Santiago de Cali, February 14, 2020
PRESS RELEASE
Sugar cane bagasse, waste that is transformed into green and renewable fuel
- The Riopaila Castilla Agroindustrial Group uses its raw material not only for the production of sugar. Also for the production of ethanol and energy, the latter is obtained from sugar cane bagasse, a residue that is used as a green and renewable fuel.
- This fuel is produced in both plants: Riopaila located in Zarzal and Castilla in Pradera, in the department of Valle del Cauca, and is used to meet the demand of the factories and the surplus is sold to the national public network. This is how the Riopaila Castilla Group is a cogenerator and marketer of clean energy.
- For the optimization of cogeneration, in 2019 the electrification project was carried out at the Castilla plant, which consisted of increasing the efficiency of the use of steam in the factory, going from using about 10 t/h in a turbine of drive in mill No. 6, to supply said steam to a turbogenerator to increase energy generation, leaving a benefit of the order of 15 MWh per day.
- In addition to the energy increase, the process conditions in the factory were also optimized, since the main energy characteristic of bagasse is humidity (the lower the humidity, the greater the energy efficiency), which decreased by 2 percentage units.
- At the end of 2019, both production plants generated 242,969 MWh/year, sufficient volume to meet the consumption of a city such as Armenia, Popayán, Pasto or Buga.
- In this way, the Riopaila Castilla Business Group continues its commitment to sustainability, contributing significantly to the objectives of sustainable development, and with this practice it directly responds to the SDGs. 7: Affordable and Clean Energy Y 13: Climate Action.
More information
Catalina Aristizabal Mejia
Head of Communications
Riopaila Castilla Agroindustrial Group
Cell: 314 7847663
