The Sri Lanka facility steam production process will be fully re-engineered to reduce the plant's environmental footprint and also improve production efficiency
Trelleborg Wheel Systems recently announced they will fully re-engineer their Sri Lanka facility’s steam production process through the introduction of an advanced biomass boiler—a move that will not only reduce the plant’s environmental footprint but will also improve production efficiency.
The Trelleborg facility, located in Makola, close to Colombo, employees more than 850 people and produces solid tyres for the material handling and port industries, as well as pneumatic tyres for light agricultural applications.
The tyre curing process, traditionally carried out by a furnace oil boiler, produces substantial CO2 emissions, however, the advanced biomass-fired boiler will help reduce CO2 emission by more than 90%.
The project will be fully operational starting from June 2019. Paolo Pompei, president at Trelleborg Wheel Systems, says,
“The investment is in line with the company target to address the environmental performance across the entire tire life cycle, from the design to the end of life to significantly reduce the carbon footprint of production processes and products.
“The introduction of a new biomass-fired boiler will also improve transformation cost-efficiency, reducing the impact of raw material fluctuation for customers while maintaining product competitiveness in the market.
“The initiative is in line with Trelleborg’s Blue DimensionTM approach to sustainability, which focuses on combining environmental benefits with benefits for the customers in terms of higher efficiency and productivity.”
The traditional tyre manufacturing process at the facility is currently responsible for more than 11,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalents and 3.5 million litres of furnace oil consumption per year. With the introduction of the biomass system, the carbon footprint will be reduced to less than 1000 tonnes of CO2 equivalents per year.
TRS Tyre & Wheel, New Zealand’s largest importer and distributor of agricultural and industrial tyres and wheels, were acquired by Trelleborg AB in July 2018 and have a wide range of Trelleborg tyres now available in New Zealand.