Thanks to perto's smart solutions, we are now equipped with energy-efficient pumps in our production plant located in Freiburg
3 min
The energy industry needs more customer proximity, said Dr. Sebastian Schröer and Frank Krischok to themselves, and founded perto – a full-service energy efficiency service provider – in November 2016. Together with their team, the two founders developed a solution to help their customers save CO2, money and time in three steps: analysis, installation and promotion. Here is the kicker: all the preceding services come from one source. Since this year, the start-up's innovative solution is also being used in our production plant in Freiburg – and everything started with an introduction to the GROW program of the local Smart Green Accelerator in the ‘Kreativpark Lokhalle’.
Today, our production site in Freiburg is Pfizer's largest packaging plant for solid dosage forms such as tablets and capsules and can look back on a history of almost 60 years (belonging to Pfizer since 2000). In addition to its extensive experience and decades of expertise, as well as its deep roots in the city of Freiburg, this tradition also poses a challenge in the case of energy supply. For example, the historical growth of the production facilities requires the installation of various pump systems in the pharmaceutical production at the site. Together with perto, a profitability and efficiency analysis was carried out in December 2019 with recommendations for the replacement of these pumps. For this purpose, a check of the currently installed systems was carried out on a representative sample, in which the smart software of the start-up company determined the current energy consumption. This measurement formed the basis for an exact calculation of the payback period and sustainable CO2 savings through replacement. The result: the investment already amortizes in a quarter of the pumps analyzed. In the next step, the pumps were replaced by a specialist craftsman.
Oana Elena Stürz, Project Engineer Innovation of the Hub Team in Freiburg, is firmly convinced that the cooperation with perto GmbH will lead to a significant reduction of costs and a relevant improvement of the ecological footprint. ‘perto provides a scalable and uncomplicated solution that can be implemented quickly and bring measurable success. I see a lot of optimization potential with the large number of different pumps at work’. The approach is supported by Axel Kleusch, energy manager for the site: ‘perto created an efficiency report including a purchase recommendation from the scan of the nameplates and operating hours. Of the 20 representatively selected pumps for the pilot, five were identified as economically viable replacements’. A significant reduction of 23 tons of CO2 per year can be achieved through the targeted replacement. Henri Dziomba, head of business development at perto, is also satisfied with the progress of the pilot. ‘The cooperation with Pfizer shows that investments in energy efficiency pay off even at low commercial electricity prices, if scalable solutions are used for the small-scale analysis of potentials’.
And this pilot project is only the beginning of the cooperation: It is planned that in summer 2020 the remaining approximately 180 pumps in the plant will also be tested for energy efficiency and replaced if it makes economic and ecological sense. With their experience in the energy sector and a great deal of passion, the two founders and their team have succeeded in developing an innovative technology that reveals enormous potential for savings in energy efficiency in commercial properties.
We at the Pfizer Healthcare Hub are convinced of this concept and are pleased to be part of the steadily growing network of established partners. Together we will soon start to implement our plan for the further optimization of our energy requirements, which has been individually developed by perto. For over 20 years we have been committed to the environment at our location in Baden-Württemberg. And we would like to continue this commitment in the future. With this cooperation we are pleased to contribute to ensuring that our Freiburg production plant remains a pioneer in ‘green pharmaceutical production’.