SMS commissions Germany’s largest air-to-water heat pump
SMS has commissioned Germany’s largest air-to-water heat pump at its Hilchenbach site. With this fully electric power-to-heat system, the metallurgical plant manufacturer saves 6,000 tonnes of CO₂ annually. The company is thus completely phasing out the fossil fuels it previously used.
A milestone in industrial decarbonisation: SMS has commissioned Germany’s largest air-to-water heat pump at its Hilchenbach site. According to the company, the fully electric power-to-heat plant is powered exclusively by electricity from renewable sources and saves 6,000 tonnes of CO₂ annually.
Control system using artificial intelligence
The plant combines several high-tech components to form an integrated heating solution. Four large air-to-water heat pumps with a capacity of three MWth extract thermal energy from the ambient air, even at sub-zero temperatures. This energy is temporarily stored in a source storage tank before water-to-water heat pumps with a capacity of four MWth heat it to up to 85 degrees Celsius. A 2,000 m³ buffer storage system guarantees the availability of heat even at times of peak demand.
During particularly cold spells, an electric boiler with a capacity of four MWth kicks in, which also heats the water purely electrically to up to 95 degrees Celsius. The intelligent control system is particularly innovative: an AI-supported forecasting model adjusts operations according to weather and load conditions, ensuring the plant runs when electricity is cheap and green. “The power-to-heat plant is a key building block on our path to climate-neutral operations at the Hilchenbach site – a goal we aim to achieve by 2030. It also sends a signal of new beginnings to all our other sites. As the SMS group, we are driving forward the decarbonisation of the global steel industry. However, it is just as important to us to take responsibility within our own organisation and to consistently implement sustainability in our own plants,” says Fabíola Fernandez, CFO of the SMS group.
The plant also stabilises the electricity grid by storing surplus green electricity in the form of heat. Thanks to its modular design, it can easily be expanded to include further renewable system components, making it a future-proof solution. “The power-to-heat system in Hilchenbach demonstrates how industrial decarbonisation is already working today – economically, modularly and entirely without fossil fuels,” explains Thomas Stephanblome, CEO of Getec, the company that built the plant.
Source: SMS group