The European Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Bureau has now issued the latest in its series of guidance documents to improve environmental performance in energy and resource-intensive EU industry.

The draft BREF on energy efficiency techniques provides cross-sectoral generic guidance on how to approach, assess, implement and deal with energy related issues and to promote energy efficiency in industrial installations.

The issue of the BREF is a reflection of the increasing level of concern and urgency now being felt throughout Europe in the context of climate change, greenhouse gas emissions, rising energy prices and security of supply.

The BREF was prepared in response to a specific request from the European Commission with regard to the implementation of the European Climate Change Programme (ECCP) concerning energy efficiency in industrial installations.

The challenge for the technical working group (TWG) which has prepared the BREF, in common with the TWGs working separately on other sector-specific BREFs, is how to stay abreast of the latest technological developments – now seen as key to driving through energy efficiency improvements in manufacturing industry.

The BREF makes no claims to being an all-encompassing document and invites further comments and suggestions to be sent to the EIPPCB.

In this context the TWG responsible for its preparation should give serious consideration to the inclusion of a relatively recent technology which is already in commercial use in the sectors addressed by the BREF which is delivering demonstrable savings, and average reductions of fivepercent in fuel use and corresponding reductions in carbon dioxide emissions.

Fuel+ is an innovative new technology which pre-treats fuel (gas and oil) prior to combustion, thereby achieving increased fuel efficiency, a cleaner burn and reductions in carbon dioxide emissions.

Fuel savings

Manufacturer Maxsys guarantees minimum fuel savings of at least fivepercent to its
end-users – if these are not achieved all monies paid to Maxsys are returned and the plant returned to its original configuration. The technology can be applied to a wide range of plant units including boilers, kilns, furnaces, ovens and drying plants. A growing number of companies from a wide range of industrial sectors – automotive, brewing, chemicals, dairy, food and drink, insulation, maltings, minerals, NHS, packaging, paper, pharmaceuticals, textiles to mention just a few, are now incorporating it into their production plant.

Improved combustion

Fuel+ is a magnetic fuel treatment system that improves combustion by applying a finely calibrated magnetic field directly on the fuel. The unit is installed directly into gas or oil fuel lines and can be installed either horizontally or vertically into the existing pipework.

With no moving parts and no electrical supply requirement, the design and high standard of engineering guarantees optimum long term reliability.

The technology can be used with high or low-pressure fuel supplies. In the case of heavy fuel oils, the system are designed and manufactured to withstand temperatures up to 140°C.

The system was patented in 2003 and full commercial roll out started soon after - which may explain why its application has not yet been taken up by the authors of the BREF.

Installation verification

Verification of each Fuel+ installation is carried out by ABB, a leader in energy management, to produce a protocol that describes the proposed method of measurement to quantify any change in the performance of the plant after the Fuel+ systems are installed. ABB then compares the performance of the plant pre- and post-installation and produce an independent report documenting and quantifying the change in performance.

The need for monitoring and measurement, identified by the BREF as a key issue, lies at the heart of the ability to demonstrate the effectiveness

Maxsys md Barry Singh takes the view that the final version of the BREF should be considerably expanded to include the most up-to-date information available to enable as many industrial sectors as possible to take advantage of the latest technological innovations.

“Companies across manufacturing industry are now looking at annual energy bills of six figures or more. The price of energy throughout the EU is set to rise even further and industry is facing continuing demands to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The more information that the EU can get into the hands of companies about technology that can make a real diifference to their energy use the better,” he said.

As it stands, however, unlike the industry-specific BREFS which have already been issued, energy efficiency techniques does not at this stage contain a section which is specifically dedicated to emerging techniques. This appears to be an overlooked opportunity.

While the individual industry BREFs understandably do not replicate the same information about potentially invaluable new technologies which can be applied to their individual processes, this latest BREF provides the mechanism to bring it together in one place and highlight these emerging new technologies focused on improving energy efficiency to the widest possible audience.

This is not, however, intended to denigrate the BREF which already contains an immense amount of practical, hands-on technical information to make useful reading for any process engineer in energy-intensive sectors looking to improve energy use, reduce costs and cut carbon dioxide emissions in the process.

To give some idea of its scope, it specifically covers industrial sectors which use or produce energy and applies generic techniques which are possible to transfer or apply to other sectors. It is an extensive document which takes a detailed look at issues which take in the basics of energy efficiency and thermodynamics, relevant definitions of energy efficiency and factors which influence it, energy management in industrial installations and, last but not least, generic energy producing and using systems and energy saving techniques which can be applied to them.

It is this latter section which is likely to be of particular interest to a wide range of energy-intensive industrial sectors.

The BREF’s basic approach is to describe different strategies to improve energy efficiency in these systems – including combustion, steam systems, power production, cogeneration, heat recovery, drying systems and process control systems, to mention just a few (many of which stand to benefit from incorporation of the Fuel+ system).

To take just one example, it looks in some depth at combustion processes (excluding large combustion plants of 50MW + thermal power) covers both flame combustions (using a burner) and combustion in a fluidised bed.

An improvement in the energy efficiency of a combustion installation which induces a reduction of the fuel consumption also has a benefit in carbon dioxide emissions.

It also takes a similarly detailed look at steam systems – steam being the most used heat transport medium in industry owing to its non-toxic nature, stability, low costs and high heat capacity.

Thermal efficiency

Although all modern steam boilers/generators are capable of converting fuel energy input to steam with efficiencies in the region of 80percent, the average thermal efficiency of steam generation for all fuel types is 74.2percent. The BREF describes both processes in detail and refers to both steam-side and combustion side measures that can be made.

Hopefully by the time the final guidance is issued it will have also been updated to include new technologies such as the Maxsys system (www.maxsysltd.com) that will have a significant and positive impact on both energy efficiency and CO2 emissions.

Elaine Coles is Head of Research at IMS Consulting and writes regularly on environment and energy-related industrial issues.

Readers who want to obtain the draft BREF should follow the following link to the EIPPCB website www.eippcb.jrc.es and click on ‘activities’.