SWEETWATER, Texas, February 3, 2023 /CSRwire/ - The Georgia-Pacific gypsum plant Sweetwater West, located in Sweetwater, Texas, recently completed board-drying equipment enhancements anticipated to result in CO2 reduction, energy savings, and the lowering of resource consumption.

The installation of an Energy Optimization System (EOS) (also known as exhaust heat recovery) at the plant included the installation of new ducting, two new fans, and a new exhaust stack to an existing four-zone dryer.

Before the EOS conversion, each of the four zones within the plant exhausted waste heat to the atmosphere. The newly upgraded system enables the collection of the waste exhaust from the first three zones and injects it into the fourth zone, allowing the useful heat to be recovered before exhausting it at a lower temperature. When combined, the waste exhaust streams from the first three zones contain almost all the heat required by the fourth zone, enabling the burner in that zone to operate at a lower capacity.

The result is net energy savings equivalent to powering approximately 441 homes for one year and a reduction of 2,500 tons per year of CO2 emissions, equivalent to about 489 passenger vehicles on the roads for one year.

“Advancements in energy savings and resource consumption reduction are goals toward which Georgia-Pacific works every single day,” said David Neal, vice president of Gypsum Operations for Georgia-Pacific. “At Georgia-Pacific, our focus is to make progress daily, improving performance by living a principle of stewardship, embracing creative destruction, improving efficiencies, eliminating waste, and finding new ways of meeting needs and driving conservation activities that leave more resources available to satisfy other needs in society.”

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Georgia-Pacific

Georgia-Pacific

Based in Atlanta, Georgia-Pacific and its subsidiaries are among the world’s leading manufacturers and marketers of bath tissue, paper towels and napkins, tableware, paper-based packaging, cellulose, specialty fibers, nonwoven fabrics, building products and related chemicals. Our familiar consumer brands include Quilted Northern®, Angel Soft®, Brawny®, Dixie®, enMotion®, Sparkle® and Vanity Fair®. Georgia-Pacific has long been a leading supplier of building products to lumber and building materials dealers and large do-it-yourself warehouse retailers. Its Georgia-Pacific Recycling subsidiary is among the world’s largest traders of paper, metal and plastics. The company operates more than 150 facilities and employs more than 30,000 people directly and creates approximately 89,000 jobs indirectly. For more information, visit: gp.com/about-us . For news, visit: gp.com/news

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