Press release October 25, 2023
Iqony and RAG implement innovative heating solution for the towns of Camphausen and Sulzbach in the Saar region, Germany
Mine water from RAG’s Camphausen drainage operations becomes a heat source
Camphausen/Sulzbach/Saarbrücken. After intensive preparations, Saarbrücken-based Iqony Energies GmbH, a subsidiary of the Essen-based energy company Iqony, has decided to modernize and convert its existing district heating generation facilities and its district heating network on the site of the former Camphausen coal mine into an innovative and climate-neutral heat generation system. This involves tapping waste heat from RAG’s mine water as a new heat source and making it available for the district heating supply to the town of Sulzbach. This will avoid annual CO2 emissions of more than 6,000 metric tons in the future.
The project had already received a funding commitment in December 2020 as part of a call for proposals from the German Federal Network Agency for “innovative CHP energy systems”. Combined heat and power (CHP) plants generate electricity and heat at the same time and are therefore particularly efficient and resource-saving. However, extensive pre-planning work, many technical challenges and regulatory decisions in Berlin have meant that the project could not yet be realized. Now, however, all the necessary conditions have been met and implementation can begin.
Technically, the project consists of three coordinated components: a conventional CHP plant, the renewable heat source in the form of mine water, and a heat pump that harnesses the residual heat contained in the mine water of a temperature of about 36 degrees Celsius for the district heating supply.
Technical advantage of mine water drainage
“We are pleased to be able to help make a climate-neutral contribution to the heat supply with the mine water that we provide to Iqony. This mine water has a temperature that can definitely be used to generate heat,” says Dr. Michael Drobniewski, RAG’s regional representative for Saarland. For this reason, corresponding feasibility studies are being carried out at all mine water drainage sites.
“The fact that the mine water is being pumped out of the mine obviously makes it much easier to tap this unusual heat source,” explains Dr. Dietmar Bies, who is responsible for the project on behalf of Iqony. The heat generated in this way reduces the use of conventional energy sources, with the result that the Camphausen CHP plant will avoid around 6,300 metric tons of CO2 emissions per year.
Complete climate neutrality thanks to the use of mine gas
Because the third part of the plant, the conventional CHP system, is also fired by an energy source classified as climate-neutral, the plant as a whole is already operating completely emission-free on balance.
Anke Langner, managing director of Iqony Energies GmbH, explains: “We use mine gas, which has a high methane content, as a fuel in the conventional CHP plant. Released unburned, methane has an effect in the atmosphere that is more than twenty times more damaging to the climate than CO2. Accordingly, politicians have also only recently confirmed the classification of mine gas as a climate-neutral fuel in terms of carbon footprint, and therefore the use of mine gas as a fuel is also a sensible measure in the interests of the climate.”
In addition, there will still be sufficient fuel available in the coming years. However, the legal classification of mine gas as an energy source has long been an uncertain factor in the political debate. Consequently, the implementation of the project in Camphausen has also taken longer than originally planned.
Green heat for the town of Camphausen and Sulzbach
For the users of district heating in the towns of Camphausen and Sulzbach, including a hospital and industrial and commercial enterprises, this in turn means that the district heating supplied in the future from the plant on the former mine site is already green, i.e. climate-neutral, today.
It is not only against this background that Stadtwerke Sulzbach municipal utility company, as the local district heating supplier, and Iqony Energies GmbH have decided to continue their tried and tested cooperation and extend the corresponding cooperation agreement by twenty years. “We are pleased that we are continuing to work together and at the same time opening a new, climate-neutral chapter for the local heat supply with the conversion of the plant in Camphausen, which is now beginning,” says Anke Langner.
Iqony has even more good news to report to the citizens of the two towns: “From a technical point of view, our plant still has potential to increase the generation of green heating even further. This means that nothing stands in the way of a possible expansion of a truly climate-neutral district heating supply on the generation side,” Anke Langner explains.
Schedule
Construction work is expected to start as early as October 2023 and take around 14 months. The plant is expected to be commissioned at the end of 2024. During the conversion phase, the heat supply to the communities will be ensured at all times by means of mobile heating units.
