Ahlstrom-Munksjö will invest approximately €15 million to install a new co-generation plant at its Turin site in Italy. The investment allows the combined and efficient generation of power and steam needed for the site processes. The project will begin in the first half of 2019, and is expected to be completed by the first half of 2020.

The cogeneration plant consisting of a new gas turbine and a new heat recovery steam generator will be installed in a new building adjacent to the manufacturing facilities and connected to the existing steam turbine.

“The new installations will allow a significant increase in self-production of energy, enabling the manufacturing site to produce internally almost its entire power need, while the heat recovery steam generator will cover its full steam demand. The project will not have any effects on the production of the plant, as it’s going to be installed in parallel to the existing power plant and will be connected to the process when it will be ready to operate at full capacity,” says Giorgio Mirone, vice president Engineering & Technology, Industrial Solutions.

Pursuing continuous improvement in environmental performance is an essential part of the work at Ahlstrom-Munksjö. In operations, the company strives to effectively manage resources, developing processes that use energy, water and raw materials more efficiently, to minimize waste and emissions to water and air.

“The investment in Turin fully supports these objectives as it will significantly improve the energy efficiency of the plant and will allow significant reduction of the emissions levels. By almost eliminating purchase of external electricity the investment will strengthen the long term competitiveness of the site,” says Marco Troglia, vice president Release Liners and Stefano Zenga, vice president Filtration EMEA.

The Turin plant manufactures filtration and release liner products for Ahlstrom-Munksjö’s Filtration and Performance and Industrial Solutions business areas, and is certified according to ISO14001, ISO50001, FSC and PEFC standards for Environmental Management, Energy Management, and Chain of Custody. In 2018, Ahlstrom-Munksjö achieved Gold rating from Eco-Vadis, a collaborative platform that provides sustainability evaluation and rating for global supply chains.