Energy generated from eucalyptus feed petrochemical of Dow in Brazil
A plant for power generation and industrial steam from eucalyptus chips will supply major multinational petrochemical complex on the Dow in Brazil, which currently uses natural gas as the source, officials said.
The renewable power plant will be built by the company ERB Aratinga SA in Candeias municipality in the state of Bahia (Northeast) where is located the plant of the Dow, with a loan approved today by the National Bank of Economic and Social Development (BNDES).
Credit for 210.7 million reais (about $ 105.3 million) will help finance the construction of the cogeneration unit steam and electricity Aratinga ERB, said the development bank of the Brazilian government in a statement .
The plant, with capacity to generate 125.7 megawatts per year of electricity and 1,148 tons of process steam, biomass is the first financed by BNDES.
The ERB Aratinga, a subsidiary of the RBS Renewable Energy Brazil, a company in the biomass power generation in the country, believes that the future plant is the first in the world to use plant waste to supply a petrochemical company.
The Dow contractor will invest a total of 265 million reals ($ 132 million) in the project, including the power plant and an area of 9,700 hectares which will be produced 227,800 tons of eucalyptus per year.
“The concept of the project involves, in addition to environmental benefits by replacing natural gas with biomass, the strengthening of the productive chain of biomass as fuel for power generation”, the statement of BNDES.
According to the regional government of Bahia, fuel substitution reduced about 180,000 tonnes per year of carbon dioxide emissions from Dow in Candeias municipality located in the metropolitan region of Salvador, the regional capital.
According to the bank building, the project will also generate economic benefits for Dow, which will reduce costs with the use of industrial steam and the consequent elimination of the risk caused by volatility in the price of natural gas.
The ERB Aratinga opted for eucalyptus chips as a source of biomass instead of pine or sugar cane bagasse because it is a plant with guaranteed supply source in that region of Bahia state, with 130,000 hectares of eucalyptus forests for the production of cellulose.
Aratu Industrial Complex, the main Dow Brazil, has two factories gift and the only unit of the company in Latin America that produces propylene oxide and propylene glycol.
Category: Money
