As part of its ongoing global sustainability strategy, PPG has opened a high-efficiency power-generation facility at its automotive paint and coatings manufacturing site at Quattordio, Italy. As a result, 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%.
"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.”
The A$4 million project is part of a partnership between PPG and Grastim – a developer of high-efficiency energy-generation solutions that include trigeneration and cogeneration. PPG previously completed a A$3 million project using Grastim’s cogeneration technology at its Caivano, Italy, site in 2021. Under the power purchasing agreement, Grastim is responsible for the financing, authorisation, construction, and operation of the two power-generation plants and will operate them for seven years.