S-Tiles - produzione

ENERGY SAVING PRODUCTION

The amount of thermal and electrical energy used to produce one square meter (or one ton) of ceramic tiles is today less than half the amount used in the 70s. The ceramic tiles industry now (2002) consumes, at national level, the same quantity of energy consumed in the years 1977-78, although it has more than doubled its production. Energy consumption has gone down from the 12 Giga Joule (GJ) per ton in 1980 to 5 GJ/t in 1997. Nevertheless the energy bill for ceramic processes, culminating thermally treating the product at very high temperatures, remains high.
The ceramic sector is therefore moving towards a policy of control and reduction of energy consumption especially within the Ceramic District (due to the large number of plants with high energy consumption). To this end, 18 Ceramic District plant companies with a total annual energy consumption of more than 10.000 TOE (tonnes of oil equivalent) have nominated an energy manager.
The ENVIRONMENTAL PROGRAM OF THE CERAMIC DISTRICT has highlighted further technological and managerial improvements to optimise industry consumption. These are:

• Recovery and use of heat emissions from production plants;

• Cogeneration processes in the sector;

• Setting up a database on the energy consumption of the ceramic industry.

Around 30 plants have a co-generator, enabling the production of electrical energy. Cogeneration allows the plant to maximise its heat recovery creating a source of usable energy. Currently over half the plants are not sufficiently aware of and do not closely manage their energy consumption while about a third show a fair/good level of management. Hence there is a need, as underlined by the environmental program of the Industrial District to set up a DATABASE ON ENERGY CONSUMPTION for plants to monitor their performance and improve their energy efficiency.
Thanks to the innovations introduced to foster energy saving, the sector, since the 80s, has progressively reduced its carbon dioxide production (CO2) which has remained at the 80s level (when production was half that of today). This is a remarkable result when considered in the context of the greenhouse gas emissions control policies (on which is based the CONVENTION ON CLIMATE CHANGES - UNFCCC - implemented by the KYOTO PROTOCOL).