“Some years ago, we launched our SKF Solutions Factory as a certified global vehicle for the delivery of bearing remanufacturing, engineered solutions and field services, and as well as a range of supporting services including condition monitoring, outsourced maintenance, asset reliability consulting and remote data hosting and analysis,” begins Sarel Froneman, SKF SA’s manager for sustainability. “These services all came with SKF Group certification so we could present a standardised benchmarked package to SKF customers anywhere in the world,” he says.
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“Our new Circular Economy Centre is a little different. It’s a more organic collection of SKF services, driven by the immediate need to contribute meaningfully to sustainability, because now is the time to make a difference. The world has one last chance, and saving it is our responsibility,” Froneman asserts.
SKF has been pursuing its sustainability agenda for many years, since the late eighties. Over the past two years, SKF Group has been accelerating its objectives.
- In June 2020, SKF announced that all its manufacturing sites would be carbon neutral (net zero) by 2030.
- In September 2020, SKF announced that the company had joined the Renewable Energy 100 (RE100) initiative, which brings together large ambitious organisations committed to 100% renewable electricity.
- In July 2021, SKF joined the Science Based Target initiative. Membership of the SBTi commits SKF to climate targets in line with the Paris Agreement.
- In October 2021, SKF announced its commitment to have a supply chain with net zero greenhouse emissions by 2050.
Froneman continues: “We naturally report to Sweden which has committed, amongst other things, to our local site becoming carbon neutral by 2030. So, we are on a drive to ensure our South African warehousing and manufacturing units meet this deadline. And, while this is challenging for us, imagine how challenging it must be to oversee all SKF’s bearing manufacturing plants,” he says.
For SKF South Africa, the process started back in 2018/2019 when the company began to design its new building. “Right from the early discussions with our landlord at the time, we insisted on having a solar system incorporated into the construction. We undertook an energy consumption study, then added a little to accommodate growth, and a 383 kWp PV solar system, which can currently deliver about 30% more than our average needs, was installed into the building.
“During the day, from 8:30 in the morning until about 4:30, we are usually fully off the grid,” he tells MechChem Africa, adding that this power is used by the warehouse, workshops, offices, logistics and even the canteen kitchen, which can draw a significant percentage.
The system, he continues, is a grid-tied, which means no energy is stored on batteries onsite. “We're very excited that in May of 2021, we started to engage with our landlord and the Ekurhuleni Municipality and are now at the point of signing a feed-in tariff deal. At the moment, until they figure out how to compensate us, we're feeding our excess electricity back to the Municipality free of charge. We are happy to do this, though, so it doesn’t go waste. And it makes us a net provider of green energy rather than a net user of carbon-based power,” he explains, “In theory, we should soon be able to wheel our excess power to local companies in the area, which is now legal.”
From a cost perspective, SKF’s landlord manages the municipal accounts. “We ended up signing an agreement for our landlord to generate and supply the power we need. But they charge for our solar consumption at a significantly lower rate than municipal electricity tariffs. So as well as the real sustainability benefit, we are also saving on our energy bills,” says Froneman.
During a recent Team Sweden in South Africa networking event in Pretoria, Froneman says a representation from Swedish steel manufacturer SSAB, presented a physical steel sample that was produced without using fossil fuels. Since steel manufacture is a very carbon intensive process, this is a big step in the right direction for the ambitions of SKF. Especially considering the commitment to have a net zero greenhouse emissions supply chain by 2050.
As a proof of concept, SKF announced in September 2022 that, together with Swedish steel producer, Ovako, it had produced a Spherical Roller Bearing (SRB) that, compared to the company’s standard SRB bearings, produced 90% less emissions.
Sarel Froneman’s new role is to take charge of sustainability for SKF South Africa. “But I am also still head of engineering. This changes the way I see all our workshop activity, which is why we are launching the Circular Economy Centre.
“The circular economy takes recycling to a whole new level. We are all familiar with the traditional linear economy, where we mine some resources, process them, produce products, sell and consume these products. We then get rid of all the accumulated waste and, ultimately, throw away the product itself.
“My nine year old daughter is taught about recycling at school, and she is always saying we must: “reduce, reuse, recycle”. From a circular economy perspective, it's all in there. Reduce can mean use less coal to make steel; or maintain equipment for much longer, or remanufacture a used bearing to OEM standards.
“I asked a good friend of mine what he thought the circular economy was about, and he said: ‘Making something so strong and so expensive that it doesn't fail’. But the rate at which we are consuming resources is not sustainable. So making things and adopting circular economy principles is not just a nice to have. At the current rate, we are going to run out of resources, we are going to destroy the oceans, we are going to run out of landfills. So the argument for optimising short term profits is irresponsible. Also, being socially and environmentally sustainable will ultimately improve longer term profitability,” Froneman assures.
Something that is made to last much longer, is properly maintained and routinely remanufactured need not be more expensive than buying inferior products that break down often and have to be routinely discarded and replaced, he says, pointing out that the ‘high’ investment cost of the PV system at SKF’s new building, for example, has paid for itself in less than two years.
“We anticipate our customers will soon see this sustainability argument and take responsibility onto their own shoulders. They will want carbon-free bearings as part of their efforts to be carbon neutral,” he argues. “That is why we are launching the Circular Economy Centre; to enable us to offer services to help our customers to be more carbon neutral and sustainable,” he explains.
Typical services that are becoming central to this goal include SKF’s Bearing Remanufacturing offering, which offers a second, third and fourth life for high-value bearings – even a bearing remanufactured for the fourth time can be as good as brand new bearing.
“On average, most bearings are discarded after only 30% of their theoretical design life, because of poor lubrication, overloading, contamination and similar preventable issues. Which brings us to another of our circular economy offering, Onsite Services, which prevents bearings from being destroyed and enables them to be remanufactured more successfully, more cost-effectively and more often,” notes Froneman.
As well as maintenance and repair services, lubrication, condition monitoring and contamination management services are available to support clients on site.
Project engineering is another key aspect of helping bearing users in South Africa to become more sustainable and environmentally friendly. “Our applications engineers in South Africa, are available to help customers resolve ongoing maintenance issues and to identify ways of improving asset life, reliability and efficiency. We are able to custom design and/or re-engineer solutions to better meet the real needs of a rotating machine in its specific environment,” Froneman continues.
The Circular Economy Centre will also house SKF’s seal manufacturing service. “We have a SealJet machine, backed by materials and a system that enables us to custom manufacture seals using 80 different profiles to the exact dimensions required. This further helps customers to reduce the overall cost of repairing a damaged rotating shaft rather than replacing it. When a whole shaft and housing is repaired and polished down, a non-standard seal will almost always be required, but we can custom manufacture these seals to the precise dimensions required,” he advises.
“RecondOil is another exciting new offering that fits very well into our circular economy centre. Our patented double separation technology (DST) can turn industrial oil from a costly consumable into a reliable, circular asset,” Froneman informs MechChem Africa.
“The oil can be purified down to nano level – with all the original properties retained. A plant such as a paper mill might replace or disposeof 5 000 ℓ of oil during a major plant shutdown. By using our RecondOil service, that same oil can last three times as long, so imagine the amount of CO2 emissions and environmental damage that could be avoided if circular-economy services such as these were widely adopted.
“That’s without mentioning the hard costs savings for the replacement oils or the safe and responsible disposal of the used oil,” concludes Sarel Froneman.
