Environmental impact and sustainability have always played an important role in the KD Pharma Group's approach to business. Minimizing waste and improving overall efficiency are cornerstones of the organization. Over the years, the KD Pharma Group has invested considerable resources in the development of a sustainable pathway contributing to creating a cleaner and healthier world.
As part of our efforts to minimise the impact on the ecosystem and provide the maximum efficiency in resource manufacturing, we use CO2 to gently extract and purify Omega-3 fatty acids and other lipids. This superior technology is called kd-pür® Supercritical Extraction Technology and is a combination of Supercritical Fluid Extraction (SFE) and Supercritical Fluid Chromatography (SFC). This unique combination process delivers a superior quality of Omega-3 concentrates and plant extracts such as cannabinoids or standardized hops extracts. Most of the CO2 used by this technology remains in the manufacturing process and circles back into the system for reuse. A small portion is discharged during fractionation and needs to be replaced.
Our process engineering team in Bexbach, Germany, managed to optimise this process by reducing the CO2 emissions by 60%!
KD Pharma is proud to empower young talents like Beyza Özdemir, who lead this project together with our process engineering team in Bexbach, Germany. The company's goal is to further optimize our plants and strive to make them more environmentally friendly.
Another project that has a positive impact on the ecosystem by reducing the amount of CO2 consumption was lead by Rainer Rohe in Bexbach, Germany. As part of the manufacturing process to extract and purify the Omega-3 fatty acids, heating and cooling units are used to bring the mobile phases in the SFC's to the correct thermodynamic conditions. Therefore, at various times it is necessary to cool or heat the CO2 and fish oil. For this there are a couple of options, such as conventional gas heaters, but also heat pumps that run on electricity. While with gas heating finite fossil fuels are burned, with the heat pump only electricity is needed.
For our SFC‘s, the use of the heat pumps was preferred. This decision made it possible to considerably reduce the CO2 emissions associated with this process.
A comparative calculation has been made for the last three years showing an increasing reduction in CO2 emissions from 66% in 2019 to 75% in 2021.
At KD Pharma Group, we continuously seek for the most environmentally friendly ways to produce and minimize the impact on the ecosystem. Well done team!
Follow this link to read more about the company’s proprietary kd-pür® separation technologies. kd-pür® technologies
Contact:
Patricia Roch
Global Brand Communication
KD Pharma Group
patricia.roch@kdpharmagroup.com