Glatfelter Caerphilly has been working with the Carbon Trust to achieve annualised energy savings of over £50,000, which directly impact the financial performance of the company.
Carbon Trust Wales has been able to help Glatfelter Caerphilly achieve a more sustainable and cost effective model of operating. Improved energy efficiency and its related improvement in the cost base of the business align well with Glatfelter’s ethos of continuous improvement and the need to remain competitive in challenging markets. This in turn increases the ability of the business to reinvest in its future growth and development.
Glatfelter Caerphilly, which produces metallised papers for labelling and packaging customers, requested help in identifying the areas with the highest potential for energy reduction. Carbon Trust Wales carried out a full survey of the site and provided a detailed business case including predicted payback periods and information on different funding options.
The energy survey identified five main opportunities, two of which have been implemented to date. These measures addressed both the electricity and gas usage at the site. The first was utilising waste heat from the coating process back to the Regenerative Thermal Oxidiser. The second was optimisation of oxidiser flow controls to prevent excessive temperatures and minimise gas usage.
The company achieved a 31% reduction in the amount of gas and a 13.5% reduction in electricity used from these opportunities alone. The predicted payback period for both measures was one year but this actually happened within half that time, meaning the savings were boosting Glatfelter’s bottom line in just six months.
Before making the changes Glatfelter decided to engage its workforce with an energy and HAZOP workshop spread over two days. Securing the buy-in and understanding from its staff helped with the implementation phases and was a crucial part of the process, necessary to achieve smooth implementation without disturbance of the fully loaded production lines.
After seeing the benefits of implementing the first two opportunities, Glatfelter Caerphilly continues to build energy efficiency improvements into its continuous improvement plans for the long term. Recently the site began operation of a new metalliser. A primary consideration in the selection of this machine was its improved energy efficiency when compared to existing equipment
The site is also working on a number of other upgrade projects, such as extending the waste oil heat recovery system to pre heat the coating machine make up and combustion air, retro-fitting the lighting to LEDs and eliminating energy wastage and losses in the compressed air systems by upgrading the planned preventative maintenance regime.
In addition, the business intends to implement the three additional measures identified in the initial Carbon Survey in the near future. These measures include the turndown of exhaust fans to optimise processes/settings and process optimisation modifications.
Glatfelter UK Energy Manager, Jamie Lavis, commented: “This success has made a very significant contribution to this year’s business results, and has allowed us to establish the credibility of energy saving projects as a major contributor to our overall improvement activities. The momentum that we’ve built is something we are looking to build on in the coming years and we hope to establish ourselves as leaders in the field of carbon saving
“The support we’ve had from Carbon Trust Wales has been extremely valuable. They were able to provide us with access to an industry specialist consultant who already had a detailed understanding of our sector so could start identifying savings straight away. The Carbon Trust is flexible and always prepared to listen and work with us to find the best possible solutions for our unique problems rather than being prescriptive and approaching things with a ‘one size fits all’ approach.”
Lee Evans, Account Manager at Carbon Trust Wales, said: “One of Glatfelter’s main concerns was the cost of energy. We have helped them to combat this by streamlining processes and improving energy efficiency on the production lines. We are delighted to be able to support this business and contribute to its long term sustainability and competiveness.