VAG supports Germany’s largest industrial heat supply system

From the 2024/25 heating period on, about 20,000 households in Hamburg are to be supplied with CO2-free industrial heat generated by a secondary process of copper production at Aurubis. In this way, up to 100,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions each year can be saved in the Hanseatic city from 2025 on. The intended heat supply constitutes the largest use of industrial heat in Germany.

Following renovations in summer 2024, the heat is generated at the Aurubis factory in Hamburg in the so-called contact acid plant, a part of copper refining in which sulfuric acid is formed in several process steps. This process is an exothermic chemical reaction generating CO2-free heat at a temperature level that is suitable for carbon-neutral district heating.

For this project, VAG supplied butterfly valves of the VAG EKN® H MT Series, which is suitable for hot water of up to 150°C, and VAG CEREX® – 175 Butterfly Valves of various types and sizes.

In order to operate the plant more efficiently and thus more profitably at the same time, VAG suggested using the VAG EKN® H Butterfly Valve, which the customer gladly accepted: The VAG EKN® H has an energy-efficient design and thus reduces losses in the pipeline system. With the AURUBIS IWS 2 project, the VAG EKN® H MT was created for the first time.

The first part of the project started in October 2018: Since that time, Aurubis has delivered CO2-free heat from its plant in Peute to energy service provider enercity Contracting Nord Gmbh which supplies the heat to HafenCity East. The heat is delivered through a newly built pipeline that is more than 3.7 km long. This first stage of the Aurubis industrial heat supply saves about 20,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions every year.

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