Modernisation of a chemical plant in Türkiye

Petkim Petrochemical Corporation, established in 1965, is a big contributor to the Turkish economy with a production capacity of 520,000 tonnes of ethylene per year, as well as large volumes of other products. The company maintains high energy efficiency standards, and was the first industrial institution in Türkiye to obtain the ISO 50001 Energy Management System Certificate among the large-scale industrialists. Importantly, the company undertakes efforts for environmental protection and has invested $210 million in this direction in the last eight years.

Petkim intended to carry out energy saving measures within its production plant and contacted MidSEFF for loan financing.

The entire project consisted of the installation of VSD on the motors of the cooling tower and fans, economisers for steam production, replacement of old cathodes, shrink film machines, capacity expansion and four other measures.

The MidSEFF team performed the project analysis, including financial-technical parameters, energy savings potential, profitability, risks and environmental aspects to make sure the project generates sufficient energy savings, reduces CO2 emissions and meets other environmental requirements.

The €28.9 million investment allowed the company to decrease its energy consumption by 27,715 MWh per year. The investment will be repaid out of energy savings in slightly over five years, while the new cash-flows will continue to generate income further on. The project also resulted in 65,400 tonnes of CO2 emission reductions per year, leading to a valuable input to mitigate the negative effect of human activity on the environment.

This project improved the company’s financial standing, competitiveness and positive environmentally friendly image in the market. It demonstrates that energy efficiency investments bring especially high results in energy intensive industries, making it important to check this possibility in such industries in the first place.