The replacement of a major piece of infrastructure at a plant is generally followed by the audible groans from the accounts team upstairs and plant manager fretting about lost productivity. On this occasion, there was a palpable sense of expectation and excitement at our Kansas facility. With the original plant cooling tower reaching the end of its service life, the local Molycop team saw the opportunity to invest and reduce electricity consumption by replacing the Water Cooling tower and the installation of Variable Frequency Drives (VFD’s) to control the pump and fan speeds more effectively.
This initiative has resulted in a 64% reduction in electricity consumption by the plant’s water system. This represents an approximate 8% reduction in total plant electrical power consumption.
Steve Ornduff, Molycop’s Executive Director, Operational Excellence, “Achieving the highest level of energy efficiency in manufacturing is not only environmentally responsible, it is critical to the competitiveness of the business. Supported by Kansas City Power and Light, our team did a great job identifying this opportunity and designing and implementing the solution.”
This is one of several initiatives implemented at the plant to reduce energy and water consumption. Molycop USA was awarded the Kansas City Industrial Council’s “Gold Sustainability Award” due to the success of their sustainability initiatives.
