How our Hindlow plant maximizes energy efficiency with Combined Heat and Power (CHP)

In our Hindlow plant in the UK, we have installed a combined heat and power (CHP) system to generate electricity from natural gas in a sustainable and efficient fashion.  It eliminates energy losses during transportation of electricity over the grid and recycles the waste heat generated during the production process. 

Our aim with CHP is to minimize efficiency losses in our power supply in two areas.

1. CHP eliminates energy losses during transportation of electricity over the grid, by installing the generator onsite
2. It recuperates efficiency usually lost as waste heat by utilizing it in the production process

This type of project is currently underway at our Hindlow plant in the UK. There we installed a 2 MW power generator, which supplies electricity to both our own plant and up to 1 MW to the grid.

We are now commissioning the integration of the bespoke heat recovery system into our production plant. This will allow us to use the waste heat from the power generator in the drying process for our Sorbacal® product —something we would otherwise need to burn natural gas for without the added benefit of producing electricity.  

Through the UK implementation of this system, a lot has been learnt increasing our expertise for similar projects within Lhoist. CHP is currently under consideration as a possible technology for on-site generation in other operations and a similar project was installed in our Rheine plant in Germany.