Specific solutions for reducing energy consumption in existing and new AAC plants

The life cycle analysis of AAC has shown that the majority of CO₂ emissions is caused by the binding agents: cement and quicklime. Only 16% are generated during the production process. However, the warning of gas shortages, power black‐out scenarios and the enormous increase in energy costs are now drawing attention to implement more energy‐saving measures into the production process. Considering renewable energy sources, e.g. photovoltaic or wind power, there are legitimate concerns regarding high consumers, like the sand mill or slurry agitators and their load peak, especially when starting the machines. Before installing renewable electrical energy producers, it is essential to minimise the basic load, avoid load peaks and use existing electrical “energy producers”. Although large energy savings like autoclave steam transfer, heat recovery systems, energy saving motors, LED‐lights are already standard in most plants, a lot of energy is still wasted in the industry. This seminar will demonstrate with specific examples additional new energy saving measures like: intelligent start/stop automatic energy recovery or storage energy efficient machine design smart lighting control predictive maintenance algorithms. Each individual measure does not seem to have a big influence but it may come as a surprise how much energy saving potential there is in the sum of these individual measures. Specifically, tested and implemented energy‐saving measures in WEHRHAHN AAC plants will be explained, giving answers to: How can existing AAC plants be even more updated in an energy‐efficient manner? What does a modern, energy‐efficient AAC plant look like?