March 28, 2008—DuPont Titanium Technologies has managed to cut its energy consumption per pound of product by nearly 30 percent—saving more than $100 million in the process as oil prices pass the $100 per barrel threshold. The business estimates that it has saved the equivalent of three million barrels of oil since 2001.
“There’s no one great ‘eureka’ moment in this kind of effort,” said Rick Olson, vice president and general manager—DuPont Titanium Technologies. “Every one of our sites around the world is tracking down every possible opportunity to save energy. It all adds up, one motor and one valve at a time, day after day.”
Some of the actions DuPont has taken include replacing aging electric motors with more efficient models; upgrading plant control rooms with new hardware and software to provide operators with more detailed, real-time information so that they can fine-tune operations; and implementing technology for energy recovery and reuse, such as salvaging heat energy from steam.
DuPont says its Titanium Technologies branch is the world’s largest manufacturer of titanium dioxide (TiO2), a white pigment widely used in the coatings, plastics, and paper industries to make products white, bright, and opaque.
