IFF Finnfeeds Finland: new evaporation method reduced plant’s energy consumption by a third

31st October 2022
Partnership stories Chemical & Pharmaceutical

The Naantali plant of Finnfeeds Finland Oy, part of IFF company, has succeeded in reducing its use of steam by close to 40 per cent, simultaneously radically reducing its carbon footprint. Total energy consumption has fallen at the plant by around 30 per cent.

The evaporation method developed by Adven has been in use at the plant since the start of 2018. As steam consumption has been reduced, the plant’s carbon dioxide emissions have fallen at an annual rate of 16,000 tonnes. This volume corresponds with more than one hundred million car kilometres.

30% savings in total need of energy

 

Finnfeeds produces betaine from sugar beet molasses and other fractions for use in animal feed, nutrition, cosmetics and the chemical industry.

Considerable volumes of water are evaporated from the separated fractions. This stage of the process used to consume a lot of steam.

Thanks to the review carried out by Adven, a solution was found where the volume of steam used by the plant could be significantly reduced through MVR evaporation. MVR is considerably more energy-efficient than traditional methods for separating water from condensed liquids.

“The volume of steam is a major cost component and we sought to find different solutions throughout our production process. At the same time, we wished to reduce our carbon footprint and to take our sustainability targets into account. The new evaporation method solution proposed by Adven meets both these requirements,” says plant manager Heikki Vahtera.

Visit the evaporation plant below. It is possible to turn the image 360° in any direction. If you cannot see the video, press here.

Energy savings corresponding to 1,500 single-family homes

As its production grew, Finnfeeds needed more evaporation capacity. Instead of falling back on a traditional solution and making an investment, the company decided to purchase the evaporation as a service from Adven. The new evaporation plant came into operation in early 2018. The heat energy saved annually at the plant corresponds to the total energy consumption of around 1,500 single-family homes heated with electricity.

“We were somewhat surprised by how well everything went. Production at the plant took off on time. The ramping up of production went off without a hitch. In my opinion, our co-operation has been excellent. The evaporation plant is controlled remotely by Adven and personnel are close at hand to assist when needed,” says Vahtera.

“The plant now uses modern turbofans as part of the evaporation process. With the price of electricity at a relatively low level, this slightly less traditional evaporation method brings significant cost savings in the long term. To simplify things, the evaporation solution previously used at the plant consumed eight units of energy as steam, while with MVR evaporation, only one unit of energy as electricity is used to replace the steam,” says Key Account Director Heikki Aarrejoki from Adven.

Adven has several evaporation plants in Finland that use similar technology, for instance, one at Finnamyl’s plant in Kokemäki and the other at Honkajoki Oy, located in Honkajoki. Finnfeeds’ evaporation solution is, however, technically more complex than other solutions as it incorporates as many as five parallel evaporators at once.