AB | Case History
AB FOR GARDA PLAST Trigeneration to improve energy efficiency and optimise consumption in the industrial plastic injection moulding process
AB for GARDA PLAST
AB AND GARDA PLAST PARTNER TO PRODUCE ELECTRICITY, HEAT AND COLD WATER USEFUL TO THE PRODUCTION CHAINS.
4
TRIGENER
ST
5
RATION:
TRATEGIC FOR THE THERMOPLASTIC INDUSTRY. A production process where thermal energy has a key role and is continuously required. In the beverage industry, the cost of
“weighs” on the production costs, even
packaging is an ever more important
over 30%. Another fundamental aspect
economic component for the companies
is that the production chain in large
operating in the sector. Suppliers of PET
measure makes use of thermal energy.
pre-moulds need to stay competitive
Last but not least, many customers
even though in a market scenario that has
have a watchful attitude towards eco-
seen sizeable increases in raw material
environmental
prices. A company like Garda Plast
almost naturally leads to trigeneration,
hence needs to optimise its production
a system that in an integrated manner
costs in order not to negatively weigh
combines the production of electrical
down on the dialogue with acquired or
and thermal energy with a concrete
potential customers. It should also be
reduction
considered that energy significantly
environmental impact.
in
sensitivity.
All
consumption
this
and
≤
6
GARDA PLAST Specialised in the manufacture of pre-moulds for polyethylene bottles and packaging, GARDA PLAST aims at energy efficiency to combine market competitiveness and respect for the environment.
A T
7
≤
Set up in 1996, Garda Plast SpA is
Garda Plast is currently capable of
today one of the most well-established
producing over 1 billion pre-moulds
Italian industrial concerns operating
a year in various types and colours,
in the manufacture of polyethylene
not only for the mineral water and
terephthalate
packaging
beverage sector but also for the food
detergent
oil, milk, juice, wine, detergent and
for
food
(PET)
liquids
and
containers. As well as its core
cosmetic sectors.
business of manufacturing PET pre-
The entire plant design represents the
moulds for the mineral water and
excellence technology offers today:
beverage sector (both single-stage
this guarantees a high level of quality
and two-stage bottles), the company
and productivity with considerable
has progressively added solutions
production cost cutting, elements
for other sectors, always basing its
that are the key to success also in the
offer on product quality and service
packaging sector.
efficiency: Garda Plast is a guarantee for many beverage companies where the packaging is made of PET.
8
THE COLLABORATION BETWEEN
AB and GARDA REDUCE THE COSTS. INCREASE THE COMPETITIVENESS. MORE ECOSUSTAINIBILITY.
9
GARDA PLAST The trigeneration plant AB has installed at Garda Plast of Polpenazze del Garda (BS) is an example of how you can steer technological innovation in the direction of maximum energy efficiency, significantly curbing costs and contributing to concrete and quantifiable ecosustainability.
10
THE E
11
Ecomax
®
PLANT ≤
THE AB SOLUTION FOR GARDA PLAST IS ECOMAX® 18: A TRIGENERATION PLANT IN MODULAR PACKAGING THAT ASSURES HIGH PERFORMANCE AND FAST RETURN ON INVESTMENT.
12
The trigeneration plant installed at Garda Plast in Polpenazze del Garda (BS) THE PRODUCTION PROCESS The Garda Plast production process combines
At this point, the granules are fed into the presses
remarkable energy-consuming components with the
and once they reach the injection screw are melted at
need to have continuous heat available, especially for
a temperature of around 250째C. The molten material
one phase: PET granule drying before going to the
is then injected into the cooled mould where in a
injection moulding machines. The manufacturers
first phase the pre-mould is formed and in a second
supply the raw material as PET granules contained in
phase it is cooled. These two phases have a variable
special bags. The material is processed in an entirely
duration depending on the profile of the pre-mould
closed circuit without pollutants, transferring the
and its basis weight.
granules from the bags or from storage silos to the
The moment the mould is reopened, the parts are
moulding plants. The granules are fed into hoppers
picked up by robots and then released onto the
positioned above the presses where they stay for
conveyor belt.
about 6 hours to undergo the drying process, which
The thus produced pre-moulds are fully automatically
reduces the moisture in the granules to a value of
packed into boxes positioned at the end of the belt.
less than 30 P.P.M.
13
HEAT 41,9%
HEAT LOSS 15%
ELECTRICITY 43,1%
COLD
TRIGENERATION FUEL 100% TRIGENERATION DIAGRAM
TRIGENERATION The transformation of thermal energy into cooling
system, the overall efficiency increases because a
energy is made possible by the use of an absorption
larger percentage of the fuel heat value is used.
cooling cycle whose functioning is based on
It should moreover be considered that conventional
the transformation of the cooling fluid state in
thermoelectric power plants convert approximately
combination with the substance used as absorbent.
a third of the fuel energy into electricity (the rest is
At Garda Plast, the cooling energy is used to cool the
lost in heat), while in a trigeneration system, more
PET after the thermoforming process. Compared to
than 4/5 of the same energy is exploited, given that
generation of electrical energy only, in a trigeneration
the heat is recovered directly.
14
ECOMAX® The Ecomax® trigeneration plant is the fruit of applied research of AB, established in 1997 and which soon became the main technological and qualitative benchmark in the trigeneration market. Ecomax® is a high-performance industrial product based on the principles of versatility, modularity and compactness and assures fast return on investment. Ecomax® does not require any building permission
CO2 emission saving: approx. 640 ton/year
and offers numerous advantages: great flexibility, fast installation and startup, easy connection with existing
Oil consumption saving: approx. 275 TEP/year
plant-engineering systems. THE SOLUTION At Garda Plast the thermoforming processes take place in two recently constructed industrial units interfaced with logistic support structures. Consulting with the technicians and engineering staff of AB, the ECOMAX® 18 plant was identified as the ideal trigeneration solution.
Ecomax® 18 NGS
The plant runs for about 8,000 hours/year at 100% rated
Fuel consumption
Nm3/h
445
Power input
kW
4,228
Electrical power (cos.phi=1,0)
kW
1,824
energy, i.e. having removed the part share for internal
electric load with transfer to the network of solely surplus
Electrical efficiency
%
43,1
company use. A diathermal oil heat exchanger is installed
Diathermal oil
kW
597
Diathermal oil delivery temperature
°C
240
on the flue gas circuit to produce hot drying air for
Diathermal oil return temperature
°C
210
Hot water
KW °C
1,274 95
Cold water
KW °C
675 7
technological uses of the company and a recovery boiler with flue gas pipes to produce hot water between 93°C and 96°C and to feed an absorber with a power of 675 kWf. The total thermal energy recoverable is 1,871 kWt.
15
CHRONOLOGICAL WORK SCHEDULE Year Month Week
2009
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
Design Prefabricated units in the workshop Building works Installations Connections Start-ups
≤
16
THE EFFECTIVENESS ® OF ECOMAX 18 IN GARDA PLAST’S WORDS. ≤
Interview with Amos Tonoli, Chief Executive Officer of Garda Plast SpA
“After about a year of operation, we have been able to tangibly gauge the efficiency with respect to the expected benefit. We very carefully watch this aspect and I’m happy to say that the plant has achieved the results we set as objective.”
17
What led Garda Plast to invest in a trigeneration plant? Our production process is essentially based on heating the raw material and then the exacting need to quickly cool the parts. It was hence only logical to think of trigeneration, also because this technology allows at the same time generating the electricity the company needs with considerable savings in energy costs. We first of all need to dry the pre-mould material, PET. In the past we did this using heating elements to heat diathermal oil. Today, however, we use trigeneration recovering the flue gas and hot water the plant engine produces during its operation. In particular, we use the thermal energy during the PET drying phase which lasts from six to seven hours at 180 degrees, and the cooling energy to cool the pre-moulds. How is the ECOMAX® plant integrated in your production process? After a very short period of testing proper functioning and coordination with our production process, the plant is by now perfectly integrated and has become part of the Garda Plast facility to all intents and purposes. The plant structure should not be underestimated either; it consists of a container integrated in the existing plant-engineering systems in a minimally invasive manner. This has also solved the landscape requirements seeing that we operate in a natural context among the most appreciated in the area. The easy and versatile management allows us to modulate the plant power based on our energy requirements and to best exploit the thermal energy, an energy vector essential for our production. After about a year of operation, we have been able to tangibly gauge the efficiency with respect to the expected benefit. We very carefully watch this aspect and I’m happy to say that the plant has achieved the results we set as objective; at the same time, it is a nice image and eco-environmental sensitivity showcase when customers come to visit us, especially potential customers we would like to involve because we know that they are particularly sensitive to this issue. In particular, there is a certain clientele bracket, for example groups such as Nestlè and Coca Cola, that put this issue at the top of a scale of decision-making values for their supplies. Why did you choose AB? The decision was made following a careful and scrupulous selection process. Initially, we also looked at other companies, because we started off searching for an engine; we saw the plant-engineering systems as the next step. We were curious about the fact that AB is Jenbacher’s most important customer in Europe and this pushed us to look deeper into the technological components to understand how and why a trigeneration plant is much more than just an engine. Discovering the AB world, its engineering, the evident passion in every department and how it translates into reliability and performance was what fully convinced us.
18
AB SETS THE COGENERATION STANDARDS GLOBALLY been operating for over 30 years in the sector of cogeneration and promotion of energy from renewable sources.
AB is currently made up of 24 companies and over 500 employees and is a single entity able to manage the entire manufacturing cycle of a cogeneration plant: consultancy, design, production, installation and start-up with a comprehensive service. This has enabled AB to acquire unparalleled know-how, to become acquainted with every product detail and to provide a top-quality and highly-effective aftersales service. The success of AB which has already designed and built more than 900 plants - stems from ongoing investments in cutting-edge technologies, from the constant training and professional specialisation of all operators and from the development of an absolutely unique engineering
ita ly SALES
Foreign Branches
AB HOLDING SPA
AB industrial Group has
department: a team of over 110 engineers engaged in developing the industry towards the production of increasingly more reliable and higher performance plants. AB cogeneration plants are distinguished by modularity, compactness and ease of transport and cater to the energy requirements of a number of different companies. Outright leader in Italy, AB is also expanding globally: in Spain (2007), in Romania (2009), in Poland (2010), and again with the opening of subsidiaries in Croatia and Serbia (2011). From 2012 AB is in Czech Republic, from 2013 also in the Netherlands, Austria, Brazil, Francia and Canada. From 2014 AB in UK, Germany, USA and Israel and from 2015 in Russia and Turkey too.
AB Energy SpA
AB Energy International GmbH
AB Energy EspaĂąa S.L.
AB Energy Romania Srl
KWE Technika Energetyczna Sp. z.o.o.
AB Energy Hrvatska d.o.o.
AB Energy Srbija d.o.o.
AB Energy CeskĂĄ s.r.o.
AB Energy do Brasil Ltda
Green House Power Netherlands BV
EPS AB Energy Canada Ltd.
AB Energy (UK) Ltd.
AB Energy Deutschland GmbH
AB Energy Russia
AB Energy Israel Ltd.
AB Energy USA Lcc
AB Energy France
AB Energy Turkey
PRODUCTION
AB Plants Srl
AB Power Srl
SERVICE
AB Service Srl
FINANCING
AB Fin-solution SpA
RENEWABLE ENERGY
AB Ambiente Srl
19
Cogeneration has proven to be a winning choice, also in other industrial and non-industrial fields, such as food chemical, pharmaceutical, textile, plastic, paper, brick, etc. 700 customers, some of them are: Amadori, Benetton, BNL, Buitoni, Cartiere Saci, Coca - Cola, Cotonificio Albini, Eridania, Esselunga, Fatro, Ferrero, Felli Color, Galbani, Garda Plast, Granarolo, Gruppo Cremonini, Gruppo Mapei, kraft, Lafarge, Lilly, Martini & Rossi, Nestlè, Orogel, Pastificio Garofalo, Pastificio Rummo, Peroni, Pfizer, Polynt, Spumador, Wienerberger, etc.
welcomeadv.it
www.biogaschannel.com
www.cogenerationchannel.com
AB Energy SpA Via Caduti del Lavoro, 13 25034 Orzinuovi BS - Italy T. +39 030 94 00 100 www.gruppoab.com