Independent Power Production
Independent power production enables ICL to optimize its energy consumption. By using cogeneration power plants in different facilities, ICL’s plants use residual heat from the electricity generation as a thermal energy source, resulting in a highly efficient process in terms of fuel used. \
We operate several cogeneration plants at different sites:
- ICL Dead Sea – The older CHP (combined heat and power) plant has a production capacity of 51-54 MW and generates 260 tons of steam per hour. In 2012 ICL received a permit to operate a new natural gas-based power plant at Sdom with the capacity to produce approximately 240 MW of power. The new plant became fully operational in 2018, and operates at a much greater efficiency than the previous installation. The plant will replace all external electricity purchased by ICL sites in Israel.
- ICL Rotem – Sulphuric acid plants and the Pama plant (which uses oil shale as a primary fuel) together provide electrical production capacity of 40MW and 340 tonnes of steam per hour. These cogeneration plants operate at a very high efficiency level, exceeding 85%, and receive heat generated by the sulphur combustion and conversion process.
- ICL YPH JV – High temperature heat recovery systems at the sulphuric acid plants provide both steam and electricity for process needs.
- ICL UK CPL –The cogeneration plant operated by the site has been in operation for many years and the first phase of the re-engineering of the entire plant was completed in 2016.
- ICL Germany Ladenburg- Since 2014 the site has benefited from a CHP plant with a production output of 2 MW of electricity, 1 MW of steam and 1 MW of hot water. This unit compliments a smaller unit that has existed for many years.
Due to the environmental and economic benefits of cogeneration, ICL intends to invest in implementing other cogeneration projects at multiple facilities in the near future.
During 2016-17 and due to the evident environmental and economic benefits of cogeneration, the viability of adopting this technology was re-assessed at all of ICL’s major global plants. The conclusion was that half of our most energy-intensive sites could potentially utilize cogeneration. As a result, we plan to invest in additional installations over the next several years- with preference for sites where environmental and carbon tax regulations provide further incentive for investment.
