More air, more savings for ZF shock absorbers – thanks to heat recovery
An inefficient compressed air station and plenty of untapped energy – reason enough therefore for Manuel Baumgarten of ZF Friedrichshafen in Eitorf to replace his old compressed air system. A little patience and a tailor-made solution from KAESER helped him to cut costs and make good use of recovered process heat.
You can't get more efficient than that. The printouts meticulously affixed to the boiler of the KAESER air centre speak for themselves. They were placed there personally by Manuel Baumgarten, the head of maintenance at the Eitorf plant, where ZF Friedrichshafen AG manufactures shock absorbers. No one who enters the room can overlook the detailed data proving the system's efficiency and cost-effectiveness – or the pictures of how things looked here before the yellow and black KAESER equipment was installed. It is soon quite clear that the system is Baumgarten's baby.
In 2010 this space – packed with outdated compressed air equipment –
looked more like the engine room of a Mississippi steamer. It was a hotchpotch of mismatched components, added piecemeal over a 35-year period. The machinery was still serving its purpose, but Baumgarten knew that it had to go. It was obsolete and enormously wasteful. But how does one go about convincing management to invest an estimated six-figure sum? The only way: make sure it will pay for itself.
It was so loud that you had to shout to be heard. And it was hot. Even in winter you couldn't stand it in here for long.
Whatever happens – no downtime!
In Eitorf, 30,000 shock absorbers per day and 7 million per year are churned out by three production lines that never stop running – not even at night. They grind to a halt at weekends, but roar back to life on Sunday evening. As a result, the costs for any downtime add up very quickly. Production manager Andreas Adolphs wasn't the only one to harbour doubts: Could the compressor really be replaced during normal plant operations? But there was no other alternative to this calculated risk – unless one wished to carry on as before.
But who would be up to the challenge?
After the decision was made to replace the system, it was time to find a service provider with the necessary skills and experience. A perfect job for KAESER.
Norbert Hages, a technical consultant with KAESER in Bochum, rose to the occasion. After exploratory meetings and consultations with Baumgarten, Hages mapped out the reasons that set KAESER apart from the competition and offered clear benefits to the customer.
The SIGMA AIR UTILITY operator model that he offered had the flexibility and risk control so urgently needed by ZF Friedrichshafen AG. In addition, the proposal ensured a secure supply and minimal downtime. “That was a good start,” recalls the KAESER engineer. But the customer wanted more. Was there perhaps a way of harnessing the exhaust heat? Norbert Hages gave the matter some thought.
Heat recovery – energy for nothing
The KAESER proposal was a hit. Heat recovery is not only good for the environment; the economic benefits also shouldn't be underestimated. But would the process heat be sufficient to maintain Baumgarten's target temperature of 60°C in the shock absorber cleaning bath?
An idea this good simply had to be implemented. But that would require a decision.
A complete overhaul – with no downtime.
And finally, the call from Eitorf: “Mr Hages, we want to do this project with KAESER.”
But simply dismantling and installing the compressed air equipment would not be enough. The entire room was gutted and refurbished from the ground up.
Five compressors and four refrigeration dryers were installed. Hoses and stainless steel pipes were laid to carry the hot water to the cleaning bath. A specialised firm was brought to perform the hydraulic balancing, calibrate the pump and temperature sensors, and optimise the heat meter.
A control unit and a three-way valve were installed to keep the temperature in the cleaning bath at a constant 60°C. And in case of problems with the hot water supply, the gas heating system would be at the ready. That was the plan.
After installation, it all worked perfectly – with just one hitch: the heat recovery performance was not quite up to scratch. Manuel Baumgarten and Norbert Hages were disappointed. Instead of meeting the maximum expected recovery quota of 76% of the electrical energy input, just 45% was reusable. Nothing new turned up even after taking measurements over an extended period. Regardless of the system settings or fine tuning, the performance showed no improvement. Were the results perhaps inaccurate? And if so, why?
Error spotted – and eliminated
After a few weeks of wondering what to do, the eureka moment arrived. The measurements were being taken next to a bend in a pipe where hot water was mixing with cold. This was causing disruptive turbulence in the flow that was falsifying the readings. The troubleshooting mission was accomplished! “You never stop learning,” says Norbert Hages. “It's not enough just to install a system. All of our installations are tailor-made solutions. Excellent results cannot be had off the rack.”
The hard work paid off.
Now the measurements are showing the right results, and the system is achieving an optimal level of heat recovery. “That is very respectable,” says Mr Hages. And Baumgarten – who wears a manager's hat along with that of an engineer – is delighted: “We're saving €114,000 a year on our energy bills, simply because the system is so efficient. On top of that, we gain €34,000 from heat recovery. That's enough to heat 40 one-family homes for a whole year. Plus €25,000 in maintenance costs. Although the compressors are restarted half an hour earlier on Sunday evenings to pre-heat the cleaning bath, ZF is saving a substantial sum through this measure alone.
No less impressive are the savings in CO2 emissions. Assuming a conversion factor of approx. 1,667 KWh per ton of CO2, the electric power savings (760,000 KWh) combined with the process heat recovery (960 000,KWh) represent an annual reduction of about 1,000 tons of CO2 emissions.
That is an exemplary achievement. The investments have long since been fully amortised – a fact of which Manuel Baumgarten is justly proud, not least of all because it was a sophisticated and challenging project that required considerable staying power from all concerned. “Five years! Quite a few compressed air suppliers would certainly have jumped ship,” concludes “Mr. Contracting”, as Baumgarten is sometimes respectfully known in the plant. And then he smiles: “But we never gave up. Luckily for us – and for KAESER.”
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More air, more savings for ZF shock absorbers