Partners

16 partners with an international outlook Kalundborg's global private companies work with local businesses and authorities across sectors and employ around 4,500 people.

1 STEAM

Along the roads, within the industrial area of Kalundborg,
big green pipes transports steam from Asnæs Power Station
to several partners of the Kalundborg Symbiosis.
As the most visible sign of the connection between companies,
the green pipes have become the symbol of the industrial symbiosis.
Previously, Asnæs Power Station had an overcapacity of steam
from their producttion of electricity. Over time, steam has become
the main product and electricity the byproduct. Along with this,
production of steam has shifted from coal to biomass.
At Novozymes and Novo Nordisk, the steam is used
for a variety of purposes, including cleaning, sterilization and distillation.

2 POWER TO THE GRID

At Asnæs Power Station, green electricity is
produced using the steam that powers a turbine,
which then generates electricity for the electricity grid.
Novozymes produces biogas from the process wastewater
that contains relative high amounts of organic material
from the production at Novozymes and Novo Nordisk.
Biogas feeds a large engine that delivers 11,000 MWh per year.
This corresponds to the consumption of
approximately 2,500 Danish households. The surplus heat
from the large gas engine is also used internally
for heating of the factory area.
This way the use of fossil fuels for both electricity and heat
production are replaced by suspended organic waste material
from local production.

3 WARM CONDENSATE
For certain purposes, the steam received
from Ørsted is too hot, therefore steam condensation
is collected from the buildings and directed into large tanks.
The condensate from the tanks is injected into the overheated steam,
resulting in a temperature drop to 200 degrees, supplemented
by a reduction in pressure to 14 bar ("saturated steam").
The excess heat condensate is utilized by taking out the heat
for district heating and hot process water.
The resulting cold condensate is used for mixtures of lye and acid,
as well as supplementing water in cooling towers to "save"
on the consumption of surface water from Lake Tissø.

4 DISTRICT HEATING

At Asnæs Power Station, district heating
is produced from which electricity production
is a by-product. District heating is produced
corresponding to heating of 24,000 households.
District heating is supplied to Kalundborg Utility,
which distributes it to citizens and businesses in the local area.
The Kalundborg Utility's heat pump provides the city's citizens
with additional heat during the coldest months
and when electricity prices are low.

Companies such as Novo Nordisk and Novozymes
utilize parts of the surplus heat generated in
their own production. The utilization of surplus heat
takes place locally at the site and means that less resources
are used to produce heat.

4 DISTRICT HEATING

5 BIOMETHANE

At Kalundborg Bioenergy, residues from
insulin and enzyme production generated
at Novo Nordisk and Novozymes, are subsequently
upgraded to biomethane equivalent to natural gas quality.
The biomethane is distributed via the natural gas grid
to Kalundborg Refinery and other end consumers.
Kalundborg Bioenergy produces both for the local natural
gas grid (4 bar) and for the national natural gas grid (19 bar).
The upgrading process removes hydrogen sulphite
and carbon dioxide, while returning sulphur from
the hydrogen sulphite to the degassed residual biomass
as an enrichment of the biogas plant's fertiliser products.

5 BIOMETHANE

6 WASTEWATER

Kalundborg Utility is responsible for the final treatment
of the wastewater from the companies in the Kalundborg Symbiosis,
but before that, several of the partners have pre- treated it themselves,
in order to comply with legal requirements. Some types of wastewater
run in separate pipes, to allowing for an optimized treatment
and minimized energy consumptin.
The treated wastewater from the Kalundborg Utility is then passed
through a heat exchanger at the heat pump utility, which can
produce approx. 80,000 MWh per year, covering more than
30% of Kalundborg Utility's annual purchase of district heating.

6 WASTEWATER

7 CLEANED/ PURIFIED WASTEWATER

The Novozymes Wastewater and Biogas plant is
where the first phase of the treatment of the process
wastewater from the production in Novozymes
and Novo Nordisk happens. From this, the gasified water
is led to the final treatment at Kalundborg Utility.
Both treatments benefit from the fact that wastewater
from Novozymes and Novo Nordisk always is
around 35 degrees Celcius. This, because bacteria
can operate faster and more efficient at this temperature
and with a lower energy consumption.

8 SURFACE WATER

In the Kalundborg Symbiosis, 3.5 million
cubic metres of surface water from Tissø are used annually instead of drinking water
from groundwater reservoirs. The surface water flows in a 13
kilometre long pipeline from Tissø to Kalundborg Forsyning,
which distributes the water to the companies. The surface water
is used for cooling in production and for process water in industry.

8 SURFACE WATER

8 SURFACE WATER IN The Kalundborg Symbiosis uses 3.5 million
cubic metres of surface water from Tissø annually instead of drinking water
from groundwater reservoirs. The surface water runs in a 13
kilometre long pipeline from Tissø to Kalundborg Forsyning,
which distributes the water to the companies. The surface water
is used for cooling in production and for process water in industry.

8 SURFACE WATER

9 USED COOLING WATER

Used cooling water is a residual from
Kalundborg Refinery, and is by origin surface water
from Lake Tissø, that has been used for cooling in
a closed pipe system at the refinery. The water is sent back
to Ørsted for steam production at Asnæs Power Plant.
The used cooling water has a higher temperature than
surface water from Lake Tissø, resulting in a lower
energy consumption when converting it into steam.

10 DEIONAT

When Ørsted produces electricity, the generators
are powered by steam turbines, requiring
that the steam in this case is made of
deionized water (make-up-water).
It is also known as demineralized water,
as all minerals and salts has been removed
to avoid breaking internal parts of the steam turbines,
boilers, as well as the heating pipes.
Ørsted also supplies deionized water for Kalundborg
Refinery's own production of steam,
which is based on the residual heat from the refinery.

10 DEIONAT

11 CLEANED SURFACE WATER

Out of the more than 3.5 million cubic meters
of surface water recovered from Lake Tissø
and used in Kalundborg Symbiosis,
more than 1.5 million cubic meters is cleaned
to drinking water quality. It all ends up at Novozymes,
where the cleaned surface water is used directly in
their production of industrial enzymes.
This saves drinking water and conserves groundwater reserves.

11 CLEANED SURFACE WATER

12 MAKE-UP-WATER

At the Asnæs Power Plant water is released
when firering with wood chips. Asnæs Power Plant
cannot use the approximately 65 million litres
of flue gas condensate itself, but the neighbouring
company, Kalundborg Refinery, can.
Once the condensate has been treated via osmosis
and ion exchange, via pipes the clean water is directed
to the refinery. Here the purified water can be used
as boiler water covering about 1/3 of the needs
at Kalundborg Refinery. Without this agreement,
the refinery would have to use and further process
surface water from Lake Tissø to reach the necessary quality.

13 WASTE

ARGO receives various fractions of waste
from all citizens and businesses in
Kalundborg Municipality, including Kalundborg Utility.
The recyclable waste is sorted into fractions
and subsequently passed on to the recycling industry.
From this, a much reduced waste fraction is energy-utilized
for electricity and heat production at Roskilde Kraftvarmeværk (ARGO).

13 WASTE

14 SULPHUR

Kalundborg Refining removes sulphur from
the oil and converts the sulfur into the fertilizer
component ammonium thiosulfate (ATS) that boost
the growth of plants.
The sulphur has become a valuable resource
sold to the large fertilizer companies in Denmark.
ATS is a liquid fertilizer, making it easier for the farmers
to dose the amount of fertilizer more efficiently.
ATS causes the plants to absorb the sulphur and other
nutrients better, which leads to less evaporation of nitrogen.

15 YEAST SLURRY

Novo Nordisk produces active pharmaceutical ingredients
through a fermentation process, where yeast cells grow
primarily on sugar and vitamins. When the fermentation process
is finalized, and the active pharmaceutical ingredients
are fractionated out, a nutritional mixture called yeast slurry is retained.
This yeast slurry is sent to the biogas plant Kalundborg Bioenergy for gasification.
Through gasification and after upgrading the produced biogas,
the yeast slurry is converted to biomethan and fertilizers.

16 SAND

The Kalundborg Utility treats the wastewater from households
and companies and as a result collects a large amount of sand
from the wastewater in their sand trap. The sand consists of
different sizes of pebbles and gravel and is excellent as filling
material for excavation work locally. All sand used for work like
this is rinsed, sanitized and checked to make sure it meets
the requirements for reused.

17 SLUDGE

When Kalundborg Utility treats the wastewater from households
and companies, one of the residues is bio-sludge. Part of this sludge
is delivered to farmers as fertilizer, due to its content of nutrients.
Before leaving the treatment plant at Kalundborg Utility, the sludge
is sanitized and checked, to make sure it meets the requirements
to be used on all types of farmland and in private gardens.

18 NOVOGRO

NovoGro is both a waste stream from Novo Nordisk
and Novozymes and a source of energy containing
valued fertilizer components. Biogas (methan) is
produced via digestion of Novogro at Kalundborg Bioenergy.
The biogas is then upgraded to biomethane
and injected into the gas grid. The remaining product
is rich in nutrients like nitrogen (N), phosphor (P)
and potassium (K); all significant ingredients in fertilizers.

19 ETHANOL WASTE

Ethanol is part of certain parts of the process
when Novo Nordisk produces insulin.
Much of the ethanol can be regenerated.
Some of the ethanol-containing residues
that cannot be regenerated are sent, among other things,
to the biogas plant at Kalundborg Bioenergy.
Here the ethanol residues are converted to biogas
and upgraded to biomethane.

19 ETHANOL WASTE

20 BIOMASS

Novozymes produces enzymes through
a fermentation process based on agricultural
raw materials, such as sugar, starch and protein.
When the fermentation process is over
and the enzymes are separated, Novozymes is left
with a nutrient-rich biomass that Kalundborg Bioenergy
converts into biogas (upgraded to biomethane) and fertilizer.

21 FERTILISER

Gasified biomass from Novozymes
and Novo Nordisk, together with
reclaimed sulphur, make up the ingredients
of various fertiliser products that are especially
suitable for agriculture.

22 INDUSTRIAL RECYCLING

Many external companies are purchasers of
waste from the Recycling Centre in Kalundborg (ARGO)
that the citizens are good at sorting out into well defined fractions.
These include plastic, ROCKWOOL insulation, flamingo, glass,
cardboard, paper and clean wood. The different materials
are sorted and much of it can be recycled again - for new plastic,
new ROCKWOOL isolation, new flamingo, new glass,
new cardboard and paper. Clean wood can e.g. be turned into chipboard.

23 REUSABLE WASTE

Parts of the citizens' reusable materials, being in a good
and functional condition are being picked up
by several organizations, such as Red Cross, Ørslev Sport Club,
Resale, Løve Community Center and Spildlopperne in Kalundborg.
Hence the organizations sell the materials as direct reuse
and donate the money to charity.
In addition, citizens locally in Kalundborg have the opportunity
to pick up compost throughout the year at The Recycling Center (ARGO).