Emissions

We are reducing the emissions that we as a company produce without compromise. This includes both direct emissions from sources owned by the company, such as our heating method or our fleet, referred to as scope 1 emissions, as well as company emissions caused by using energy that we purchase, such at electricity. These are referred to as scope 2 emissions. We aim to reduce scope 1 and scope 2 emissions until our company’s production is climate neutral. That means reducing our emissions caused by combustible and vehicle fuels as well as energy obtained from external sources in three steps:

We are implementing, monitoring and accelerating the reduction of our emissions in line with the internationally certified energy management system in accordance with ISO 50001. This has allowed us to reduce our global carbon emissions from combustible and vehicle fuels as well as sourced energy by 65% and significantly increase our ecological efficiency since 2019.

Use of cogeneration

Our use of cogeneration via modern cogeneration units, which allow for significantly improved energy efficiency, is also certified as environmentally friendly. The principle of cogeneration is based on a thermodynamic process which involves reusing heat that is unavoidably generated when producing electricity to provide heating. This reduces both energy use and the resulting carbon dioxide emissions.

Use of heat recovery (in production)

In our production, we use the principle of heat recovery at all suitable sources; this involves using a variety of processes to collect excess energy and subsequently feed it back into our energy supply. This allows us to save energy and reduce carbon emissions.

1. Heat recovery via ventilation technology
All our production areas are subject to the highest hygiene standards. As a result, we use special ventilation technology to change the ambient air in regular brief intervals. New air flows in as the used air is removed from rooms. This used air contains a significant amount of heat energy, which we collect, feed back into our energy cycle and thus save a significant amount of energy.
This ventilation technology is used to recover heat via two different methods. Which of the two processes is used depends on the technology of the system used for ventilation. On the one hand, we obtain heat via a so-called thermal wheel. This draws heat from the used air flowing out which is then continuously fed back into the fresh air flowing in.
On the other hand, we use heat exchangers which, like the thermal wheel, draw thermal energy from the used air. This is then fed into the return flow of our heating system.

2. Heat recovery via compressors
To produce our products, we need compressed air in specific production steps. We use compressors to generate this, which suck in and compress external air, store it in a special vessel and then deliver it via a valve on this vessel in the form of compressed air. The thermal energy which this process generates is drawn from the compressors via a so-called heat exchanger and fed into the return flow of our heating system (return flow heating).

3. Heat recovery via hydraulic and tool cooling of our injection moulding machines
We use injection moulding machines to process production-relevant plastic granules. The hydraulics and tools of these machines must be cooled constantly. This is performed by two water-based cooling circuits which each require different temperatures. The principle employed with our cooling circuit is thus referred to as a dual circuit system.
During this process, the hydraulic cooling circuit manages at a temperature of just 30 degrees, while the tool cooling circuit must be cooled to 15 degrees. When using a joint cooling circuit for hydraulics and tools, a uniform temperature of 15 degrees must be achieved. This would require significantly more energy compared to using two different cooling circuits; only the water for tool cooling must be regulated to 15 degrees, while the water temperature for hydraulics cooling is only reduced from 35 to 30 degrees.
The heat is recovered from the water used as the heat transfer medium for hydraulic cooling with its initial temperature of 35 degrees, and is then fed into our heating system via a heat exchanger.
As some sites still do not have the optimal prerequisites to recover thermal energy, we are accelerating the continuous expansion and comprehensive use of heat recovery in order to increase our energy efficiency.

In order to achieve total climate neutrality beyond this, we also refocus specifically on the use of renewable energy.

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