Business areas

Thanks to our skills, combined with APEX Group experience, we offer engineering service or turnkey supply:

Hydrogen plants

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Heat Pumps

The energy transition encourages the use of technologies that make it possible to improve energy efficiency and reduce CO2 emissions through the use of renewable sources, boosting the circular economy.

Renewable sources play a key role in reducing CO2 emissions into the atmosphere and are the main driver of this revolution. Thanks to the production of electricity from renewable sources, it is now possible to develop new technologies which might help cut the use of fossil fuels in fields where until very recently, these fuels were considered “irreplaceable” – e.g. the production of heat for indoor heating or for industrial processes. Cogeneration, then, can be used to improve the combined production of electricity and heat: this technology is now supplemented by a new generation of high-power heat pumps designed to produce high temperature thermal vectors.

Large, new generation heat pumps are available today as a technological solution designed to implement effective energy decarbonization strategies.

Plant Engineering designs and supplies turnkey heat pump plants

What is a heat pump?

Heat pumps are mechanical devices that extract low-grade heat from one source and transfer it to another. The advantage of a heat pump is that it up-grades the heat and delivers it at a higher temperature than the source from which the heat had been extracted. Heat pumps are usually based on refrigeration cycles. Unlike refrigerators the primary aim of heat pumps is to provide heating, using waste heat available at lower temperature.

Simple heat pumps (e.g. compression heat pumps) comprise four main devices: the evaporator, the compressor, the condenser and the expansion valve (cf. Fig. 2.10). Heat pumps work with a refrigerant, which is a special fluid that (1) circulates in a closed circuit in the heat pump, (2) undergoes phase transitions from a liquid to a gas and back again and (3) evaporates at low temperatures.

In the evaporator the refrigerant is put, in its liquid form, in contact with the heat carrier fluid circulating in the pipes of the energy geostructures in the primary circuit and is evaporated to a gas, with its temperature being lower than that of the heat carrier fluid and its boiling point (at relatively low pressure) below the entering heat carrier fluid temperature. The phase change from liquid to gas of the refrigerant fluid decreases the temperature of the heat carrier fluid, which is then reinjected into the ground via the pipes of the energy geostructures to warm up again. The refrigerant gas, at low pressure and relatively low temperature, then moves to the compressor.

In the compressor, this gas is compressed by using external energy (e.g. electrical power) to a higher temperature. The refrigerant gas, now at a relatively high pressure and temperature, then moves to the condenser.

In the condenser the resulting hot gas supplies the gained heat to a heat carrier fluid circulating in the secondary circuit by condensing (at a much higher temperature than that at which it boiled). Eventually the hot liquid refrigerant at high pressure passes through an expansion valve that returns the pressure and temperature of the liquid to its original condition prior to reentering the evaporator where it starts a new cycle.

Field of application:

District Heating
Energy Efficiency and Industrial Process

Cogeneration and Trigeneration

We design and build turnkey systems for cogeneration and trigeneration.

Industrial Cogeneration

The industrial sector requires solutions capable of consistently improving its competitiveness on the market. This calls for highly reliable and flexible plant engineering solutions, with short payback investments. We develop specific SOLUTIONS for each industrial area, starting from a feasibility study and energy analysis of the current situation, to then move on to identifying the best solution in terms of efficiency, sustainability, reduction of environmental impact and cost-efficiency.

The industrial process where thermal energy is needed steam, diathermic oil, superheated water, etc. are the best solution to save energy with economical advantages.

Ceramics
Food

Pharmaceutics
Plastic

Electronics
Paper mills

Cogeneration for the tertiary sector

The widespread use of indoor conditioning or domestic hot water in different situations allows the evaluation of cogeneration suitability for different areas of the tertiary sector such as:

Office buildings
Data Centres
Shopping Centres
Healthcare and hospital facilities

In all these buildings, energy solutions can be designed aimed at reducing energy consumption while improving environmental comfort and considerably reducing the energy costs for users. With cogeneration it is possible to produce hot water for environmental heating or for other uses at lower costs and with other advantages in terms of environmental impact.

Trigeneration

In many situations, the use of heat is often limited to the winter period and is complemented by refrigeration energy for air conditioning or for specific production processes. The low cost thermal energy produced by a cogeneration plant also allows REFRIGERATION ENERGY to be produced through the use of static absorption refrigeration machines without electric compressor – which translates into further electricity savings compared to traditional refrigeration units.

PLANT ENGINEERING has completed a number of projects with different type of absorption chillers:

Lithium Bromide refrigeration absorber: well-tested, solid technology also in systems implemented without cogeneration (e.g. thermodynamic solar energy to be used by the absorbers), useful for the production of refrigeration energy at temperatures between 5/7°C, typical of air conditioning. These systems are widely used in Cogeneration plants for the Tertiary sector.
Ammonia refrigerant absorber which, relying on the ammonia absorption capacity in water, allows refrigeration energy to be produced at values typically suitable for cold chain uses (up to -40°C) in the agro-food, food processing industry but also in petrochemical and manufacturing applications.

Biomass Plants

Biomass Plants are a strategic pillar of our company.

The application area is planning, management and maintenance of biomass power plants and biomass cogeneration power stations. Our engineers mainly have a background of operating such facilities.

As for fuels, we have focussed both on solid as well as liquid biomasses.

Among solid biomasses are not only wood, but also other products like grains, grape pomace etc. Liquid biomasses are animal fats as well as plant oils and fats. Our special focus is not only on fresh biomasses, but also on the energetic utilisation of biogenic waste materials which have previously gone through one or more life cycles.

Projecting
Concept or feasibility study
Pre and draft planning
Authorization planning
Implementation planning
Tendering of the individual trades

Making decisions when awarding
Project coordination
Monitoring of construction
Start up of operations
Support of operation
Maintenance work

Pellets

With pellet and briquette production facilities, biological fuels are converted according to specified parameters.

Among traditional fuels are:

Pellets according to DIN, DIN-Plus, Ö-Norm
Industrial pellets
Wood chips
Various forms of wood briquettes
Bark briquettes

During production, biomasses go through different processing stages like grinding, separation, drying, pressing etc. The fuels are often energetically compacted – and their specific heating value increases. This heat upgrading is the prerequisite for an effective transfer of the biomass and its use in automated combustion facilities. After the processing stage, the firing of fuels in existing large power plants is also possible. In doing so, care should be taken during the production process to ensure that the special fuel specification is complied with.

District Heating Plants

We boasts extensive experience in the sector of large cogeneration plants serving district heating networks.

District heating systems are the most efficient and lowest environmental impact solution for heating large urban districts. District heating has become popular in many countries and has contributed to heavily reducing environmental pollution in our cities. When the distribution of heat to city users is done through district heating networks fed from a methane gas cogeneration plant, the system becomes even more efficient with a lower environmental impact. The combined production of energy and heat allows considerable energy savings and a simultaneous decrease of emissions and environmental impact.

We participated, both as a consultant and as a designer, in the development of integrated Cogeneration-District Heating Network systems, for the construction of new plants to serve existing networks or for revamping projects aimed at replacing existing plants as part of DECARBONIZATION projects.