In August 2019, the Citrusvil Electricity Generation Plant started operating, an achievement that allows us to add value through renewable energy management, thus becoming the first citrus in the world to produce biogas and generate electricity through of the treatment of lemon effluent.
We innovate sustainably
Inspired by the foundational values and sustainability policies of the company, from Citrusvil we work in the responsible management of natural resources, and the minimization of the impacts of our activities in the environment, taking care and optimizing every link in our value chain.
Citrusvil was the first limoniculture industry in the world to develop a liquid effluent treatment system originated in its production processes, approved as a Clean Development Mechanism by the United Nations. This Treatment Plant allows the generation of biogas from its biodigesters, a fuel that was destined from the beginning to the production of steam in the boilers of the industry, with the additional benefit of avoiding the emission of methane gas into the atmosphere, whose greenhouse effect is superior of CO2.
Within the framework of the National RenovAr Program and Law No. 27,191, which pursue the promotion of the generation of electric energy from renewable sources, in 2017 Citrusvil was awarded the project that today allows it to convert biogas into electricity, opening a new business unit, and positioning ourselves as the first citrus company worldwide to generate electricity from lemon processing.
“The condition of seasonality in the production of biogas and energy consumption of Citrusvil, added to the prices of electric energy that handled the wholesale market, led us initially to allocate this biofuel to the production of steam in the boilers. From this new project, we can generate energy during the harvest, considering the challenge of feeding the biodigesters also in the interzafra, to be able to operate throughout the year ”, explains Eng. Luciano Uda, Head of the Energy Sector.
In this way, Citrusvil confirms its vocation to innovate in the path of sustainability and environmental care, accompanying a State policy that aims to bring Argentina to incorporate renewable energy into its energy matrix.
Energy for the community
This project, developed with engineering and local workforce, using Italian technology from Fluence, and German from Finning CAT, gives Citrusvil the possibility of generating 3 MW of power to be injected into the interconnected system through the distributor EDET SA and the transport company TRANSNOA, allowing to deliver an energy equivalent to the consumption of between 2500 and 3000 homes. The RenovAr program guarantees the sale of the energy generated through a contract signed with CAMMESA (Cia. Administrator of the Wholesale Electricity Market), for a period of 20 years.
“For the company, it is a market unknown to us as generators, which poses a permanent individual and collective challenge, which will demand our greatest efforts. We have turned biogas into another byproduct of the industrialization of lemon and, from now on, the Effluent Treatment Plant will cease to be a service unit to become a productive unit, ”concludes Mr. Germán Roig Babot, Chief Effluent treatment plant.
ODS n°7: Affordable and clean energy
Zero Effluent
Effluent: 10,000m3 per day
Biogas: 5,500,000m3 of fossil fuel per season
Fertirriego: 1,400,000m3 of treated water per season
Compost: 6,500 tons of organic solids per season
Electric power: 3MW of power