IDM ¦ Technology/IT
Goldsteig went
an unusual way
District steam heating of a dairy plant
Goldsteig, a Bavarian cheesemaking
co-op, began building
an additional location in
the city of Stephansposching
in 2017. Since no separate
heat supply was planned for the building,
a connection to neighboring energy
networks had to be made, which should
also meet modern requirements in energy
management. An own boiler house did
not appear to be financially cost-efficient
and would also have resulted in higher
CO2 emissions. The dairy therefore turned
to the specialists at Gammel Engineering
GmbH, who had already implemented
a similar concept for their main plant in
Cham, Germany. The energy experts recommended
an intelligent district steam
supply by connecting to a neighbouring
paper mill. For this purpose, a heating
pipeline was laid to transport excess
steam from the factory to the dairy. This
steam is thus not simply shut off via balance
coolers, as has been the case up to
now, but kept in a regional energy cycle
in a sensible manner. At Goldsteig, the
steam is treated with a pure steam generator
and heating condenser in such
a way that it can be used as hot water.
In order to minimize heat losses during
transport, the pipes were designed with
double thermal insulation.
The new Goldsteig plant in Stephansposching,
which was started in 2017,
was intended to replace the old site in
nearby Plattling, as it could no longer
cope with the increased production
capacities. Already at the beginning of
the planning, the question arose as to
what extent an own heat supply on the
factory premises would be sensible – especially
with regard to the CO2 balance.
For example, the operation of an own
boiler would have meant considerable
fuel consumption and also increased
emissions. "We therefore contacted
the engineers from Gammel right at
the beginning, as we had already had
good experience with their know-how
in previous projects," reports Matthias
Kiendlbacher, Plant Manager at Goldsteig
Käsereien Bayerwald’s Stephansposching
facility. "From Gammel came
the idea to integrate existing heat
sources in the neighbourhood. For example,
a neighbouring paper mill is already
being supplied with steam by the
EON/Bayernwerk Plattling power plant,
but this is not fully utilised there. It was
therefore possible to branch off excess
steam, transport it directly to the dairy
via pipes laid partly underground and
partly above ground, and finally generate
heating water for production. Goldsteig
was convinced by this approach
and so the energy partnership was finally
implemented. "In this way, all those
involved benefit from the networking,
since no thermal energy in the form of
steam is lost or has to be expensively
destroyed via balance coolers," explains
Dipl.-Ing. Thomas Zweier, Project Manager
at Gammel Engineering.
Pipe laying in a difficult
installation situation
The project consisted of a total of four
construction phases, whereby communication
between the parties was crucial
for success, since, among other things,
the different terrain situations and access
routes had to be taken into account
by the individual partners. In a first
step, an above-ground steam connection
had to be established at the paper
mill, which in turn was then connected
to the heating pipeline to the Goldsteig
30 · June/July 2020 ¦ international-dairy.com
/international-dairy.com
