VCI’s Responsible Care Competition 2023

WACKER’s Nünchritz Site Wins Award for “Drone Usage for Energy Savings”

Nünchritz, May 15, 2023

WACKER’s Nünchritz site was awarded the Responsible Care prize by the Northeast branch of the German Chemical Industry Association (VCI). Site manager Dr. Jutta Matreux accepted the award at the VCI Northeast members’ conference. With the award, the Chemical Association honored the sustainability concept “Energy Loss Screening with a Drone.” Its purpose is to save energy efficiently and sustainably in integrated production at the Nünchritz site.

Dr. Jutta Matreux accepts the Responsible Care competition prize from Christian Matschke, Chairman of the Board of Verband der Chemischen Industrie e. V., Landesverband Nordost.

Every year, the VCI confers the award on outstanding projects and responsible stewardship in the areas of health, safety, and the environment. The competition motto this year was “Our sustainable and economical use of energy.”

The 2023 Northeast regional winner selected by the VCI was WACKER’s Nünchritz site. The company launched a drone deployment program at its Nünchritz site in 2022 to identify transmission losses from exterior components in plants, buildings, and pipe bridges, as well as leaking building envelopes at the site. In order to record the energy condition of the infrastructure units, a drone equipped with a thermal imaging camera was used. This made it possible to perform a thermal image analysis of the 130 ha WACKER site area.

A thermal imaging camera attached to the drone is used to identify transmission losses from exterior components in equipment, buildings, and pipe bridges, as well as leaking building envelopes at the site.

The heat losses recorded with the thermal imaging camera are evaluated, the calculation data is recorded, and existing potentials are then exploited. After evaluation and prioritization, the measures are to be successively implemented at the site. The total savings potential is expected to be in the order of several 100 kW.

“We are extremely pleased to emerge as the winner of the Responsible Care competition with our energy-saving project,” said Dr. Jutta Matreux. “The prize honors our efforts to find continuous sustainable improvements and innovations,” added the site manager. Having won in the Northeast, WACKER’s Nünchritz site now moves on to the VCI’s nationwide Responsible Care competition.