Freudenberg Politex has started up a cogeneration plant in Novedrate, Italy for the internal production of thermal and electric energy.
 
Riccardo Sollini, president and CEO, explained “the cost of utilities has risen constantly over the years and environmental protection has assumed a much more strategic importance for industries. This is why the decision was made to install a cogeneration plant in Italy, where the cost of energy particularly affects our business.”

The cogeneration plant produces 5 MW of electric power and also satisfies the needs for thermal energy of the entire site with around 4 MW. The recovery of thermal energy, in its noble and less noble state, allows for a 75% exploitation of the cogeneration plant. This efficiency ratio is very high, especially when compared to the average efficiency of traditional electric plants which usually do not exceed 55%.

Thanks to the high efficiency, the cogeneration plant allows considerable savings on combustion, with the consequent drop of emissions into the atmosphere by approximately 45% in comparison with traditional sources. The environmental benefit estimated is a reduction of CO2 emissions of around 14,000 tons per year.
 
The reduction of the environmental impact of the site at Novedrate makes it eligible for white certificates of energy efficiency. This is in addition to the recycling activities of the Group, which for more than 10 years has been producing polyester internally from PET post consumer bottles, thus allowing a significant reduction of CO2 emissions over the entire life cycle of its finished products.