To showcase products such as industrial machines, processes, and plants that are much more resource-efficient than their forerunners, GEA is introducing the Add Better Ecolabel.
The label gives clients a thorough breakdown of the enhancements achieved, including how using the Add Better product might help them lower operating costs and lessen their ecological impact. The ISO 14021:2016 regulations for environmental labels and declarations are followed throughout the GEA Add Better product evaluation process, from data collection through calculation and documentation. TÜV Rheinland, one of the top test service suppliers in the world, has certified GEA’s method.
“Every day, our purpose ‘Engineering for a better world’ drives us to develop solutions, that use less energy, water, and raw materials and produce less waste. The Add Better label identifies the most significant advances we are making in this area,” says GEA Group CEO Stefan Klebert. “These product upgrades can significantly improve our customers’ resource and operational efficiency as well as help all of us achieve our sustainability targets.”
TÜV Rheinland certifies GEA’s method
The Add Better labeling process used by GEA complies with ISO standards for self-declared environmental claims, including certain review and verification procedures. The selection of the solution to be assessed by a multidisciplinary team of GEA experts, along with a thorough explanation of the technology and its application, is the first step in the process. The technical, geographic, and temporal scope of the solution and its evaluation are then defined by GEA. On this foundation, pertinent information is gathered and confirmed regarding the technology and its forerunner. Together with TÜV Rheinland, the procedures for data gathering, computation, and thorough documenting of results were devised. The results are then evaluated by GEA’s Global Executive Committee to ensure that the efficiency gains are substantial enough to warrant the Add Better label. For GEA clients, the procedure is intended to provide maximum transparency.
According to Susanne Jorre, the sustainability expert for TÜV Rheinland who is in charge of the GEA project, “innovative solutions are crucial in achieving global climate targets, reliable and trustworthy ecolabels are increasingly relevant as a way to inform customers and provide guidance for companies in their procurement process.”
Using Add Better can lower greenhouse gas emissions.
One of GEA’s primary growth levers is sustainability. By declaring 2023 the “Year of Innovation in Sustainability,” GEA hopes to boost both the mechanical engineering sector’s transformation and its climate action agenda.
“The most effective way to reduce overall emissions is to make machinery, equipment and components more efficient for our customers. With the Add Better approach, we are also promoting our internal product development,” adds Dr. Nadine Sterley, GEA’s Chief Sustainability Officer. “Therefore, our first three Add Better solutions are just the beginning. Other products that enable significant energy or water savings are already in the validation phase.”
The Add Better ecolabel is present on three GEA products, and the portfolio will continue to grow.
Starting with GEA’s AddCool Spray Dryer, Marine Separator, and Dairy Robot, the label will now be applied to qualified solutions across the wide GEA product portfolio. GEA will keep adding new solutions to its Add Better portfolio in order to grow it. The pipeline for the upcoming validation phase is already full of ideas, from dairy industry solutions to those for the baking and beverage industries.
The first three Add Better solutions are as follows:
An energy-saving milestone is the AddCool Spray Dryer.
A well-known industrial technique for producing stable, high-quality powders is spray drying. For instance, the spray dryer in a milk powder processing facility is in charge of up to 70% of the facility’s entire heating needs, which are normally met by energy produced from fossil fuels. In compared to its predecessor, GEA’s AddCool technology can cut a plant’s primary energy use by up to 49%. This is equivalent to the annual average electricity demand of about 8,650 families with two people. In order to accomplish this, high-temperature heat pump technology is integrated into the currently used spray drying processes, significantly lowering the need for fossil fuels.
Ocean water protection with a marine separator
Separators are used to separate mixes of liquids with various densities or to clarify liquids. Centrifugal separators are used in the marine sector to clean bilge water from ships as well as fuel and lubricating oil. Nine percent less energy is used by GEA’s direct-drive Marine Separator than it was by its predecessor. Additionally, the Marine Separator has lowered the effort for routine cleaning by 95% and increased the maintenance interval from 8,000 to 16,000 hours.
Dairy Robot: Promoting Sustainable Agriculture
GEA assists dairy farmers in making their operations more sustainable, adaptable, and manageable while also enhancing animal welfare by fusing process automation and digitalization. Compared to the previous model, the Dairy Robot for automated milking uses up to 19% less energy. These improvements produce much more resource-efficient and cost-effective milking to enable next-generation dairy farming when combined with the energy reductions. Prior to being given the Add Better badge, the German Agricultural Society (Deutsche Landwirtschafts-Gesellschaft – DLG) conducted independent testing to verify the Dairy Robot’s efficiency advantages.
Find out more at: https://www.gea.com