$43K grant saves $87K annually

Australian company Amcor is one of the world’s largest packaging manufacturers. With 4000 staff worldwide, Amcor produces glass bottles, aluminium cans, cartonboard, corrugated boxes and flexible plastic.

Amcor is always looking for ways to improve its energy efficiency and reduce its environmental footprint. For example, the company conducts rolling energy audits and benchmarking across its operations.

As part of this process, Amcor identified energy-saving opportunities at a number of plants, including addressing inefficiencies in the use of compressed air at its Revesby aluminium can manufacturing plant, located in south-west New South Wales. Compressed air is used heavily in the production of aluminium cans, including to press out cans from sheets of metal and to convey them around the plant.

As the Revesby site produces around 750,000 million cans each year, even small improvements in efficiency can have large flow-on benefits in terms of cost and the environment.

A $43,758 grant from the Australian Government’s Clean Technology Investment Program has enabled Amcor to improve the energy efficiency of the Revesby plant by enhancing the air compressor technology used on site.

Amcor’s Group Manager of Resources and Energy, Peter Dobney, says the grant has been instrumental in allowing the company to improve its plant in a challenging investment climate.

“As economic conditions have tightened, it’s become harder to get energy-efficiency projects up and running. Companies need a reasonable payback from their investment,” said Dobney, who is part of Amcor’s Sustainability Team. “The grant helped to get a project up and running that may not otherwise have been funded.”

The grant is helping Amcor replace its inefficient high-pressure air compressor with a variable speed drive unit. The new system has the capability to adjust to peaks and troughs in demand, delivering a more efficient production process.

In addition, Amcor is using the funding to re-gear its current low-pressure air compressor, which produces more air than required. Low-pressure compressed air is used for the ‘necking’ process, which shapes the top and bottom of the cans. The new arrangements will produce the correct quantity of air, reducing energy requirements at the Revesby site.

Further, the company is installing cutting-edge air monitoring systems to ensure the most efficient processes are being used and fitting variable speed drives to new cooling tower pumps and fans.

By undertaking these steps, Amcor expects to reduce its carbon emissions intensity by 5% and decrease its annual energy bill by $87,000. The Revesby grant is one of nine Clean Energy grants Amcor has received from the Australian Government.

Dobney says Amcor staff members have reacted positively to the grant and are increasingly approaching the company’s sustainability team with ideas for other energy-efficiency projects.

“Rather than us travelling to sites and saying, ‘We’re here to help’, Amcor staff are coming to us,” he said. “They’re saying, ‘Our power bills have gone up significantly, and what can we do to cut them?’ Grants like those offered by AusIndustry help make such projects a reality.”