Climate change mitigation has become a global priority, encouraging companies to set ambitious goals to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
Aware of these challenges, Citrusvil is committed to the development of our own comprehensive decarbonization strategy.
“The transition to a low-carbon economy is crucial to mitigate the effects of climate change. Throughout 2024, we have focused on our climate transition plan, which promotes cleaner and more efficient practices,” says Agustina Lucci, Sustainability Manager.
“At Citrusvil, we aim to reduce our environmental impact and strengthen our competitiveness by optimizing resources and incorporating innovative practices in our production processes,” adds Martín Carignani, CEO.
Measuring and transparency
Since 2019, we have been calculating the carbon footprint in our value chain to manage the main sources of emissions. We are working to align with international standards that are verifiable and demonstrate integrity and transparency.
In the past year, we have focused on low-carbon production and the use of cleaner sources of energy, in line with the global trend:
- We have implemented new digital process control and recording systems.
- We have made progress in the automation of our processes.
- We have achieved shorter periods of downtime in grinding, resulting in an energy reduction per ton produced.
- We have replaced steam generators with high-performance ones.
- We have replaced natural gas with biogas (internal production) for steam production.
- We have generated more renewable electric energy which has been injected into the national power grid.
- We have refurbished pumps, motors and conveyors so as to improve productivity while saving energy.
The key to decarbonization: renewable energies
Climate change has prompted companies around the world to adopt renewable energy sources, not only to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels but also greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the carbon footprint associated with their operations.
In primary production:
We have entered into a renewable energy supply agreement. “By next year, our goal is to supply our 23 production units with renewable electric energy only, a milestone in northwestern Argentina,” added Bruno Armando, Energy Analyst.
In industrial plants:
The portion of renewable electric energy in our industrial energy matrix has continued growing, showing a 65% growth during the grinding season and reaching 95% during the harvesting recess, as a result of the new energy agreements executed.
In our Renewable Energy Plant (PER), investments have been made so that we can provide renewable electric energy for ourselves by 2025. This will enable us to reduce our emissions by approximately 450 tons of CO2 equivalent.
Investments in decarbonization
In 2024, to continue managing our waste efficiently and in a sustainable manner and generate more biogas, we launched a new biodigester at our Renewable Energy Plant (PER), which increases our effluent treatment capacity by around 25%.
“The more biogas we generate, the more natural gas we can replace in our boilers, thus reducing our dependence on fossil fuels. In addition, we maintain effluent treatment quality, complying with environmental parameters and anticipating future growth,” explained Germán Roig Babot, Head of the Renewable Energy Plant.
The new boilers installed at Citrusvil’s industrial plants optimize our energy efficiency and lay the foundations for long-term sustainable development, allowing us to adapt to current and future steam demand.
“These new units allow us to move from an average thermal efficiency of 78% to 95%. In addition, they optimize gas consumption, reinforcing our commitment to more sustainable practices. Towards 2025, our plan consists in dualizing the boilers so that they can operate on both biogas and natural gas (70%-30%), which will significantly reduce our emissions by approximately 1,200 tons of CO2 every year,” explained Maximiliano Ocon, Project and Energy Coordinator, and Gerardo Cigliutti, Engineering and Maintenance Manager.
Accurate data, efficient decisions
In line with our objective to decentralize the control of our industrial operations, we have implemented the Distributed Control System (DCS).
By the end of 2024, we could measure variables such as water, steam, gas, and electric energy. This allowed us to identify points of improvement to optimize our energy consumption. In 2025, we will start the next stage focused on monitoring and automating processes at Plant B, in order to achieve maximum efficiency and productivity by 2026.
Towards net-zero emissions
We know that we need to make huge transformations to have a stable and resilient planet as well as societies. In the business world, we are convinced that a climate transition plan is crucial. We are facing this challenge with new learnings that we share with our clients and taking into account their needs for business sustainability.
Learn more about Climate and Energy in this note with the words of Virginia Vilariño, Coordinator of the Climate and Energy Area Argentine Business Council for Sustainable Development (CEADS)