INTERGEN: new cogeneration plant for Rovagnati connected with Acsm Agam district heating in Monza
Lomagna – June 2017 – Rovagnati, the historic Italian leader for the production of high quality deli meats, selected Intergen, the energy division of IML Group, in 2014 to make his Biassono plant energy efficient. Two high performance cogeneration plants were installed within its production site. They are equipped with natural gas fueled (MWM) Motoren Werke Mannheim engines each able to generate 600 kWe of electricity.
Following the excellent performance obtained from the installed plants, Rovagnati renewed its confidence in Intergen and entrusted the company with the construction of an important efficiency project at the Villasanta (MB) plant which also involved the Acsm Agam group, the district heating operator of Monza.
After a careful analysis of the plant’s consumption and the district heating needs, Intergen installed a plant equipped with two MWM natural gas fueled engines, model TCG2020V12 (500 NOx), which each generate 1200 kWe of electricity.
The Rovagnati production site is energy intensive primarily in terms of electricity consumption. For this reason the electricity produced by the plant is entirely used by the plant utilities, while the recovered heat, in the form of hot water, is completely transferred to the district heating managed by Acsm Agam.
From a design standpoint the Intergen plant was conceived to be able to automatically regulate the transfer of hot water (thermal energy) based on the district heating requirements. In general terms the plant works to transfer a nominal flow rate of 32 square meters of water/hour to Monza district heating, increasing the temperature from 75°C to the 110°C required by the network. During operation, the change in heat requirements by the utilities of the district heating network of Acsm Agam, entail operation in different work points of the cogeneration system. Thus the plant is able to “adapt” to the district heating needs, and modify the output thermal energy by acting on the flow rate based on the requested thermal gradient. In this manner the plant optimizes the transfer of thermal energy, reaching an efficiency (electrical and thermal) of 86%, a very high value compared to the competition.
The win-win strategy adopted by Rovagnati, Acsm Agam and Intergen, is aimed at making the energy procurement of the Villasanta plant more efficient, by minimizing CO2 emissions and providing a service to the province of Monza served by district heating at the same time.
Moreover, the Intergen plant, is geared towards the future, and already meets the requirements of the Law Decree which will become effective in 2021 for new emission limits which cannot exceed the threshold of 75 NOx, with a performance less than 50 NOx at the acceptance test.
The project represents a virtuous example of the use of cogeneration and underlines Intergen’s capacity to be able to customize and re-engineer its plants, always taking its customer’s objectives into consideration.
