Switzerland has launched an eco-friendly wood-powered power station for producing clean sugar, reducing CO2 emissions by 16,000 tons.

In Switzerland, on the seventeenth of September, a new wood-powered power station was launched. This station will help reduce CO2 emissions at the Schweizer Zucker AG factory by more than 16,000 tons annually.

Switzerland exports around 450,000 tons of wood waste annually. In the future, this wood-fired station installed at the sugar plant in Aarburg will be able to use heat recovery for 70,000 tons of this waste and convert it into energy. The information was provided by the Lid.ch portal, as reported by AgroXXI.ru.

The energy generated will be used to produce process steam, hot water, and electricity for processing sugar beets.

“This will allow us to produce the most environmentally friendly sugar in Europe, annually reducing CO2 emissions by more than 16,000 tons,” noted Andreas Blank, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Schweizer Zucker AG, at the opening ceremony. The plant also plans to use wood energy for heating residential buildings.

This wood power station is the only one in Switzerland capable of using contaminated wood, such as railway sleepers. However, it is still unclear whether the station will accept such fuel. Before its launch, the Federal Office of Energy stated that only half of the preferential tariffs would be provided for the use of contaminated wood waste. This means that electricity production in this case may not be profitable.

Overall, Switzerland is firmly committed to the EU's green policy and intends to completely replace sugar imports.