The road to recovery

Established in 1972, Turkish company Elif is a global supplier of flexible packaging solutions, serving industries such as food and beverage, personal care, household cleaning products and consumer tissue. In 2004 the company opened a 110 000-squaremeter plant in Istanbul, consolidating three previously separate facilities. Elif is always looking to institute sustainability practices at its state-of-the-art facility, and has implemented these types of activities in a variety of ways, such as energy-saving drying units; a modified roof system that maximizes air circulation and minimizes energy use; environmentally sound cooling and drying systems; and much more. Also, in 2012 Elif signed the United Nations Global Compact for businesses committed to coordinating their operations with principles relating to human rights, labour, anti-corruption and the environment. Another strategic decision taken by Elif in 2010 was to purchase a heat recovery system from Atlas Copco. Elif uses and releases high amounts of energy during production. The company wanted to improve its systems and reuse that energy in order to achieve a more efficient, more sustainable and more environmentally sound solution. “Our team prepared a feasibility study in 2010 for four heat recovery systems, the latest in our product range,” says Tim Last, General Manager, Atlas Copco Turkey. “After an elaborate process involving detailed evaluation, several technical meetings and visits to other plants, Elif approved our quotation.” With the system in place, Elif was able to recover the excess heat emanating from the compressors and reuse the energy in the production cycle. The new system, the largest energy recovery system in the world, reduces the total energy consumption at the production facility by 35% per month on average compared with last year. “We chose Atlas Copco with this heat recovery project because at Elif we only use quality suppliers,” says Ayham Yuksel, Elif Mechanical Engineer. As a result, Elif has deactivated one of its hot water boiler systems, shortening the return on investment time on this project to less than one year. It is estimated that the recovery system will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 3 500 metric tons over 10 years.

Heat Recovery System's 10-year Savings Projection