Pulling savings from the air

Thursday, April 3, 2014

Pig Progress reports that Dutch companies Stienen BE and Inno+ have teamed up to develop the Triple EEE concept, a heat exchanger/air scrubber combo that they claim will reduce heating costs by 70 per cent.

Air scrubbing is a cost of doing business for many European pig farmers, who must keep neighbours happy by reducing objectionable odours and ammonia emissions. But these systems are costly, running into the tens of thousands of euros.

The outgoing air is warm – 20 to 22 C according to Maurice Vleugels of Stienen. "It would be a waste if we were to just send this heat energy out and do nothing with it."

That's why the air scrubber used on the 670-sow, farrow-to-finish Clephas-Jacobs farm in Veulen, Netherlands, has an internal heat exchanger that absorbs the outgoing air's relative heat in winter. This air, mixed with external air processed by other heat exchangers, stays at a consistent temperature when routed back into the building.

After installing the system in September 2012, Hans Jacobs told Pig Progress that the energy costs for his barn were only €124 over an eight-month period. Maurice Ortmans of Inno+ said in an email that a Canadian project is in the works. BP