Campofrio Alimentacion S.A. is a leading international company within the food sector. It produces meat products which require significant amount of heat in the form of steam and hot water including industrial cooling and electrical energy.

With the purpose of reducing energy costs on the production process and equipping the company with flexible installations in order to meet both present and future energy needs in a secure and efficient manner, Guascor Energia entered in a joint venture with Campofrio in order to build a trigeneration plant producing heat, cold and electrical energy.

The Trigeneration plant operates 24/7 with a total of 8,700 hours annually.

The installation incorporates four turbo charged gas engines each one rated at 3MW with a total installed power of 12 MW.

To cover the cold demand on the production process, the trigeneration plant is fitted with an ammonia-water absorption machine, which runs off saturated steam obtained from the heat recovered from the engines exhaust gases.

OXAQUIM is a leading business in the manufacture of oxalic acid, which for its production process needs significant amounts of steam, industrial cooling and electricity.

Guascor Energia, after having carried out a meticulous program of measurements for the process’s thermal and electrical needs, decided to install a trigeneration plant, the goal was to reduce the plants energy costs and to improve its performance.

The plant was built under a joint venture scheme with Qxaquim and the electric company ERX. It operates 24 hours a day 365 days per year. The plant has 10 Guascor FGLD 480 gas engines with a total installed power of 6.6 MW.

Control System
The plants control system is based on microprocessors allowing for a centralized supervision and ease of operations. The system can produce reports to assist with its management and to optimize the plants performance.

Electrical Energy
The electrical energy is generated by 10 generators each rated at 800 KVA at a voltage of 660V. The generators operate in parallel with the electric company’s grid to which they export any non consumed electricity.

Thermal Energy
The steam needed for the process is supplied by two heat recovery boilers running off the engines’ exhaust gases, producing 2,600 kg of saturated steam per hour at a pressure of 8 bar.

Hot and Cold Water
70 degree Celsius water is needed in the manufacturing process. This is obtained by using a heat exchanger in the engines’ cooling circuit.

On the other hand, part of this heating power is used to generate cold water at 7 degrees, by means of a lithium bromide absorption chiller. This is done with hardly any consumption of electricity.