At Saarstahl's Neunkirchen site, a new plant is to generate electricity from industrial process heat starting in fall 2023. The planned plant represents an investment of around 1.5 million euros and will further increase the energy efficiency of the rolling mill.
"With the new plant, we expect to be able to generate up to a maximum of 1,200 megawatt hours of electricity per year. In times when energy is scarce, we are thus reducing external energy requirements at the Neunkirchen site and contributing to the energy turnaround," says Dr. Klaus Richter, Chief Technology Officer at Saarstahl.
The new plant can efficiently use industrial waste heat generated in the rolling process and convert it into electricity and comprises an output of around 200 kilowatts. This electricity is then fed back into the plant's grid. For this, Saarstahl and the engineering company DeVeTec relied on a classic steam power process, the so-called ORC technology (Organic Rankine Cycle). The core of this cycle process is the DeVeTec piston expander. This was developed specifically for the effective conversion of heat into drive energy.
"DeVeTec manages to produce electricity from currently unused heat through its technology. As an associated company of Montan-Ventures-Saar, a subsidiary of Montan- Stiftung-Saar, we are pleased to be able to support the Saarstahl plant in Neunkirchen in its move to reduce external energy requirements," explains Dr. Stefan Keck, Managing Director of DeVeTec.
