Since spring 2024, the teams at the Verneuil mill, alongside Benoît Huvet, Technical Director and head of the energy section of Grands Moulins de Paris' climate roadmap, have been committed to reducing the site's compressed air consumption. The goal: to optimize energy expenditure and reduce the site's environmental impact.
According to the French Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME), compressed air accounts for 10% of industrial electricity consumption in the European Union. Depending on the type of industry, this can account for up to 30% of total electricity consumption.
For this reason, the site's maintenance and production teams have been working for several months to implement a series of concrete measures on the compressed air network.
“We develop operational excellence and industrial cost optimization, while maintaining the impeccable quality of our products and limiting our impact on the environment.
Compressed air production has been identified as a significant source of energy consumption at our Verneuil mill, with several areas offering potential savings.
Hugues Favier, Regional Industrial Director (Verneuil, Paris-Gennevilliers, Briare)
Our key actions
The teams focused on two areas of action to control and reduce the energy consumption of the site's compressed air networks.
1. Reduce our overconsumption
Until now, compressed air production operated continuously, i.e., seven days a week.
A shut-off valve has been installed to limit the pressure in the network when it is not in use.It activates automatically at a set time, but can be opened by an operator if necessary.
This measure alonehas reduced the site's electricity consumption by50% during weekends when the valve is closed.
This saves 5.8 tCO2eq(tonsof CO2 equivalent), which is equivalent to the GHG emissions produced by manufacturing 30 laptops.
2. Eliminate air leaks
Compressed air networks deteriorate over time and the resulting losses can become significant. The site maintenance department conducted an audit to detect leaks and a repair campaign is currently underway.To date, 50% of the leaks have already been repaired.
Repairing all leaks, which is currently underway, will reduce GHG emissions by an amount equivalent to more than eight round trips between Paris and New York by plane!
3. Lower production pressure to go further...
Once the leaks have been repaired, it will be interesting to reduce the set pressure of the compressed air network.Reducing the compressed air production pressure by 1 bar equates to a 7% saving in the electricity consumption of a compressed air network(source: ENGIE, the portal for professionals).
These actions undertaken by our Verneuil mill are part of our Link by GMP approach and demonstrate the importance of controlling our compressed air consumption.This is a significant lever for energy savings that can be applied in all our mills.
Similar audits were conducted in Gennevilliers and Reims, with repairs underway or planned.
Together, let's contribute to developing a more sustainable milling industry. #CollectivelyCommitted
Would you like to learn more about our CSR approach? Take a look at our digital brochure (at the bottom of the page).
