TRIPLE PLUS: ENVIRONMENT, SAVINGS, COMMITMENT
A facility powered by wood chips to replace existing gas-fired boilers. This is the mission that Nestlé, No.1 in the world in the food and beverage sector, has entrusted in 2021 to Uniconfort to make its plant in the Dominican Republic more ecological, efficient and economical. A factory built in the 1970s for the production and processing of milk-based products that, with the help of Uniconfort, has been introduced in a context of respect for the environment and reduction of emissions. Nestlé is one of the promoters of "BUSINESS AMBITION FOR 1.5°C", a programme in which participating companies are committed to contain the increase in temperature of 1.5°C compared to the pre-industrial era. Nestlé set itself as important and ambitious objectives, reducing CO2 emissions by 50% by 2030 and eliminating them by 2050, selecting Uniconfort's technology and experience in the biomass sector as a partner to achieve these milestones.
TEST PASSED BY FAR
Being chosen by Nestlé is a pride for Uniconfort, both for the benefits that the new plant will bring to the environment and for the thorough evaluation by the customer on the technical capabilities, the communication of our philosophy, the feasibility of the project and the savings in costs that Uniconfort exceeded, before materializing this collaboration. A decisive aspect was to have developed an exclusive and "tailor-made" technical solution, adapted to the demands of today and future prospects.
THE PLANT
From a technical point of view, it is a plant that produces 10 tons of steam that feeds the production process of this factory. It was studied, exclusively for Nestlé, a biomass logistics system: from the arrival at the factory to the storage, through the automatic feeding of the plant. The wood chips used are certified, come from the scheduled maintenance of the territory and not from deforestation. From the point of view of emissions, the installation handles extremely low parameters, aligned with the customer's request and efficiency, that is, with the amount of wood that burns to produce energy, it offers a very high performance. Finally, analyzing the economic aspect, it is a plant where the investment is fully amortized in a considerably short period.
THE INSTALLATION ALLOWS NESTLÉ TO AVOID 3,000 TONES OF CO2 EMISSIONS PER YEAR AN EXAMPLE FOR THE NATION
This plant became from the beginning an example for the Dominican Republic since it was able to combine efficiency, innovation and environmental protection in a single project. The inauguration of the plant was attended by the Minister of Industry Victor Ito Bisonò Haza and the Vice President of the Dominican Republic, Raquel Peña de Antuña.