Our projects
Below are examples of improving the environmental footprint of a product and an organization for illustration purposes, real case studies are always associated with trade secrets and are therefore strictly confidential.
01
Photovoltaics a GHG emissions improvement
After the initial analysis of the environmental aspects of the organization (impact on the environment), it was found that the opportunity for improvement is the consumption of energy and fuel for passenger cars. In general, energy consumption creates a substantial part of GHG emissions. The GHG protocol method was used, where the organization's direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions are under operational control included in Scope 1 and 2.
The first step was an initial calculation of the organization's greenhouse gas inventory. This was followed by a thorough analysis and measurement of the consumption of individual energies (electricity, natural gas, car fuel) according to use (production, heating, lighting, etc.). The proposal for improvement included in the initial phase the introduction of energy management, which aims to reduce the energy demand of the operation itself. An energy management application was designed as a tool for planning, analyzing and saving energy and to supporting further solutions.
For the the reduction of GHG emissions in the second phase was designed a PVE power plant with the following basic parameters:
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power 500 Wp
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efficiency 21%
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1,710 panels in total
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an area of 4,025 m2 on the roof
with the assumption of annual production 820 MWh.
The on-site PVE plant was supplemented with a large-capacity battery, which will be primary used for charging of the company fleet of cars with an electric drive. Cars charging from the sun energy, instead of the grid charging will cause a significant reduction in company´s total emission inventory, as sun energy is considered as emission-free for the greenhouse gases inventory method.
Electric cars will replace the existing vehicles with an internal combustion engine. Consumption of approximately 50,000 liters of diesel/year produces approximately 201 t of CO2 eq. and these emissions was replaced by solar energy with zero emission rate for the GHG inventory method. The project brought an annual saving of company´s GHG emissions of 201 tons of CO2 eq/year with the return of the investment in 5 years.
02
Concrete ecodesign
Since the environmental footprint of a production organization is largely formed by the production process, from the point of view of the life cycle of the product, the impact of the product itself is greatest in the life phase of manufacturing or using. In addition, there are processes where CO2 is released into the atmosphere by the chemical reaction itself during the production process, for example hydration during the production of cement.
An example of improving the environmental footprint of a product is the production of fresh concrete, where the production of the primary input to concrete - cement represents approximately 85% of the impact on global warming. A change in the formula involving the replacement of Class I cement, which is made up of 95% primary raw material, with Class II cement, which is made up of approximately a quarter of waste products (slag and fly ash), will save raw materials, but mainly save energy and emissions from the chemical reaction itself hydration.
The result is a reduction in the global warming impact of concrete by 60 kg CO2 eq./m3. Environmental savings are also accompanied by financial savings, Class II cement is significantly cheaper. The positive effects on the environment also have a negative side, in order to achieve the same strength, binders must be added, which also have an impact on environment. Another negative aspect is the emphasis on quality, not only with structural concrete, but also with other specified products, and all legislative requirements must also be observed. The table below also shows the change in some other effects of the recipe change. The colum on the left shows the total impact of the concrete (with cement II manufacturing) during it´s life cycle, the two colums show the difference between two possibilities of cement I and II.
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03
Transport environmental footprint
Table below shows a comparison of the environmental footprint modeled using Life Cycle Analysis of individual types of transport – freight meeting emission standards 4 and 5, train, sea and air, modeled at 1 tonne-kilometre.
The graph below show the comparison between the pypes of transport in one of the environmental impacts - the global warming.
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04
Energy management and FV control application
Prvním krokem při návrhu FVE byl sběr a analýza dat týkajících se spotřeby energie a výsledkem bylo sestavení energetické bilance výrobního závodu. Následovalo stanovení proměnných, které mají vliv na budoucí spotřebu a modelování potřebného budoucího FV výkonu tak, aby pokryl co největší část spotřeby a přetoky do sítě byly minimální. Simulací potenciální množství energie vyrobené ze slunečního záření byly zjištěny parametry budoucího FVE systému.
After designing the PV plant parameters, Valcon designed a control system for PV plants using agile development methodologies. Valcon has experienced process control engineers who provide control system structure and control system integration logic design considering the type of existing control system.
Valcon ensures quality in all steps of control system implementation – design and programming through control system simulator testing. The resulting control system was developed based on a fuzzy system, but a system based on a neural network is also possible.
Advanced control methods
At the customer's request, Valcon is able to develop an expert system for a technological process where a historical data profile is available. In case the expert system is to be installed on a new application, self-learning algorithms can be implemented.