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Innovative Energy Management System for the brickyard Landquart AG


In close cooperation with Brickfactory Landquart AG and Beckhoff Automation AG an innovative energy management system was developed. The system serves the ceramic drying process in the brick industry.

In the brick industry, the wet bricks are often dried in a chamber dryer. During the drying process dry air is heated and circulated in the dryer. The air takes the moisture from the brick and is exhausted as saturated air through the chimney.

The Brickfactory Landquart AG as an innovative brick manufacturer cares a lot about the efficiency and environmental compatibility of their processes. The drying process demands much energy, and energy prices have steadily increased over the last few years. Therefore, the energy efficiency of the process had to be increased.

For this purpose temperature, humidity and flow velocity is measured on the exhaust chimney. The signals are processed and provided by a Beckhoff measuring station. With specially created software the physical indicators are calculated and stored in a database. To optimize the energy balance the values can be displayed, evaluated and printed graphically on the PC. In addition, the current efficiency is visualized with a stacking lamp.

Mr. Hans Brauchli, CEO of Brickfactory Landquart AG says: "With this system we have reached our target. Namely, to get a tool in our hands that allows us to create a more efficient drying process. The result is exactly what we need.“

The TBM Automation AG has been focused on controls of machinery and equipment for more than 15 years, particularly in the brick industry. Thus, the company was charged with the development and the "turnkey" construction of the system. These included, inter alia, the draft concept, the creation of the physical calculation schemes and the software development. A possible extension to a CO2 measurement was also inspected.

The project manager at TBM Automation AG, grad. eng. Silvester Tribus said: "The project is a good example that cost-efficiency and environmental awareness can be very compatible. The customer benefits from a robust application and the investment will be quickly paid back by the energy-saving advantage.“

Measuring sizes:

  • Temperature T
  • Relative humidity Phi
  • Flow velocity v

Technology:

  • Beckhoff BC9000 PLC with Real Time Ethernet
  • Microsoft Visual Basic .net application
  • Microsoft SQL-Server database
  • Vortex ultrasonic flow measurement

Calculated physical values:

  • Enthalpy h
  • Water content x
  • Absolute humidity Epsilon
  • Dry air component beta
  • Specific energy E
  • Flow V
  • Power P
  • Water-Output

Please click on the images to enlarge.

Energy Management - Brickfactory Landquart AG

Measurement node - Brickfactory Landquart AG

Brick fabrication - Brickfactory Landquart AG