FE by France Evaporation has announced a world-first achievement in digestate treatment, commissioning a high-temperature heat pump (HTHP) coupled with a mechanical vapour recompression (MVR) loop at an anaerobic digestion site in Scandinavia.
The project marks a significant development in energy-efficient digestate treatment, demonstrating how previously wasted thermal energy can be recovered and reused within the process.
The new system enables the site to eliminate its reliance on fossil-fuel-based steam and move to a 100% electric installation, using recovered heat to provide the energy required for the treatment process.
Steam generation is traditionally one of the most energy-intensive elements of digestate processing, with conventional systems often relying on fossil fuel combustion. By combining a heat pump with an MVR loop, FE's engineering teams have developed a system that recycles thermal energy on site, removing the need for steam generation while reducing energy consumption and operating costs.
The resulting installation operates primarily on electricity and is designed to support the transition towards lower-carbon industrial operations.
According to FE, the system also brings a number of operational benefits, including reduced primary energy demand and carbon emissions, lower operating costs and a more reliable and consistent process through increased automation.
The company also highlighted the potential for projects of this type to benefit from public decarbonisation support schemes, reflecting growing investment in technologies designed to help industry reduce its carbon footprint.
FE by France Evaporation said the project reinforces its position as a provider of evaporation, concentration and energy recovery solutions for the environmental, biogas and wastewater treatment sectors.
Olivier Dehay, Head of Digestate Department at FE by France Evaporation, said:
“This project shows what's possible when we stop treating waste heat as a byproduct to discard and start treating it as a resource to capture. Every project like this moves the industry closer to full decarbonization.”
The project highlights the growing potential for waste heat recovery, electrification and energy efficiency to play a role in industrial decarbonisation - key themes being explored across Energy, Fuels & Decarbonisation (EFD) Expo this September.
Discover the latest technologies and solutions across energy, bioenergy, Energy from Waste and decarbonisation at EFD Expo, 16–17 September at the NEC Birmingham.
