PPG (NYSE:PPG) today announced the startup of a high-efficiency power-generation facility at its Quattordio, Italy, automotive paint and coatings manufacturing site. The facility is expected to reduce energy costs by 13% and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 10% annually.
Combining cooling, heating and power, which is known as trigeneration, the facility can operate on a combination of natural gas and 5% hydrogen. This can be increased to 20% hydrogen with minimal investment and up to 60% with further modifications. The new power plant will operate with an overall estimated efficiency of approximately 75%.
The $2.8 million (2.7 million euro) project is part of a partnership between PPG and Grastim, which is a developer of high-efficiency energy-generation solutions that include trigeneration and cogeneration. PPG previously completed a $2.1 million (2 million euro) project using Grastim’s cogeneration technology at its Caivano, Italy, site in 2021.
Under the power purchasing agreement, Grastim is responsible for the financing, authorization, construction and operation of the two power-generation plants and will operate them for seven years.
“With the skyrocketing cost of energy, it is essential to draw on any resource to reduce production costs and make plants more efficient,” said Baldo Pavolini, Grastim technical director. “The use of high-efficiency energy production solutions provides not only an economic benefit for our customers but also a sustainability advantage.”
“PPG is committed to furthering our sustainability efforts and reducing our carbon emissions, and a key part of that is reducing our energy use,” said Silvia Ceratto, PPG engineering and maintenance manager, Quattordio. “Our partnership with Grastim will help to further our efforts and hopefully serve as a blueprint to implementation of similar systems globally.”
