Traditionally, industrial boilers in Vietnam are chosen and designed for the main aim to keep investment costs as low as possible. As a result, the lifetime is often very short, and the energy efficiency is substantially lower than best practice.

Over the life time of a boiler, the fuel costs usually exceed the initial investment costs. This is particularly the case for boilers burning commercial fuels such as coal or oil. Even for boilers burning waste products from the enterprise, such as saw dust and similar, the market value of this waste product may exceed the initial boiler investment cost.

Few owners of an industrial boiler may be aware of the efficiency of their boiler, even less so about the potential costs and benefits of upgrading it or replacing it by a new and efficient one.

Over the years, numerous demonstration projects have been performed to show the benefits of improving boiler energy efficiency by 10% or more. These projects all confirm a very good business case with short payback periods, often below 1 year. Some examples can be found in this link.

Existing industrial solid fuel boilers burning coal or biomass typically have an efficiency of about 70%. But best practice for new solid fuel boilers is actually up to 95%. This difference in efficiency is equivalent to a potential energy savings of 26%. To reach such high efficiency, higher investment costs are required, and probably overseas technology will be needed. But the additional investment costs will normally pay back within a few years’ time.

To encourage and assist enterprises to improve efficiency of the boilers, MOIT with support from the Danish government has published a catalogue of options to improve EE in existing boilers. The catalogue also includes suggestions to optimization of new boilers. The catalogue offers more than 30 concrete suggestions of how to improve the efficiency of an existing or a new boiler.

The catalogue also provides guidance into how to design a new boiler solution. When replacing an existing boiler with a new one, the investor has the chance to re-design the whole system. For example, it will be possible to shift to another fuel (for example from coal to biomass), it could be possible to replace steam production by hot water, if not too high temperatures are required, heat transfer surfaces could be optimized for better efficiency, and an advanced boiler control system could be implemented.

The catalogue can be used for inspiration by industrial energy managers to identify possible energy efficiency options. Certain simple measures can be implemented without need for in-depth analysis. Other solutions may need access to specific measuring equipment as well as experience in detailed energy analysis. In such cases, the industrial energy managers should seek support from the boiler supplier or from an experienced energy audit expert.

In particular when it comes to replacement of a boiler, the investor should be sure to get information about costs and benefits of a number of alternative solutions, so that the most optimal solution can be chosen.

DEPP3 Program