Romaco Implements New Sustainability Strategy

Karlsruhe, Germany – Romaco Group has a new central corporate objective: sustainability and its Board of Management has appointed Andreas Detmers as its first Group Sustainability Officer. It is aimed to enable climate protection measures to be formulated and implemented at each of the company's various facilities. Detmers is the Head of the Research & Development department at Romaco Pharmatechnik GmbH in Karlsruhe, where he was responsible for the ‘Climate-neutral machine’ project. He will be supported by sustainability experts at Romaco’s four production sites in Germany and Italy.

“We pursue two approaches in implementing our sustainability strategy”, explained Detmers. “On the one hand, Romaco is developing technologies that enable our customers to produce in a more sustainable way. On the other, we are seeking to improve our own carbon footprint step by step.”

Offsetting – first climate-neutral blister packaging line

In the production process for Romaco’s new Noack Unity 600 blister packaging line, the emphasis is on offsetting. Approximately, 4,700 different components were assessed for the certified calculation of the carbon footprint and downstream cartoner. The greenhouse gas emissions which are emitted along the way are offset by sponsoring a non-governmental climate protection project in Panama, furthermore, every customer who opts for one these packaging lines is sent a certificate to prove it. The company plans to extend the carbon-neutral machine concept to all product lines in the medium term. Currently the sustainable versions include several tablet presses from Kilian as well as various Noack blister packaging lines and Promatic cartoners.

Reduction – new, recyclable strip packaging

Romaco has created the first recyclable strip packaging for pharmaceutical solids in partnership with film and foil specialist Huhtamaki, as its industry partner. Over 90 percent of the components which are used to make Push Packs from polyolefin laminate belong to the same material class (PE & PP) and are made from PVC-free material, resulting in an excess of 70 percent recycling rate. These packs have a much lower material consumption and are less than half the weight in comparison to Al/Al blister packs. The innovative sealed strips are manufactured on heat-sealing machines in Romaco Siebler’s HM 1 series and have a push-through function. This machine's QuickSeal technology ensures that the special foil is handled in a secure manner in compliance with cGMP standards of the pharmaceutical industry. Users can choose between standard, barrier and eco Push Pack versions.

Avoidance – reducing product losses

One of the design objectives of Romaco Kilian’s tablet presses is minimal product loss, which is achieved through precision-manufactured die-tables with hardly any radial run-out. Magnetic product scrapers simultaneously eliminate product loss during tableting by allowing further processing of the powder. Moreover, Kilian shortens the run-in times for its tablet presses by means of start-up dosing control based on the filling, resulting in even lower material consumption.

For the designers of the fluidized bed systems in the Romaco Innojet VENTILUS series, the careful use of valuable raw materials is also a top priority. Any particles which are retained by the filter during production are constantly returned to the process by the SEPAJET system. The processing time for hot melt coating applications is consequently up to 85 percent shorter and the carbon footprint of the VENTILUS machines dramatically improved.

Image Source: Romaco