The heat pump system will reduce the plant’s carbon emissions by more than 150 tonnes per year.
LeaseGreen is planning and implementing a major energy renovation of Thermo Fisher’s factory in Joensuu. Thermo Fisher is a leading international manufacturer of healthcare equipment.
It was decided to recover the waste heat from the cooling process with an industrial heat pump. In the future, the plant will be heated with waste heat except in the coldest weather. District heating will continue to heat domestic hot water and remain a backup system for the hardest frosty days.
“The plant’s annual district heating bill will be reduced by about 70 percent after the renovation. The carbon footprint will be reduced by more than 150 tonnes. That is the equivalent of almost 1,300 return flights between Helsinki and Stockholm,” says Kalle Myllyaho, Account Manager at LeaseGreen. LeaseGreen specialises specifically in improving the energy efficiency of large buildings and industry.
In addition to the heat pump system, LeaseGreen will modernise the building automation and ventilation systems of the property. In the future, condition sensors will control the amount of ventilation in real time. After the energy renovation, the energy use of the property is optimised with the help of LeaseGreen’s remote control and digital twins. The energy renovation is currently underway and will be completed by the end of 2022.
“This is a good example of how deep diving into a property’s energy flows can produce surprises,” says Myllyaho.
“Initially, we focused on the recovery of heat generated by various injection moulding and hydraulic machines. However, somewhat surprisingly, the biggest potential savings were found in the cooling processes of the machines.”
Myllyaho considers the technical solution for Thermo Fisher to be exceptionally successful. In addition to significant savings, the system requires less maintenance.
“It was great to see how our designers did not settle for the first obvious solution of using the heat from the process exhaust. After further investigation, they realised that it would be more efficient and easier to recover heat from the cooling process of the casting machines,” says Myllyaho.
Thermo Fisher spent a long time planning the energy renovation of the factory building.
“The timing could not be better. As part of our 2050 carbon neutrality target, we have been steering the energy use of buildings in a sustainable direction for years. Last year, the lights in the Joensuu factory were replaced with energy-efficient LED lights,” says Ilpo Tuunainen (pictured), property manager at Thermo Fisher.
Optimising and closely monitoring energy use will help industrial companies prepare for future price increases. The higher heat and electricity prices go, the more profitable the investments will be. Electricity prices in Finland have reached record highs during 2022.
The price of district heat varies from place to place, but in Helsinki, for example, it has risen by 41% in five years, according to statistics from the Real Estate Federation.
Real Estate Manager Ilpo Tuunainen, Thermo Fisher Scientific Oy
+358 40 0 500 101, ilpo.tuunainen@thermofisher.com
Director, Commercial Solutions Jere Kilpi, LeaseGreen
+358 40 451 3976, jere.kilpi@leasegreen.com
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