RECIPE

The European plastics processing industry faces intense competition from lower wage economies & an alarming rise in energy prices. To remain competitive a business must have an effective energy management process, good market knowledge & an awareness of technology & support mechanisms.

RECIPE (Reduced Energy Consumption in Plastics Engineering) was a 3-year project to provide European plastics processors with the knowledge, justification & tools needed to reduce their energy consumption through the implementation of best practice & the introduction of new technologies.

This industry comprises more than 27,000 companies (more than 80% SMEs) employing more than one million people, & with total sales of over €100 billion. If it were possible to reduce energy consumption across the industry by 10%, this would result in an annual reduction in CO2 emissions of more than 3 million tonnes.

The Objectives

• Collation of existing knowledge, material & experience from across the EU, with the intention of promoting the 'best of the best'.
• Industry-specific web-based energy-saving tools
• Look beyond current best practice to provide the industry with information on novel technologies & practices
• Dissemination programme which will increase awareness throughout the European plastics processing industry of the most recent energy reducing technologies & materials development

Results

• A European Best Practice Guide for the plastics processing industry, published in 6 languages
• An interactive toolkit to enable companies to evaluate energy consumption & look closely at individual processes in the plant. It will provide guidance on efficiency & highlight key plant areas where the most substantial energy & cost savings can be made most easily.
• A 'Cost of Ownership Model' to enable processors to calculate the cost of operating a piece of equipment over its projected lifetime, based on energy efficiency & projected usage.
• Benchmark energy usage in plastics processing companies across Europe in 2005 to establish where variations exist from 'typical' usage & understand how companies view & manage their energy consumption.

Start date: 01/01/2005
Completion date: 31/12/2007

For more information, please visit - www.eurecipe.com

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