Procedia

Environmental Science,
Engineering and Management
http://www.procedia-esem.eu

Procedia Environmental Science, Engineering and Management 1 (2014) (2) 137-141

18th International Trade Fair of Material & Energy Recovery and Sustainable Development,
ECOMONDO, 5th-8th November, 2014, Rimini, Italy

POZZI LEOPOLDO SRL: A CASE STUDY OF ETV

“ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGY VERIFICATION
“FOR RCR, THE ROTATING HEAT RECOVERY
SYSTEM FOR POLLUTED EFFLUENTS

Alberto Pozzi, Maria Antonella Leone

BScH POZZI LEOPOLDO SRL, Via Paganini,14
I - 20825 Barlassina (MB)

Abstract

The paper evaluates the reasons behind the need of obtaining a verified performance claim according to
the rules of the European Pilot Programme ETV – Environmental Technology Verification, supported
by the European Commission – Climate Change & Environment. A brief explanation of the product
RCR – a rotating heat recovery system for highly polluted effluents with certifications as best
innovation and best practice granted by independent energy organizations in various European
countries – and the analysis of the changing demands of the present market globally support the
urgency of being environmentally certified in order to offer a reliable proof of the high-quality
performance of this technology while being sustainably effective

Keywords: eco-innovation, energy, fouling, rotating heat exchanger

1. Introduction

The urgency to be verified by reliable programmes supporting and promoting eco-

innovations and sustainable consumptions corresponds to the stronger and stronger demand
for evaluation tools to certify the sustainability of products/processes both as a trustworthy
parameter for investors in the industrial market worldwide and as an enabling tool for
manufacturers.


Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the ECOMONDO

Corresponding author: e-mail: alberto.pozzi@pozzi.it
 Pozzi and Leone/Procedia Environmental Science, Engineering and Management, 1, 2014, 1, 137-141

The ETV claim responds to the need of Customers to avail themselves of a proven
sustainable technology. This is the case in countries like India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, China,
and Indonesia, where companies are increasingly required to fit their energy consumption
within certain parameters in order not to shut down or to be able to take advantage of
particularly enticing benefits granted to those who effectively act towards a “greener”
production, and where buyers from the Western world demand environmentally-aware
production choices. Even locally, that is in Italy and in other European countries, where the
so-called “White Certificates” are granted for every saved Ton of Oil Equivalent (TOE),
ETV enables manufacturers to provide a reliable verification tool. RCR, a rotary heat
exchanger with a long history of successful sale achievements as a valuable energy efficient
tool, further distinguishes its performance thanks to the added value of certified energy
saving and reduced thermal pollution as verified by the Environmental Technology
Verification, an initiative under the Eco-Innovation Action Plan of the European
Commission, Department of Climate Change and Environment.

2. RCR and ETV – A Case Study

2.1. What is RCR?

RCR (the acronym stands for rotating heat exchanger in Italian) is a heat recovery
system intended to treat discharged dirty hot effluents (Fig. 1) and was invented in the early
‘80s when Europe experienced a deep energy crisis due to the high price and shortage of oil
(Pozzi, 2014).

Fig. 1. RCR, Rotating Heat Exchanger

Contrary to all other existing heat exchangers (such as shell-and-tube or plate

exchangers, for instance), RCR is dynamic, not static, and exactly the rotation of the shaft
onto which the heat exchanging steel discs are mounted creates a turbulence and a
centrifugal force which keep the unit self-cleaning, fouling-free and, practically,
maintenance-free as well. These advantages result in a constantly highly efficient unit that
guarantees averagely over 70% energy saving with no hustle.
In case of discharged water being processed, the recovered heat is transferred to fresh
cold water that becomes pre-heated and used for the next production cycle, making it a very
advantageous and profitable application in countries such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh,
China, Indonesia, where textile dye-houses work 3 shifts 24 hours a day, often encountering
big problems as for how to get your fuel for energy production and where a stricter and
stricter rule enforcement against pollution of all types is implemented, facing the risk of total
shut down of the factory.

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When analyzing on a graph the efficiency rate of standard types of exchangers

working with mechanically polluted fluids, a line with the shape similar to a saw-tooth
results from the variable heat recovering ability of the exchangers due to the accumulation of
fouling (Fig. 2). When averaging this line, mean efficiency drops to lower than a mere 50%.
At that point, the production process must be interrupted to perform adequate cleaning
maintenance, which often brings about other nuisances such as changing gaskets that might
break during the process of opening and closing the system, just to mention one. This does
not happen with RCR, which typically keeps running, uninterruptedly, 24 hours a day, 365
days a year.

Fig. 2. Typical fouling effects on efficiency of static heat exchangers

2.2. A certified product history responding to nowadays’ call for sustainability with another
verification

One can safely state that RCR was “the” pioneer sustainable technology in textile
industry and still proves unbeaten and winning approval and recognition as far as energy
saving and efficiency are concerned, so much so that it is used in other industry fields, such
as tank cleaning, food processing, tanneries, PET recycling and so on, that is wherever there
is a discharge of hot and very dirty effluents which would certainly foul other types of
exchanger.
RCR was patented and certified by various independent energy organizations in Italy
(ENEA), France (Centre Textile de Mulhouse) and England (British Standard Best Practices)
for its exceptional energy-saving performance and for its working reliability. Another way of
certifying its high performance rate is acknowledging the various attempts to copy it in
China, Turkey, the Netherlands, Egypt, to mention a few.
Although several thousand such units have already been sold in all continents and
improvements have been added to RCR over the years in order to make it a renewed and
mature product, what RCR was more recently lacking was the proof of what makes this heat
recovery system really different from all others: this product is not affected by fouling and
really allows for constantly efficient energy saving. This performance characteristic was not
fully covered by existing certification standards. No one had ever thought of testing the
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resistance to fouling of a machine to certify its performance rating. ETV has allowed to pin
point those parameters which could become a standard verification procedure in similar
cases, emphasizing the added value represented by the fouling-free ability of RCR.

2.3. The EU ETV Programme

The EU-ETV Pilot Programme, operating as one of the initiatives under the Eco-
Innovation Action Plan of the European Commission, set out to establish the foundations for
a true European-level tool supporting and promoting eco-innovation, mainly in highly
dynamic and innovative Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). The programme is
targeted at environmental technologies whose value cannot be proved through existent
standards or certification schemes and whose claims could benefit from a credible
verification procedure as a guarantee to investors (JRC, 2014)
The ETV pilot programme requires following adequate standards of quality.
Organisations undertaking the verification of environmental technologies under the ETV
pilot programme (Verification Bodies) shall be accredited by national accreditation bodies
(EU ETV, 2014), using the ISO/IEC Standard 17020 for type A inspection bodies (ISO/IEC
17020, 1998). Analytical laboratories shall be accredited according to ISO/IEC 17025 (2005)
(for the relevant methods of analysis (EU ETV, 2014).

3. Conclusions

What has really changed in the world over the years is the awareness towards the
health of our planet in its various forms and the related demand for proven “green”
technologies that effectively help responding to the more and more demanding needs of the
present industrial society. Proven technology means independently certified technology.
RCR environmental certification adventure started when POZZI LEOPOLDO found out that
the “Green Label” provided to members of the Italian association of machinery
manufacturers to which the Company belongs could not be easily granted to RCR, in spite of
its pioneering sustainable contribution, because the same parameters normally used to
endorse the energy efficiency of textile machines could not be adopted to certify the
technology of RCR.
In this respect, ETV is a valuable tool helping Customers understand the significant
addition towards sustainability which this product offers by proving its reliability in
achieving specific results, such as lowering the thermal pollution of water, recovering heat
and reducing the overall CO2 emissions, doing so in the harshest of environments.
This being a pilot programme, it is not yet possible to exactly quantify all the benefits
deriving from showing the ETV Verified Performance Claim. It is certain, however, that an
independent verification of what makes a product or technology different from others on the
market undoubtedly contributes effectively to easily convince a potential customer of the
reliability of the verified product, having been endorsed at a European level and according to
international standards. Seeing the trend of a more and more sustainability-conscious society,
in an aggressive and competitive world market, this verification can smooth the way for
trustworthy choices in terms of energy efficiency and “ever-green” eco-innovations like RCR.

References

EU ETV, (2014), EU Environmental Technology Verification pilot programme - Paragraph A.1 of the
General Verification Protocol Version 1.1 – July 7th, 2014, On line at:
http://iet.jrc.ec.europa.eu/etv/sites/etv/files/files/documents/GVP/etv_gvp_rev1_text.pdf
ISO/IEC 17020, (1998), General criteria for the operation of various types of bodies performing
inspection, International Standardization Organization, Geneva, Switzerland.
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ISO/IEC 17025, (2005), General requirements for the competence of testing and calibration
laboratories, International Standardization Organization, Geneva, Switzerland.
JRC, (2014), ETV Programme, Joint Research Centre, Institute for Energy and Transport, On line at:
http://iet.jrc.ec.europa.eu/etv/about-etv
Pozzi A., (2014), RCR vs Other Heat Recovery Systems: A Comparison between POZZI Rotary RCR
and Other Types of Heat Exchanger, rev.2, copyright of POZZI LEOPOLDO SRL, On line at:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/823rhk9bq82k5i1/RCR_vs_Other_Heat_Recovery_Systems.pdf

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