Corrugated board and packaging manufacturer Saica unveils its major project to decarbonize the recycled paper process at its El Burgo de Ebro plant based in Spain. The 10,300-employee group intends to transform the energy strategy of this plant, which produces 1.3 million tonnes of recycled packaging paper a year, by improving efficiency and reducing its natural gas consumption. If implemented, this far-reaching plan would reduce scope 1 CO2 emissions by 53% for the site, which produces 1.3 million tonnes of recycled packaging paper a year.
The group still has to analyze the economic viability of the investment, the sustainability of biomass supplies and the ability to meet the set deadlines. If these conditions are met, the project would involve an investment of 101.5 million euros and the creation of 440 direct and indirect jobs.
In concrete terms, the investment would involve starting up a biomass power plant, with a steam output of over 700,000 tonnes per year; setting up a biomass preparation plant, which would process 161,000 tonnes per year; assembling a back-pressure steam turbine in the existing waste-to-energy plant; and starting up a biogas boiler, capable of valorizing the biogas generated in the plant's water treatment and purification plant.
