Volkswagen India’s heat recovery system in Pune plant delivers tangible benefits

The new heat recovery unit (heat exchanger) commissioned at the exhaust end of the top coat oven in the paint shop at Volkswagen India’s Chakan plant is showing good results.

This unit generates hot water using the exhaust flue gases which are vented out at 320deg C. This hot water is then used for heating application in the pre-treatment process in the paint shop itself. As a result, 80 percent reduction in hot water generation has been achieved, in turn saving 492,483 SCM of Natural Gas consumption and 37 MWh/a of electricity as well as reduced CO₂ emissions by 1013 tons/a. The company says the savings in consumption of natural gas are equivalent to 4916 MWh/a, which translates to the energy consumed by nearly 1,300 Indian households in a year.

Commenting on the benefits from the new project, Andreas Lauenroth, executive director – technical, Volkswagen India, said “The heat recovery from our oven in the paint shop is a 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 the Think Blue. Factory. programme. This year, we will come closer to our target of contributing to the 25 percent global reduction in this respect.”

“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,” he added.

Volkswagen Pune Plant is one of the 27 Volkswagen automotive manufacturing facilities worldwide that follows the ‘Think Blue. Factory.’ initiative which targets higher environment-friendly manufacturing. Through this initiative, the carmaker aims at reducing the impact of its production process on the environment by 25 percent 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 – energy consumption CO₂ emissions, water consumption, waste generation and VOC emissions.