of the system results in an energy saving amounting to 50% letting the customer be less dependent on fluctuations in the electricity market and considerably improving its environmental sustainability thanks to the consequent reduction of CO2.