French multinational company L’Oréal aims for zero emissions and savings
IT GETS THEM THANKS TO THE UNICONFORT SOLID BIOMASS BOILER
A Uniconfort boiler has made the new Italian L’Oréal factory even more ‘green’. This factory is the largest of the 45 in the group worldwide in terms of production and opened in the presence of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi in Settimo Torinese (To) on 17 September. Thanks to a plant of district heating and cooling, solar photovoltaic panels, biogas for steam generation and a biomass power plant, the model factory aims to reach “zero emissions” by 2015.
THERMAL AND ELECTRICAL ENERGY FROM BIOMASS
Thanks to Uniconfort technology, the biomass power plant will be used to power the district heating plant used by the new factory. This plant is capable of simultaneously generating 4.1 MW thermal power and 1 MW of electric power. The electricity produced is supplied to the grid and then bought by the French multinational company, while the thermal energy is used to heat the water that powers the district heating system used by L’Oréal in air conditioning the work areas.
ZERO KM AND ZERO EMISSIONS
The boiler is fuelled by wood chips that come from a short chain -they are purchased from local producers who obtain it from the virtuous management of forests or from crops dedicated to energy purposes in the surrounding areas. Thanks to the use of this ‘green’ fuel, the company’s CO2 emissions will be reduced to zero. And not only that. The plant also makes use of sophisticated systems for the elimination of particulate matter, nitrogen oxide and carbon monoxide thanks to special filtering and high-tech devices.
AND THAT’S WITHOUT EVEN MENTIONING THE SAVINGS!
A choice that even pays from economic point of view! In fact, the savings for L’Oréal on the energy account is around 20%, since the cost of solid biomass is less than half compared to the equivalent fuel derived from hydrocarbons.
PLANT SPECIFICATION
- Boiler: GLOBAL 500
- Power: 4,1 MWt-1MWel
- Fuel: green waste
- Production: thermal oil