Chemicals Solar with Colgate-Palmolive
Absolicon, in collaboration with Solar ++, installed in 2021 a second solar collector field produced with Absolicon patented T160 Solar collector for Colgate-Palmolive in Athens, Greece, for a total of 264 m2 aperture area.
Rooftop Solar installation with Colgate-Palmolive
Absolicon and Sarvanos Solar++ installed a rooftop solar collector field for Colgate-Palmolive’s plant in Athens, Greece. The solar field was built in two phases since 2018, in combination with a heat recovery system to fill the gap between heat demand and recovered heat.
After the first successful installation in 2018 of 132m2, Colgate-Palmolive followed up with a second order to extend the field size to a total of 264m2 in 2021.
Absolicon´s technology, with an operational temperature of up to 160°, supplies pressurized hot water in the manufacturing process at Colgate-Palmolive’s factories in Greece with renewable solar thermal sources.
The Absolicon T160 solar collectors are set to deliver heat at 107° to the reactor line in the production of fabric softener. The modularity and flexibility of Absolicon´s field layout allowed an inclination of the collectors to 15° to compact and increase the efficiency level according to the available rooftop space.
The installation can run during reactor downtime by sending heat to other processes in the plant.
The sun tracking system
The Sun tracking system rotates the collectors 265° each day to capture as much sunlight as possible.
The 24 T160 solar collectors of the rooftop installation are mounted in two groups of 12, where each group shares a single mechanical tracker. The Solar tracking control is integrated into the process control system.
Installation Impact
- 70% of the daytime operation Solar heat allowed the system to run on zero or negative Co2
- 50% decrease in cooling energy demand for the fabric softener reactor
- 50% of the heat demand is met by the heat recovery system
Case Study
The Renewable Thermal Collaborative has published a case study about this project, showing how renewable thermal installations can achieve both sustainability and financial objectives. Read the RTC’s case study to learn more: https://www.renewablethermal.org/cp-absolicon-case-study/
Learn more about the details of this solar thermal installation by accessing the case-specific data sheet:
