Award-Winning Project Removes 3,500 Metric Tons of Emissions From Local Air
The DuPont Edge Moor site was recently honored by the American Chemistry Council for its work to reduce plant energy consumption and minimize energy-related environmental impacts.
The titanium dioxide manufacturing plant was awarded an American Chemistry Council's Energy Efficiency Award in the category of "Significant Improvement in Manufacturing- Project."
"I am very proud of our DuPont team for its energy conservation efforts and the results we have achieved," said Mike Welch, plant manager. "This award is nice, but the real reward comes from knowing that we are making a positive contribution to the environment and our business."
The American Chemistry Council's Energy Efficiency Award is given annually to recognize chemical manufacturing facilities across the country that demonstrate outstanding results in saving energy and reducing related greenhouse gas emissions.
The Edge Moor plant's award recognized efforts that contributed to an elimination of 3,500 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions, or the equivalent of removing more than 640 cars from Wilmington's roads each year.
When new technology was needed to help reduce the site's environmental footprint, the Edge Moor project team challenged itself to develop an integrated design that would minimize the additional energy required to operate the new facility. Despite additional capital costs to implement the technology, the team took this opportunity to maximize the efficiency of the facility through process integration and heat recovery. The project team examined all streams that were to be impacted by the new unit operation and developed methods to recover heat to each of the streams.
The Edge Moor site manufactures titanium dioxide (TiO2), a white pigment and whitening agent used mainly in the paper, plastics and coatings industries. The site has been operating for more than 80 years and today employs approximately 200 DuPont employees and more than 100 contract partners.
In addition to DuPont's efforts to improve energy efficiency in its operations, the company offers solutions to improve energy efficiency in the construction, transportation and agriculture industries with products like DuPont™ Tyvek® and productivity enhancing seeds. The company also is working to develop solutions in the alternative energy markets of solar, wind, fuel cells and biofuels.
DuPont - one of the first companies to publicly establish environmental goals 18 years ago - has broadened its sustainability commitments beyond internal footprint reduction to include market-driven targets for both revenue and research development investment. The goals are tied directly to business growth, specifically to the development of safer and environmentally improved new products for key global markets.
DuPont is a science-based products and services company. Founded in 1802, DuPont puts science to work by creating sustainable solutions essential to a better, safer, healthier life for people everywhere. Operating in more than 70 countries, DuPont offers a wide range of innovative products and services for markets including agriculture and food; building and construction; communications; and transportation.
