Tuesday 8 February 2022

Fossil fuels to biomass switch to help AAK save up to £8m a year

AAK, a producer of vegetable oils and fats, has announced plans to invest SEK500 million (£40.5m) to install biomass boilers at its production plant in Denmark.

Fossil fuel will be replaced by shea meal, a by-product from the plant's shea oil extraction process, which is expected to reduce carbon emissions by around 90%.

The facility in Aarhus, which specialises in the crushing, refining and fractionation of shea – a unique raw material from West Africa that AAK has been sourcing for more than 60 years - has run a small biomass boiler over the last five years as a pilot as part of its efforts to make its operations more sustainable.

Two new 18MW biomass boilers will not be installed, which combined with the previous boiler are expected to cut carbon emissions by more than 45,000 tons per year.

This will help reduce the company's Scope 1 emissions by 16% and generate yearly savings of up to SEK100 million (£8.09m).

In addition, the use of shea meal to fuel the boilers will generate ash, which can be used for fertilising purposes.

Johan Westman, President and CEO, AAK Group said: “AAK is fully committed to accelerate its reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and this initiative will definitely result in true progress. Not least will it strongly contribute to delivering on the science-based targets which we are in the process of setting.

“We work hard, together with our suppliers, to ensure a sustainable supply chain when sourcing our various raw materials. This investment shows we are equally committed to limiting the environmental impact of our own operations.”