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.
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.
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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 |