Energy-efficient solutions for the textile industry in order to preserve Germany as location for industry
The Brückner Group is a world-wide leader in the planning and construction of textile finishing ma-chines. Since 1949 the company supplies machines and complete machinery systems for coating, dye-ing and drying of textiles, technical textiles, non-wovens and floor coverings to almost all countries of the world. Regina Brückner, the daughter of company founder Kurt Brückner, manages the family-owned enterprise successfully in the second generation and is clearly committed to Germany as loca-tion for industry.
Our focus has been and is for many years the development of lines which are energy-efficient, re-source saving and optimally designed for our customer. We can be satisfied and glad about lower en-ergy costs at the moment but it is only a matter of time until energy will get considerably more expen-sive again and our production site and our competitive position will be vulnerable again. Therefore we engage in this question very intensely at the moment. In summer 2013 we established our own tech-nology centre in Leonberg, our main site. We installed a completely new and energy-efficient coating and finishing line which is at any time available on a rent basis for interested customers for fabric tests and product developments.
Textile finishing processes are characterized by a high demand of thermal and electrical energy, which requires a permanent optimization of the processes and machinery. The use of intelligent temperature control systems and integrated heat-recovery allowed BRÜCKNER in the last years to reduce the ener-gy consumption and thus the energy cost for the machinery owners by up to 30 %, depending on the process, the fabric type and the machine design. Further considerable energy-saving potentials are provided for by the use of combined heat and power generation. In this process the primary energy is used to generate at the same time heat and electrical current. Particularly systems based on micro turbines are very appropriate for this purpose since they provide the complete lost heat on a uniform temperature level in contrast to motor-based block-type thermal power stations. Therefore a micro gas turbine made by Dürr Systems has been installed in BRÜCKNER’s technology centre by the end of 2014.
This innovative integration of the micro gas turbine into the drying process of the textile machine has been presented to a selected circle of customers in the context of an Energy Symposium on 25 March 2015. After some papers about the subject, the guests could get an idea of the new technology during a tour through the Technology Centre. This system is particularly interesting for textile companies pro-ducing in several shifts. The combined generation of power and heat allows for the first time to use the fuel with a degree of efficiency of more than 90 %. Given the suitable frame conditions the investment in a micro gas turbine amortizes for a textile finisher within a few years. A higher energy efficiency increases the competitive capacity and may contribute in countries with high costs for the textile industry such as Germany to preserve even production sites which are energy-intensive and thus jobs.
