Arjowiggins to Build Biomass Cogen Plant at Besse sur Braye Mill in France

Arjowiggins Graphic (AWG), France, has finalized with CCB, a joint Dalkia France-Cofely subsidiary, the contract to build a 60 MW biomass cogeneration unit at its Besse sur Braye paper mill in France. The unit will consume 200,000 metric tpy of waste wood materials to provide all of the steam required by the mill and generate electricity for the national French electricity provider, EDF. The project, under discussion for two years and selected by the French government as part of the CRE4 program of the ministry of Environment in September 2011, is now ready to start its operational phase and is scheduled for completion during the second half of 2014.

Te Besse paper mill, with a capacity of 320,000 metric tpy, is the main production site of AWG. It produces white recycled papers, as well as coated woodfree (CWF) and uncoated woodfree (UWF) papers from FSC certified virgin pulp.

"This EUR 60 million project is another major building block of AWG's Manufacturing strategy. It clearly supports our current and long term business strategy to offer the printing and writing industry a unique and complete range of papers meeting the growing demand for papers with a low environmental footprint. The Besse mill will see its carbon dioxide emissions divided by five times, and the green electricity produced will increase the share of renewable energy" said Agnes Roger, AWG chief executive.

The waste wood materials will be sourced locally, supporting the active management of local forests and contributing to their sustainable growth while generating about 60 permanent jobs in logging, transportation, biomass supply chain, and power plant operation.

Gilles Lhermitte, AWG's sustainable development director said that "we are focusing on being best in class in the management of our environmental impact. We are proud to report that our efforts and actions have been recognized by the WWF, 2011 environmental index, where AWG has been ranked number one among the fine papers producers. We have also embarked on the WWF Climate savers program, and this project will be a key contributor to our official commitment to reduce our greenhouse emissions by 10% in 2014 for each ton of paper produced."

Arjowiggins is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sequana, a company listed on the Paris EuroNext exchange and present in Europe, North America, Latin America, and Asia.

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