• Optimization
  • Plant Optimization

Plant optimisation

Plant optimisation or refitting means to make old systems (plants) profitable again by increasing their efficiency and reducing the costs. Three factors play a decisive role in this context:

Maintenance -  Modernisation –  Expansion

Maintenance

The daily use of your plant’s individual components leads to wear and tear, thus making your overall plant susceptible to fault and repair. A higher risk of default is exacerbated by an increased need for energy. The costs go up, while the efficiency of the overall system decreases. 

Regular maintenance ensures the smooth and long-lasting operation of your plant.

An example for the regular maintenance of a biogas plant: According to the manufacturer’s recommendation, the battery of the control cabinet and the UVS of the control computer should be replaced after 2 years. For example, the capacity of the installed lead battery falls below 50% in only 2 years. In the event of a power outage, there is the risk that no further alarm notifications are issued. In the worst-case scenario, there will not be enough time until your emergency power supply kicks in. This may lead to a plant downtime in certain cases. Tailored to our customers’ requirements, the ORmatiC team has developed a maintenance tool that is integrated in the operation of your BGP.

Our maintenance tool contains the following components:

  • Maintenance planning
  • Warehousing
  • Documentation
  • Alarming

Early notification and correspondingly fast reaction times allow the optimisation of your plant’s smooth operation.

Modernisation

Your plant’s technical components – as all technology – are subject to continuous development and improvement. All plant components are frequently updated. But your investments need to pay off. For this, you need an exact concept that balances costs and benefits.

As a company with extensive automation experience based a large variety of clients and technical systems, we are able to offer you tailor-made concepts for your modernisation measures.

S5 to S7

A top-of-the-line plant system also includes the modernisation of the automation devices. In particular for older yet proven control systems such as the S5 by Siemens, we can offer you an upgrade to the Siemens S7 system. Existing bus networks such as SINEC L2 (Profibus FMS/DP) and I/O wiring can still be used, since it is only necessary to replace the control components. Existing S5 programmes are converted to an S7 standard while retaining their functionality and logic.
Without the need for an entirely new setup of a plant, we give you the option of implementing a current SPS in your existing plant, thereby taking advantage of the benefits of modern automation devices – e.g., from S5-95U to S7-3XX or S7-15XX.

Expansion

There are many options for integrating effective expansions in an existing biogas plant. Here are a few examples for results in the field of plant expansion:  

  • Biogas yield can be increased by up to 25 percent
  • Reduced substrate feed-in at the same performance level
  • Fermentation time can be reduced up to 15 percent
  • The question of the investments’ payback time arises here, as well. In this context, subsidies and marketing strategies must be taken into account.

The following results can be achieved for all areas of your plant:

  • Increased operational safety
  • Increased profitability
  • Reduced energy consumption
  • Appreciation of the value of your biogas plant