Jindal Films Europe announces a strategic investment in energy efficiency and environmental sustainability capability at its Brindisi plant in Southern Italy. Combined Heat and Power (CHP), or co‐generation as it is also known, is the process of capturing and using the waste heat produced by the generation of electricity. More recently, technological advances have enabled an additional benefit resulting in what is known as trigeneration. trigeneration, the simultaneous production of heat, electrical power and cooling power from just one power source, allows for savings of up to 30% of primary energy as well as reduced carbon dioxide emissions from the lower consumption of fossil fuels.

Paul Griffith, Executive Vice President said “our customers and major stakeholders will notice a consistent theme in our strategic choices around the elimination and reduction of each form of waste in our plants and operations. This latest investment is another example of how we intend to achieve our objectives and there will be more to come as we seek to add value for our customers and increase our competitive advantage”.

Traditional power generation converts fuel into electricity and disperses heat in to the atmosphere. Cogeneration utilizes part of the released heat into production by reducing the fuel consumption needed for heating. Trigeneration further reutilizes the unused heat released in to the atmosphere by converting it into cooling and therefore avoiding the need to consume electricity to generate chilled water.

Marcello Bergamo, Managing Director, added “our Brindisi manufacturing site is already embracing energy optimization and sustainability objectives by integrating them in to our daily work activities so the site employees are delighted by this announcement. The installation of the new Trigeneration unit will provide the next step in further saving on primary energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by having an operating yield above 70%, thanks to the conversion of the natural gas into electrical power, heat and cooling output”.

Jindal Films is a global manufacturer of specialty oriented polypropylene (OPP) films, including multilayer white opaque films, metalized films and coated films, for flexible packaging and labeling applications. It has affiliated production plants in Europe (Virton, Belgium; Kerkrade, The Netherlands; and Brindisi, Italy), and in the United States (LaGrange, Georgia; and Shawnee, Oklahoma). The company and its affiliates have sales offices to support customer needs in countries around the world, including North America, Europe and Asia.