Latest gas turbine technology powering major Italian ceramics facility

Centrax Gas Turbines has installed and commissioned a CX300, its latest generation of high-tech generator sets, for Florim, a world-class Italian ceramic manufacturing company.

The gas turbine generator package, incorporating the Siemens SGT-300 core engine, has an 8.3 MW generating capacity to power Florim’s facility in Mordano, near Bologna. The site will benefit from the CX300’s CHP capability by using the recovered exhaust heat in the ceramic manufacturing process.

Cefla, the Italian EPC company specialising in power projects for ceramic companies, selected Centrax to provide the CX300 generator set due to the turbine’s low emission levels, its better than 34% efficiency and the packager’s ability to tailor the design to meet with the needs of the project.

Toby Boys, Centrax’s European Sales Manager, said: “in addition to the generator package, Florim has signed a long-term service agreement with Centrax to support and maintain the unit from our Italian depot in nearby Bologna.  Centrax’s excellent reputation for service helped secure this agreement and we’re delighted a company as prestigious as Florim recognise this too”.

He added: “thanks to Cefla’s expert knowledge in integrating power generation equipment into the ceramics industry they realise the CX300’s ability and suitability for projects such as this”.

An increase in tile production at Florim’s facility meant that an existing gas turbine unit no longer met the site’s electrical and thermal demands and needed to be upgraded.

The package was manufactured at Centrax’s headquarters in the UK and shipped to site ready for installation and commissioning at the end of summer 2017.