Efficiency on every level Industrial
WEG supplies variable speed drives for project involving animal by-products
T
he meat industry plays a vital role in the Spanish economy and is the largest subsector of the nation’s food and beverage industry. However, this important sector has a problem - the by-products not intended for human consumption. With regulations limiting how these by-products can be used, industrial electrical assemblers TERBEL turned to global drive and motor manufacturer WEG to realise a solution.
The meat industry is responsible for 22.2 per cent of the food industry’s total national turnover, according to a 2021 report by the Ministerio de Agricultura, Pesca y Alimentación (Spanish ministry of agriculture, fisheries and food). Accounting for such a large proportion of the Spanish food industry, it is important for policies surrounding what to do with waste align with the European Union’s (EU) Farm to Fork Strategy for an environmentally friendly, healthy and secure food system.
Changing legislation
In the EU animal by-products are split into three categories, each of which has its own waste management procedure and permitted uses. Traditionally, animal by-products were reused by farmers and fed to livestock. However, since 2009, EU Regulation (EC) No. 1069/2009 repealed the previous 2002 legislation and prohibited the feeding of category one by- products to animals.
With previous practices now prohibited, farms across the country were faced with the challenge – what to do with these by-products? In the interests of public health, food safety and the environment, managing their secure disposal in accordance with legislation is essential. This is the problem that animal by-product treatment plant for Galicia and surrounding autonomous communities, Gesuga, tackles.
cient aste anaeent
Processing between 250,000 and 300,000 kilograms of by- products each day, Gesuga’s facility converts these by-products into organic fertilisers, biodiesel and meal and bone meal (MBM), helping to reduce the meat industry’s overall waste. In 2020, Gesuga developed a combustion and gasification plant to recover energy in the form of substitute natural gas (SNG) from category one animal by-products, MBM, to power their main operations with less reliance on fossil fuels. To design this gasification and combustion plant, Gesuga turned to TERBEL, industrial electrical assembler dedicated to the maintenance and assembly of electrical installations including industrial process control. TERBEL was tasked with carrying out the engineering, integration and installation of a distributed control system (DCS), connected using a Profibus communication network. To create this system, TERBEL turned to long-term trusted supplier WEG to supply essential variable speed drives.
14 September 2021 Components in Electronics
cient podcts
Motors play an essential role in many of the processes taking place at the gasification and combustion plant, including the transportation of MBM, ventilation for the processes of gasification and combustion and the dosing of the different materials and elements required.
“As the gasification and combustion plant was designed to produce energy to power the main operations at Gesuga, guaranteeing continuous energy generation was essential,” explains Luis Alberto Terroba Iñiguez, technical industrial engineer at TERBEL. “TERBEL has a long history of working with and installing WEG products. For the project at Gesuga, we needed reliable components to guarantee the entire facility’s continuous operation, and we knew we could trust the proven robustness and efficiency that WEG offers.” To control these motors, TERBEL opted for 16 variable speed drives from WEG’s CFW11 and CFW700 lines, to continuously manage power ranging from 0.37 kilowatts (kW) to 200 kW. “The CFW11 and CFW700 are both developed with WEG’s plug-and-play philosophy in mind,” explains Miguel Ángel Gonzalo, sales engineer at WEG Iberia. “This means that any accessories that are plugged in are automatically recognised by the variable speed drive, removing the need for extra configuration and simplifying both installation and operation.”
cient conication
All WEG’s products are designed with efficiency at the forefront. However, installation was carried out even more
efficiently thanks to WEG Iberia’s technical team, based in Madrid, who were on hand to assist TERBEL’s engineers from the moment the order was placed.
cient opeations
Through efficient design, project management and communication, WEG’s variable speed drives were successfully integrated into the DCS at Gesuga’s gasification and combustion plant.
“WEG’s variable speed drives enabled a reduction in the electrical energy consumption of the plant’s motors, precise control of the pressure, flow and temperature processes contributing to entirely energy-efficient operations,” explains Gonzalo.
Recovering energy from MBM to power Gesuga’s animal by-product treatment operations has resulted in a considerable reduction in fossil fuel use, carbon dioxide emissions and cost.
“Thanks to the success of the project, Gesuga has estimated a 60 per cent reduction in its reliance on natural gas compared to previously, cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 6,000 tonnes each year,” Terroba says. “Having completed the project in the second half of 2020, the gasification and combustion plant has now been continuously operating since January 2021, cutting the entire facility’s operational costs and allowing it to offer more sustainable services.
www.weg.net
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