8 March 2017
The Austrian Wienerberger group – the world’s foremost supplier of bricks, and Europe’s number one tile-maker – has awarded a consortium led by CNIM a turnkey contract to manufacture and install a heat-recovery system in one of its factories. This is a pilot project for the group, which is looking to optimize its costs and improve its energy efficiency.
With 202 production sites spread across 30 countries worldwide, Wienerberger had revenues of €2.9 billion in 2015. The group is also strongly committed to sustainable development, anxious to optimize its energy consumption and improve the energy efficiency of its production sites.
Recovery of the heat lost from the drying kiln
CNIM was chosen by Wienerberger to equip one of its factories in the Linz region in Austria with a complete heat recovery system. The goal of the system is to recover lost energy from dryer exhaust air. The system, developed by CNIM in close collaboration with Wienerberger, is based on a novel design of an absorption heat pump. The benefit for Wienerberger is to save an equivalent amount of 500KW in gas to preheat the dryer. “CNIM was the obvious choice, given our technical expertise and ability to support the client from start to finish of the project”, explains François-Xavier Catelan, Managing Director of Thermal Systems Business Line for CNIM Systèmes Industriels (CNIM Industrial Systems).
Mobilization of CNIM’s technical expertise and industrial savoir-faire
This success is the result of a close collaboration within the CNIM Group between Thermal Systems Business Line at CNIM S.A., our subsidiary Bertin for its skills in process engineering in the thermal domain, and CNIM’s subsidiary in China, CTE in charge of manufacturing the heat pump. CNIM is also the leader of a partnership with Bilfinger Chemserv GmbH, who will install the heat pump and all piping and electrical connections on site under CNIM’s supervision.
