We are taking active steps to cut the carbon footprint of our meltblown fibres production. As well as helping us to minimise our climate impact, the move will help many of our customers to meet their sustainability goals. In the global fight against climate change, it’s only a small step but we believe it is the right thing to do.
have found a way to incorporate sustainable versions of the essential polymer ‘building blocks’ we need for the manufacture of polypropylene.
At the same time, we can ensure the meltblown filters made from the material continue to underpin robust, cost-effective and high-quality filtration.
The products we are focusing on are our flagship meltblown filter ranges SupaSpun II, SupaGard, Contour and VisClear II.
Between them, these products have applications in critical liquid filtration processes in key industries such as municipal water, oil and gas, food and beverage, chemicals and coatings, and pharmaceuticals.
Renewable feedstocks
Traditionally, monomers sourced from fossil fuels have been the base media feeding into the polymers involved in polypropylene manufacturing.
But we can now move on from this under a ‘mass balance approach’ developed by our Vienna-headquartered supply partner Borealis, a specialist developer and manufacturer of polymers.
They have developed a process by which a proportion of the fossil-derived monomers can be replaced in the manufacturing mix by an identical volume of sustainable ones that are tested to ensure the same level of quality.
Their Bornewables™ polymers are made from sustainably sourced renewable feedstocks derived solely from waste and excess vegetable oils such as used cooking oil and residues from vegetable oil processing. These sources involve raw waste collected from restaurants and the food industry.
Monomers made from such bio-feedstock contribute to a ‘circular’ manufacturing process.
Because the sustainable material has taken carbon out of the environment during its lifesplan, it balances out the amount of carbon going into the environment from the fossil fuel monomers. This is what we mean by ‘mass balance’.
The approach has already been used in polypropylene manufacture by early adopters in the Netherlands, including in the production of medical face masks and other filter media.
Maintaining quality
The bio-feedstock is the same quality as the fossil feedstock and can be mixed with the conventional feedstock in production.
Tests are carried out to confirm the absence of any impurities in the sustainable material in order to guarantee the equivalent standard.
This ensures that the end user receives products of identical quality to the purely fossil-derived material but with the assurance of a reduced carbon footprint compared to conventional plastics.
The ‘mass balance’ approach is no different to using monomers sourced from fossil fuels that may originate in different locations, for example, oil from different countries that will have an inherent degree of variation.
Customers can enjoy complete confidence that the sustainable cartridges perform to exactly the same level as the previous version and so have zero effect on their production activities or quality assurance standards.
Borealis’ Bornewables manufacture is certified under ISCC PLUS, the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification system for supply chains.
This confirms that the feedstock is sustainable and traceable to its point of origin.
The certification provides an independent and globally recognised assurance that there is a credible reduction of carbon footprint.
Sustainability
Borealis say that replacing one tonne of conventional polypropylene with the sustainable material will stop 2.1 tonnes of carbon emissions.
That is equivalent to 95% of an average European household’s annual energy consumption, 20 meat-eaters going vegetarian for a month or the charging of 2,100 smartphones for a year.
In terms of filter use, the carbon saving translates to a reduction of 1 kg in emissions for every 30” meltblown filter.
We know that the correct choice of filtration equipment can help you towards sustainability targets.
That’s because customers in a wide range of process industries who are keen to decarbonise will naturally want their suppliers to share the same sense of sustainability and green values.
To help with this, a life cycle assessment study has been conducted on our sustainable polypropylene filters in accordance with the ISO 14040 and 14044:2006 standards to verify carbon reductions.
At Amazon Filters, we have long invested in technical improvements to ensure our products optimise performance and last longer.
But our partnership with Borealis takes this a step further.
Thinking green
Underpinning our drive to go greener for ourselves and our customers is holding the independently verified ISO 14001: 2015 standard for environmental sustainability.
Through our environmental management policy, we seek to minimise waste and avoid pollution in our manufacturing activities.
A key focus is implementing environmentally friendly manufacturing and product technologies wherever technically and economically feasible.
When it comes to the complexities of making process filtration more sustainable, we know that what seem like small changes at first glance can make a big difference.
This is the thinking behind our move to ensure products incorporating meltblown fibre media are made with sustainable polymers.
It’s a further move towards sustainability and reduced impact on the environment for us and our customers.