Italian boiler producer and installation company Uniconfort designed, manufactured and installed two boilers at a food processing company in the Ivory Coast in Africa. Through its advanced technology, the food processing company is able to save about €1-millon each year as the two boilers are powered by production waste.

Uniconfort designed a plant that is powered by two boilers capable of burning tomato hulls mixed with cashew hulls and local timber. With a short fuel supply chain at almost no cost, using materials which would have to be disposed of as waste, the waste products replace gas which has an extremely high cost in the Ivory Coast.

The food processing company, which is located close to the Ivorian capital of Abidjan, uses local tomatoes to produce sauces, peeled tomatoes and ketchup, all of which are sold on the local market.

The food processing company approached Uniconfort following the boiler company’s installation of a plant in the Ivory Coast powered by cocoa production waste. The company approached Uniconfort in an attempt to cut the costs of the fuel that is required in pasteurising tomatoes as this process consumes a large amount of energy.

The plant produces all the steam that is necessary for pasteurising the tomatoes at no cost. The tomatoes can then go on to packaging. With its cutting edge technology, Uniconfort carried out the entire process, from the design of the plant to installation, in seven months.

The plant is powered by two Uniconfort Global 500 boilers at a power of 11 MWth. Each boiler produces 8 t/h of steam and has a total yearly biomass consumption of 16 000 t/y.

Moreover, the technology used in the plant’s design not only allows for energy to be recovered from production waste in the food and agriculture sector, but is also environment friendly. Through this new plant and boiler system, environmentally harmful carbon emissions have been zeroed.