Electricity and Energy Consumption

Various improvements, innovations and process changes implemented at our assets made a difference, resulting in 1.3% reduction year-on-year, which exceeds our set target.

• Around the world, several sites installed a variable-frequency drive (VFD), a type of motor drive used in electro-mechanical drive systems to control AC motor speed and torque by varying motor input frequency and voltage, increasing system efficiency. VFDs were installed at our facilities in San Antonio, Texas, US; Pereira, Colombia; Kandla, India; Lampung, Indonesia; Wittenberg, Germany; and at our Brazilian assets in Ponta Grossa, Paraná State, in Jataí, Goiás State and in Alto Araguaia, Mato Grosso State.
• Also in Alto Araguaia, our oilseeds plant implemented an oil recovery system in the soybean hull, changing the layout of the unit’s sieve system, which reduced the percentage of oil retained in the hull from 2.5% to 1.1%. As a result, we were able to reduce the number of fans used in the system, decreasing annual electricity consumption by 1400 megawatt-hours.
• Elsewhere, small, systematic steps contributed to constructive incremental change. For instance, in Kandla, India, we began transferring soybean oil from the tank farm to oil drums using gravity, rather than a pump, to save power. And in Tianjin, China, some 300 streetlamps within the plant were replaced by LED energy-saving lamps.