Nitto Belgium, one of the largest industrial tape manufacturers in Belgium, is going to produce a part of its own electricity in the Genk plant. The company installed a co-generation unit which will not only supply electricity, also the heat generated by the system will be re-used in the manufacturing plant. The unit will produce 30% of the electricity needs of the plant. This is only one of the measures taken by the company to reduce the CO₂ emission. Nitto invests 5.2 million euro in total.

Nitto is doing its share in making its manufacturing activities as environmental friendly as possible. The company recycles its materials and uses green energy to manufacture its industrial tapes in the Genk plant in Belgium. The company now takes a next step. It will start the production of electricity with a co-generation unit on site. Investment cost: 2.5 million euro. It will reduce the global CO₂ emission with 2,000 ton per year. The co-generation unit will supply 30% of the electricity needs of the manufacturing plant. And that's not all, the heat generated by the unit will be re-used as well.

"Nitto uses a lot of heat for the manufacturing of its industrial tapes. That heat was generated by burning gas before. This will change now. Thanks to the co-generation unit, we will not only produce our own electricity but we can reuse the generated heat to pre-heat our ovens. Typically, this heat is lost in the electricity production of external energy suppliers.", explains Johan De Boeck, managing director of Nitto Belgium.

Solar panels that follow the direction of the sun

Nitto understands that the pressure to manufacture environmental friendly is increasing a lot in Europe. That's why the investment in the co-generation unit is only one of the green projects:

◦2.4 million euro: for an extension of the solvent recovery unit to recuperate the solvents used for the production of the industrial tapes. Thanks to this extra investment the company will be able to recuperate an environmental friendly solvent as well.

◦335,000 euro to replace all lights by LED lights

◦150,000 euro for solar panels which follow the direction of the sun for optimal efficiency

"The electricity production of these solar panels will be sufficient to supply our offices with electricity. Because the solar panels follow the direction of the sun, the efficiency will improve by 43 percent compared to a standard installation of solar panels. We are installing 250 panels, enough for 84.000 kWh per year", according to Johan De Boeck.

Over 11 million euro invested in CO₂ reduction

Since 2011, Nitto Belgium has invested 11.2 million euro to reduce the CO₂ emission by 14,000 ton CO₂ per year. "Nitto has to take its responsibility. Our manufacturing unit requires a lot of energy. We use approximately 32.000.000 kWh electricity per year. That is comparable to the use of 9,000 families in Belgium. That's a lot, so we need to minimize our impact on the environment as much as possible. Especially when you know that the European Union will increase taxes on CO₂ emission in the future.", concludes De Boeck.