A new plant will generate electricity from industrial process heat at the Saarstahl site in Neunkirchen starting in autumn 2023. The power plant project represents an investment of around EUR 1.5 million and will further boost the energy efficiency of the rolling mill.
The new plant with an output of around 200 kilowatts can efficiently convert industrial waste heat generated by the rolling process into electricity. This electricity will then be fed back into the rolling mill’s power grid. Saarstahl and the mechanical engineering company DeVeTec used a traditional steam power process for this known as Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) technology. The core of this closed thermodynamic process is the DeVeTec piston expander, which was specially developed to effectively convert heat into drive power.
“We expect to generate up to a maximum of 1,200 megawatt hours of electricity per year with the new plant,” explained Dr. Klaus Richter, Chief Technology Officer at Saarstahl. “In times when energy is scarce, we are reducing external energy requirements at the Neunkirchen site with this and contributing to the energy transition.”
“DeVeTec is successfully using its technology to produce electricity from heat that is currently going unused,” said Dr. Stefan Keck, Managing Director of DeVeTec. “As an associated company of Montan-Ventures-Saar, a subsidiary of Montan-Stiftung-Saar, we are pleased to be able to support the Saarstahl plant in Neunkirchen in its effort to reduce external energy requirements.”
