Energy and carbon emissions
Sugar production is an energy-intensive process. Beet expenses aside, energy is our highest cost. We therefore have a long-standing commitment to reduce our energy consumption. We achieve this by continuously improving the effectiveness of the sugar production processes and by investing in new innovative energy-saving projects.

Using energy efficiently
Most of our production factories are equipped with their own highly efficient power plants. This means our factories produce the steam and electricity required for the sugar manufacturing process. In some cases, they generate surplus electricity, which is delivered to the local grid.
The power plants – the boilers - burn fossil fuels (oil, gas or coal) to produce steam, and electricity required for the sugar manufacturing process. The boilers release carbon emissions, as well as air pollutants such as sulphur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx). We are taking steps to minimise emissions from our boilers, including substituting fuels for cleaner alternatives where possible. Read more about emissions from Boilers.
We are looking at the possibility of further reducing carbon emission from our boilers by installing bivalent operating systems when existing boilers need to be reconstructed or new boilers are installed. Bivalent operating systems use either natural gas or oil. Natural gas usage emits less CO2 than oil and coal combustion. These systems are already in place in our German factories where natural gas is used.
In recent years we have optimized the biogas production of our anaerobic wastewater treatment plants. The biogas produced there can be burned in the boilers, reducing CO2 emissions by up to five per cent in some plants.
Steam dryers
Drying pulp process in Nordzucker production plants is performed by 55% in modern steam dryers. These save energy by reusing steam generated by the sugar production process. To close the circle, the steam generated during the drying process is reused in sugar production.
In 2012/13, we installed a steam dryer in Nakskov (Denmark). A similar steam dryer has been installed in Örtofta (Sweden) during the sugar production campaign in 2014.
Other energy-saving initiatives
Other examples of recent energy-saving projects include the sixth-step evaporation station in Säkylä (Finland). Sugar juice is concentrated in a multi-step evaporator. Water evaporated as steam in the first step is used for heating the next evaporation step. The more steps the evaporation process has, the more energy efficient the process is. The sixth-step in Säkylä has saved us about 5,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.
In Poland, we expanded the evaporation system to include a sixth step and invested in a new heat exchanger, which together contributed to savings of around 6,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.