Energy efficiency is a material topic for Bracell, encompassing efficient energy consumption from clean (renewable) sources.

We invest in processes and technologies to ensure the efficient use of energy in our operations, prioritizing renewable sources of generation. The company has targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and policies and actions to mitigate this impact, aiming to establish low-carbon production.

Reducing energy intensity, efficient energy use, and investing in a low-carbon matrix are Bracell initiatives to ease its greenhouse gas emissions (see more in GRI Content 305). 

Bracell’s plants in Bahia and São Paulo are energy self-sufficient. The company has recovery boilers that produce the steam fed to turbine-generator sets to generate electricity.

In the mills, national grid energy is only used occasionally during general maintenance stoppages.  Energy is also purchased for forestry operations and nurseries, where diesel also fuels power generators.

Renewable generation

The new flexible lines in Lençóis Paulista (SP) are equipped with a biomass boiler that generates renewable energy from eucalyptus biomass, composed of trimmings from the plant and other substances originating from the production of dissolving pulp, including black liquor.

These lines were developed to operate free of fossil fuels and to generate clean energy for the Brazilian market, which receives the surplus from Bracell’s mill.

The site has a 440kV substation with an installed capacity of 409 MW, enough to supply electricity to the mill and a surplus of approximately 150 to 180 MW that is sold to the national grid, enough to supply clean renewable electricity to around 750,000 homes or approximately 3 million people.

In 2023, Bracell received International Renewable Energy Certificates (I-RECs) as proof that the electricity sold from its on-site generation facilities in Lençóis Paulista (SP) is renewably sourced.