Customer case:

Energy savings through vacuum system improvement

Aug 19, 2015

The Burgo Verzuolo mill in Italy was able to radically improve the energy efficiency and controllability of the vacuum system in a rebuild of its PM 9.

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Vacuum system optimization detects energy efficiency losses

The main weakness of a traditionally designed liquid ring pump (LRP) vacuum system is its poor energy efficiency under varying operating conditions.

When Burgo Verzuolo mill decided to improve the runnability of PM 9 and ensure the potential for energy savings, Valmet’s team carried out several process improvement studies, including a vacuum system energy efficiency survey. The air flows were measured and the system efficiency losses were estimated to be over 1 MW.

Based on the results, the mill decided to rebuild PM 9, and the vacuum system improvement was implemented in two phases: first by modifying the existing vacuum controls and pump connections and secondly by applying new variable speed drives in the vacuum system. The existing LRP system of PM 9 was modified with Valmet’s new vacuum system concept during a two-day shutdown.

 

Read the whole article:

Energy savings through a new vacuum system concept

Satisfied start-up group after the successful vacuum system improvement.

Summary

Location Verzuolo, Italy
Customer target Improve the runnability of the machine and ascertain the potential for energy savings.
Solution Burgo Verzuolo and Valmet signed a cooperation agreement including several process improvement studies. The mill decided to rebuild PM 9’s vacuum system in two stages.
Results Energy savings of 775 kW were immediately achieved and the potential overall savings after the optimization were estimated to be over 1 MW.
Keywords Board and paper, Europe, Improvements, Rebuild