Energy Integration of Domsjö Biorefinery Cluster - Summary

Within the Domsjö Biorefinery cluster in Örnsköldsvik, all the industries are cooperating regarding energy. The cluster consists of one wood pulp production facility, two bio-chemical facilities and one energy facility.

In this study, we have analysed how efficient the steam is used within the industries. Are steam of right pressure and temperature used for the right purposes? To what extent could steam be replaced by district heating? And, how big is the potential to use simultaneous heat and cold demand for energy integration? The method for energy analysis was “pinch analysis”.

It is found that steam of 7 bar(g) and 170 °C is used to supply a major part of the heat demand, sometimes even heat demands of low temperatures. Such demands would be more efficient to supply by district heating. Alternatively, a new utility with temperatures 40/120 °C could be introduced, either within the total site, or only within the biggest of the industries. The practical heat recovery potential is about 15 MW for the total site, and about 10 MW at the biggest of the industries.

For all alternatives, steam capacity is released, which for example could be used for increased industrial production without investments in new steam boilers. Alternatively, the released capacity could be used to completely (or partially) offset the steam requirements of a new process plant at the Domsjö site.

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