District heating of the future :
Aabenraa District Heating was the first to use surplus heat from PtX

- We are about to build the pipe, and we only need to lay one kilometer between the pumping station in Rise near Rødekro and the other one out near Kassø, says CEO of Aabenraa Fjernvarme Tommy Palmholt.

The district heating plant will be the first in Denmark to take surplus heat from a PtX plant when European Energy's Kassø PtX starts its methanol production.

The approximately five-kilometer-long pipeline from Kassø to Rise will supply district heating customers in Rødekro with the green surplus heat from the PtX plant, which is powered by renewable energy from the 340-hectare solar park at Kassø.

The start-up of the PtX plant will take place around the summer holidays this year, and it fits well with the high season in the district heating world.

- The expectation is that we will have a reasonable flow this coming autumn, says Tommy Palmholt.

"Come in"

There has been a lot of talk about sector coupling in recent years, but often the visions have ended up like birds on the roof, when the projects have either not been implemented, or are taking a long time to come to fruition. But in the case of Aabenraa District Heating and European Energy, things have been completely different.

- European Energy knocked on the door and asked if we were interested in surplus heat, and I said: 'Come in', says Tommy Palmholt about the beginning of an unusually good collaboration and elaborates:

- It has gone fantastically well, I get completely weak in the knees about it, it has gone so well. It has also been the same with the various administrations in the municipality that have been involved. We have many, many more problems with gas conversions.

The good cooperation that has been entered into between the district heating company and the energy company has also resulted in a flexible agreement.

- We have made an agreement based on mutual trust, and that is why it has gone so fantastically well. We have laid a pipe with a larger capacity than the 50,000 MW hours per year that our agreement is, says Tommy Palmholt.

The parties' agreement is also such that the settlement will take place with meters. The price for the surplus heat is even below what the otherwise cheap biofuel can be obtained for.

- The agreement is 150,- DKK per. MW, and that is below our production price with wood chips and straw, which is 192,- per MW, explains the director about a price that is, however, tied to investments:

- But there are investments for the pipe laying, and the two pumping stations. And we have bought a plot of land from European Energy in Kassø, where one of the pumping stations will be located. The pipe laying had to cross the railway, and that alone cost four million. DKK.

Less flaring in the future

For Aabenraa Fjernvarme, which has 10,000 customers in Aabenraa Municipality, this is the first step in a restructuring of the company's heat sources. The director already sees a development that points away from combustion as a heat source.

- We have two fantastic plants that burn wood chips at the plant in Egelund and straw in Stubbæk, says Tommy Palmholt about the relatively new plants from 2012 and 2014, which have helped to ensure district heating customers low prices of approximately DKK 10,000 for an average home.

But the political trends point away from combustion, as with cars, and there is a strong consumer desire to get away from combustion as a heat source. Even if it is biomass such as wood chips and straw rather than gas, oil or other fossil fuels.

- We notice that customers are against wood chips, as they did with gas. They think and write directly that the trees should remain. And they write when trees are cut down in Aabenraa, even though we have nothing to do with it. That's the new coal, says Tommy Palmholt.

In addition to the surplus heat from Kassø PtX, Aabenraa District Heating is in full swing with another wastewater plant from households.

- We are about to have four wastewater heat pumps, each one MW, produced in Finland, and we expect to be able to start working on that plant this autumn, says Tommy Palmholt.