Natural gas phase-out well underway

BIRN Group has a goal of using no natural gas, in line with our customers’ expectations. This means that natural gas will eventually no longer be used for domestic hot water and heating offices, or for process heating in production. The group is already well on its way to achieving this. At BIRN in Holstebro, natural gas is currently used predominantly for heating offices and hot water for bathing facilities, as well as process heat for cast iron production.

"The reduction in natural gas consumption is a direct result of our investments in heat recovery systems in recent years. These systems allow us to recover the surplus heat from casting production and use it to heat the rest of the company. We invested in two more systems in 2024, bringing the total to four heat recovery systems at BIRN in Holstebro. These four systems have enabled us to halve our consumption of natural gas for comfort heating in just three years,” says Emil Husted Brodersen, Group Sustainability Manager at BIRN Group.

Heat recovery is an excellent solution

The gradual introduction of heat recovery systems that started in 2022 has resulted that natural gas consumption for comfort heating has been heavily reduced. Natural gas consumption was 18,700 MWh in 2021, and had dropped to just 8,580 MWh in 2024, a reduction of over 50 per cent in three years.

"The results in terms of reducing natural gas consumption speak for themselves, and we are very happy and proud of that. We are confident that we will reach our goal of phasing out natural gas completely,” says Emil Husted Brodersen.

“We therefore plan to make further investment in heat recovery. It’s an excellent solution for a foundry, where we have a relatively large amount of surplus heat that we can utilise to meet our own heating needs, while reducing natural gas consumption.”

Updating air handling unit saves natural gas

ULDALL in Vejen also installed a heat recovery system in 2024, along with a new and much more efficient air handling unit. This allows the company to also use its own heat from casting production for comfort heating.