Teijin Aramid announced it realized a 8.8% total energy efficiency improvement over the past 2.5 years. Besides that, the company is aiming to prove the added value to its products by introducing the Customer Benefit Model. This model offers the opportunity to calculate both ecological and financial value of Twaron para-aramid use in applications over their lifetime.
In the coming years, Teijin Aramid will continue to improve eco-efficiency by expressing sustainability in numbers, both financially and environmentally. Teijin Aramid’s goal is to realize an average energy saving of 2% per year as is defined in the so called Energy Efficiency Plans (EEP’s).
The company joined the Dutch MJA-3 multiannual plans with all of its plants in the Netherlands in 2010. This program contains an agreement between government and industry about using energy in a most effective and efficient way. During the EEP period 2009 - 2012 an 8.8% energy efficiency improvement was realized, of which 5.6% in process efficiency and 3.2% in chain efficiency.
“Sustainability is not only about increasing your own energy efficiency. It is also about lowering costs and adding value to your products”, says Gert Frederiks, CEO of Teijin Aramid. “In the past few years, Teijin Aramid used eco-efficiency models to quantify the environmental value of applying Twaron in applications.
These models are translated in a so-called ‘Customer Benefit Model’ and make it possible to calculate Twaron’s real contribution in a specific solution.” The Customer Benefit Model provides a clear picture of the potential benefits across the entire value chain. These benefits are both financial and ecological. The ecological values are measured in terms of land, water, energy and raw material use, as well as the resulting toxicity, emissions, waste and particulate matter; financial values are measured in Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
A clear example of use of The Customer Benefit Model (CMB) is the cooperation with customer ALE (Advanced Lightweight Engineering). The ecological and financial value of aramid used in their Low8 gas bottle was calculated and the Twaron Low8 gas bottle gained advantages on energy consumption, the carbon footprint and emission of volatile compounds.
The 80% weight reduction by using Twaron made it possible to develop a cylinder that is, lightweight, highly resistant to the impact of a fall, and which is fully recyclable at the end of its life-time. On top of that, the economic advantage over the whole product lifecycle is significantly greater than when using the steel variant.
For Teijin Aramid’s online sustainability report ‘Maximizing cost performance in the chain – sustainably’, see: sustainabilityreport2012.teijinaramid.com
About Teijin Aramid
Teijin Aramid is a subsidiary of the Teijin Group and world leader in aramids. Its products Twaron, Sulfron, Teijinconex and Technora are renowned for their strength, sustainability, safety, heat resistance and low weight and is used in different applications and markets including automotive, ballistic protection, marine, civil
