Holcim Technology Won the ENER.CON EUROPE Award 2015

On the occasion of the 4th ener.CON Europe 2015, the leading networking conference on energy efficiency for asset intensive industries, we.CONECT bestowed the renowned ener.CON Europe award. The prize honors projects that achieved outstanding performances in energy efficiency.

CEJN AB / Sweden won the third prize. The second place was awarded to Genzyme Sanofi / USA. The winners of the evening were Holcim Technology Ltd and the charity organization ‘HELP - Hilfe zur Selbsthilfe’ to which the prize money of € 2,000 was donated.

On March 19 - 20, 2015, more than 80 energy experts, operations managers and facility directors gathered at the 4th ener.CON Europe 2015 and formed Europe’s leading energy efficiency community. In interactive sessions they discussed challenges, opportunities and ways to make their production more energy efficient. The annual ener.CON 2015 award ceremony took place on the eve of the first conference day on the March, 19 in the MOA Hotel Berlin.

Malte Homann, Global Energy Excellence Manager at Bayer Material Science AG / Germany guided through the evening. The European award is given for unique energy-efficient projects and innovations in asset intensive industries. Experts from Bayer Material Science, SCA Hygiene Products and LyondellBasell formed this year´s jury that evaluated and nominated all submitted projects following these criteria: innovation, simplicity, achievement, maturity, cost effectiveness, sustainability and reputation.

The project FANi - Fan Efficiency Initiative from Holcim Technology Ltd / Switzerland was presented by Markus Rufle and won the first prize. Dr. Steven Driver from Genzyme Sanofi / USA was happy to receive the second prize for the project Genzyme Gas Fired Boiler Burner. The third price went to CEJN / Sweden for their eSafe coupling, presented by Peter Damgren.

The winner of the ener.CON EUROPE Award 2015 is Holcim Technology Ltd / Switzerland with the project FANi - Fan Efficiency Initiative. Having started in 2013, the projects aim was to improve the efficiency of fans as key machineries that consumed about 30 to 50 % of the electrical energy used in cement plants. A R&D project was launched to develop a portable gas flow sensor and a low-cost fan assessment and on-line monitoring tool-set. Pilot application testing end of 2013 revealed a huge power saving potential of large fans.

A global fan initiative (FANi) was developed with the goal to generate benefits of more than 10 million CHF per year. A core team of 3 men developed a roll-out procedure, 8 regional workshops with more than 150 participants have been executed and 412 fans have been assessed worldwide. In the end the savings have exceeded the expectations. Markus Rufle, Electrical Energy Engineer, and Urs Herzog, Power Solutions & New Technologies Assistant Vice-President, received the prize and thanked the entire Holcim team for their hard work.

The second place went to Genzyme Sanofi / USA for its Genzyme Gas Fired Boiler Burner project. To reduce Genzyme’s carbon footprint, a steam boiler gas fired burner project was completed using new Lipsfield technology. Two 800HP boilers operated with standard burners and control linkages (approx. 7 years old) were retrofit with the new technology. Installation of new high efficiency low O2 burners resulted in a carbon emissions reduction of 1800 metric tons (MTCO2) of carbon per year.

After implementation, the annual natural gas savings result was 25 % and 250,000 therms with a cost savings of $182,000. The five year net present value for this project is $550,000 with an internal rate of return (IRR) of 200 %. The project savings was confirmed by installing inline gas meters, taking hourly readings, measuring steam output, condensate flow and temperature.

The return on investment was 6 months validated by a Professional Registered Engineer. The project will save 9000 MTCO2 over the next 5 years equivalent to planting 204,071 trees. Dr. Steven Driver, Energy Director and Global Engineering, was happy to receive this prize and thanked his colleague Timothy Rossini, the manager of this project at Genzyme.

CEJN AB / Sweden, worldwide key-player in phosphate-based products and production, received the third place for their eSafe project that had started in 2010. The cost of compressed air is high and is increasing every day - almost 30 % of the compressed air produced by a company goes to waste.

CEJNs project aimed to produce an innovative coupling with minimum energy loss in order to use compressed air in the most efficient way. Increasing the flow and reducing the pressure drop in the coupling were the main challenges. CAD based flow calculation programs were used to find flow limitations. The project leader Peter Damgren proofs that it is possible to combine top class performance and reduction of the carbon footprint.

The prize money of € 2,000 was donated to HELP, a German non-governmental relief organization which provides humanitarian assistance for refugees, regardless of race, creed or nationality. The organization’s overall policy is “help to self-help” in order to empowering people to improve their environment self-propelling.

The ener.CON EUROPE 2015 event offered more than 20 case studies, world cafés and interactive sessions. Discussions and presentations on topics like technical feasibility, technical developments & solutions, energy efficiency planning, design, total asset management in total plant asset management for energy conscious organizations has surpassed the expectations of more than 80 attendees.

Picture will be available for download starting March 23: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/5vfp4710i6bbpyt/AACsZHE8p4yU1RTV3CJjSQYaa?dl=0.