Founded in 1986, the first Italian company to obtain ISO9001 Quality Certification for dogfood and catfood production, 30 years’ experience in providing an increasingly comprehensive range of products and services, 17 facilities worldwide: these are the impressive figures that define Effeffe, a long-standing Lombardy-based Pet Food company . The industry leader for some time now, Effeffe stands out not just on account of the excellence of its products, but also its services, dedicated to various pre and post production phases.

Effeffe takes a meticulous, all-round approach to business. It boasts a team of R&D experts who inspect both raw materials and final products. It also has a team that supports customers in key post-manufacturing areas such as logistics, tailor-made delivery solutions, packaging, product preservation, merchandising, strategic market analysis, brand activation, public relations and customer care

From high quality raw materials, selected locally, and the use of local suppliers (i.e. no more than 300 km from the production plants), to autonomous energy generation using natural methane gas, respect for the environment is an Effeffe hallmark.

And it is thanks to this driving force that the company – which has a large-scale production operation consisting of 3 extrusion lines and over 60,000 tons of annual capacity – has decided to invest in improving its energy efficiency. Cefla, actively engaged here in the design, delivery and installation stages, decided that Effeffe’s requirements would best be met by a natural gas-fuelled EASYPOWER_G316 GS cogeneration unit featuring heat recovery from the engine cooling circuit and the engine combustion fumes.

The plant, which consists of a GE Jenbacher JGS 316 cogeneration unit, features a reciprocating gas-fuelled (Otto cycle) engine directly coupled to a three-phase synchronous electric generator. This unit, equipped with all auxiliary devices needed for smooth operation and a containment package, is also designed to dissipate the radiant energy of the engine and reduce noise (to 55 dB at 10 m). In addition to the cogeneration part, the plant can retrieve thermal energy from the internal circuits of the engine (first intercooler stage, lubricant oil, liners) and that obtained from the exhaust gases, thus providing:

• Hot water at 90 °C for use in the product drying system;
• Steam at 10 barG for the process machines, produced via the installation of a boiler that recovers heat from the fumes and is fed with the 90 °C water obtained from heat recovery.

The low temperature energy (40 °C approx.) of the intercooler circuit is, lastly, dissipated into the atmosphere.

In terms of eco-efficiency, Cefla – in addition to supporting Effeffe at the design, supply and installation stages – analysed the general energy expenditure of the plants before completing a project characterized by optimised consumption. The plant has, in fact, been designed to achieve ultra-high energy efficiency, estimated at +85% with respect to natural gas thanks to the high electrical efficiency of the engine and full retrieval of co-generated thermal energy, allowing it to be classified as a “High Performance Cogeneration” system. Complete with end heating system connections, identified together with the customer, a thermal power plant and three machines, with a complex network several hundred meters long distributing energy throughout the plant, Cefla succeeded in providing an efficient “turnkey” service.