Gaining a competitive edge through increased resource efficiency
Optimising energy, material and information flows enables the creation of local ecosystems that not only benefit each participant, but society as a whole. Industrial sidestreams such as energy, water, cooling, heat and waste provide opportunities to enhance economies of scale both within and between sectors – for example between industries and municipalities – and realise mutually beneficial synergies.
Improving resource efficiency is a simple way to impact the bottom line and meet the sustainability demands of environmentally conscious consumers and investors.
Collaboration and reduced greenhouse gas emissions
Nevel has helped Sandvik Coromant in Gimo recover and transfer residual heat from one part of its plant to another. By using what would previously have been wasted, greenhouse gas emissions have been reduced by up to 1,850 tonnes per year, equivalent to the annual emissions of 1,200 cars.
Another example can be found in Utajärvi, Finland, where an oat mill, Kinnusen Mylly, the municipality of Utajärvi and Nevel have jointly developed an efficient way to produce carbon-neutral energy and benefit from various cross-sector opportunities while also producing . Nevel’s heat plant produces energy for the local oat mill and a nearby feed mill as well as district heating for the municipality of Utajärvi.
Re-using everything
Working together, the goal is to build a future-proof infrastructure that improves business performance while minimising emissions and waste and responding to desire for a carbon-negative future. It’s a future in which companies, whatever they produce, can operate closed-loop factories that manage energy and material flows in a way that eliminates waste by reusing or recycling inputs.
In practice, this means improved material and energy efficiency combined with increased use of renewable energy sources and advanced technology. Combining modern technology with high level automation and machine learning will open up ever more opportunities in the future. Developing and providing these kinds of new services and operating models requires new ways of working and the right expertise.
In order to take maximum advantage of all these opportunities, industrial companies should waste no time in starting to map out the infrastructure development and investment required for an energy-optimised and resource-efficient future.
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We are your next-level industrial infrastructure partner
Nevel provides industrial customers with expertise and experience on material, information and energy flows and their management to help make smart infrastructure investments and optimise operations. We offer energy solutions including steam and heat, industrial scale cooling and heat recovery, and side stream and material efficiency solutions such as waste recovery and utilisation. We also offer industrial water treatment solutions such as demiwater and nutrient recovery.
