The plant will be able to generate 50 megawatts of electricity from an innovative source – eucalyptus stumps and roots, the parts of the trees not used in the pulp manufacturing process. This expands the capacity to generate energy from waste material originating from reforestation crops that are maintained by the company itself in the states of Mato Grosso do Sul and São Paulo.

The daily processing capacity is 1,500 tons of material that formerly went to waste in the forest – enough to generate the electricity needed to light up a city of 700,000 inhabitants in a fully sustainable way, and this power will also be fed to the Brazilian national grid.

ANDRITZ has played a key role in the project – from the EPC model to design and supply of the unique solutions and technologies required to implement a generating system for renewable energy. Among the innovations are the truck dumpers designed to receive the chips for feeding the boiler. These chips are delivered by large-capacity vehicles.

The receiving system consists of two truck dumpers coupled to respective hoppers. There is a belt conveyor to receive the material from these hoppers and transport it to the pile. A stacker-reclaimer with a capacity of up to 40,000 m³ has the functions to form the pile and feed a second belt conveyor, which is responsible for transporting the material to the power boiler.

The project is a pioneering one and the first to use residues left over from pulp production. It promotes sustainable power generation initiatives, drastically reducing the impact on the environment and encouraging energy generation and pulp production that respects the boundaries of natural resources renewal.

The acquisition will be completed under the terms of the agreement between Paper Excellence and J&F Investimentos that was entered into in 2017. Paper Excellence presently owns 49.41% of Eldorado. With the completion of this acquisition, Paper Excellence will strategically enhance its international presence in the pulp and paper markets in the Americas and its ability to serve customers across the globe.

Eldorado, with headquarters in Três Lagoas, in Mato Grosso do Sul, is one of the world’s largest pulp producers. “We welcome Eldorado’s employees and all of its stakeholders to Paper Excellence. We are a strong and experienced organization fully dedicated to maximizing our businesses’ potential in the pulp and paper markets. Our immediate focus with Eldorado will be to integrate it seamlessly into the Paper Excellence Group, including evaluating how best to invest in expanding its capacity in a timely manner”, says Claudio Cotrim, Managing Director of Paper Excellence in Brazil.

Paper Excellence Group operates in the manufacture of high yield pulp and paper. Since its founding in 2007, the Group has been growing rapidly through strategic acquisitions globally. With the incorporation of Eldorado Celulose, Paper Excellence will have approximately 7,000 employees worldwide and an annual production capacity of 5.3 million tons of pulp and paper.