AB Mauri invests in water treatment technologies to ensure that the water it returns to the environment is safe and compliant with local standards. In some cases, a by-product of water treatment can also be a source of energy.
The business has recently completed a new wastewater treatment installation paired with a biogas co-generation plant at its site in Pederneiras, Brazil. This will both improve water quality and produce electrical and thermal energy from steam and hot water. The plant comprises digesters – where biogas results from a wastewater treatment process known as anaerobic digestion. It also has a facility where it treats this biogas to a quality where it can be used as a fuel source, and a co-generation plant, where the treated biogas is transformed into energy. The new plant generates renewable energy equivalent to over 30% of the plant’s consumption. This complements the site’s existing low-carbon energy sources – heat and electricity generated from burning renewable, low-carbon biomass and 100% renewable electricity from the grid.
The site aims to identify other renewable energy generation alternatives to increase the factory’s selfsufficiency and lower carbon emissions, for example through the installation of solar panels.