Volkswagen Pune plant benefits from Heat Recovery System

Volkswagen Pune Plant is one of the 27 Volkswagen automotive manufacturing facilities worldwide that follows the ‘Think Blue. Factory.’ initiative that aims towards achieving higher environment-friendly manufacturing. Through this initiative, Volkswagen aims at reducing the impact of its production process on the environment by 25pc per car globally. Volkswagen Pune Plant has been working towards these goals since 2012. The impact on environment through manufacturing processes is measured across five key areas of ‘Energy Consumption’, ‘CO2 Emissions’, ‘Water Consumption’, ‘Waste Generation’ and ‘VOC Emissions’. Volkswagen Pune Plant has undertaken a number of projects and successfully implemented them to record remarkable results.

The major Think Blue. Factory. project of 2015 is the new Heat Recovery Unit (heat exchanger) that was installed at the exhaust end of the Top Coat Oven in Paint Shop. The sustainable results of this project were achieved by generating hot water using the exhaust flue gases which are vented out at 320 degree centigrade. This hot water is then used for heating application in Pretreatment process in the Paint Shop itself. As a result, 80pc reduction for hot water generation for this purpose was achieved that saved 492,483 SCM of Natural Gas consumption and 37 MWh/a of electricity as well as reduced CO2 emissions by 1013 tons/a. The savings in consumption of Natural Gas are equivalent to 4916 MWh/a. On an average this translates to the energy consumed by nearly 1300 Indian households in a year.

Commenting on the achievement from the new project, Andreas Lauenroth, Executive Director – Technical, Volkswagen India Private Limited, said “The Heat Recovery from our oven in Paint Shop is major breakthrough in our efforts for achieving cleaner manufacturing. Volkswagen Pune Plant is moving with the right pace to achieve and surpass the targets set for 2018 under Think Blue. Factory. programme. This year, we will come closer to our target of contributing to the 25% global reduction in this respect.”

To facilitate idea generation and implementation of such ideas for savings under Think Blue. Factory. programme, 32 ambassadors from various departments of Volkswagen Pune Plant have been appointed. Such ambassadors from Plant Engineering and Paint Shop initiated the project of Heat Recovery in the Paint Shop. Lauenroth further added, “Sustainability and cleaner manufacturing processes have become a part of our lifestyle at Volkswagen Pune Plant. The continuous efforts undertaken by our Think Blue. Factory. ambassadors are paying off in the right way.”

Source: Volkswagen India