Mitsubishi-owned canned seafood company Princes Group is partnering on a new bio plant venture, which will reduce CO2 emissions from its Mauritian tuna processing sites by 8,650 metric tons per year.
This represents 80 percent of the current operational emissions for Princes Tuna Mauritius’ (PTM) largest manufacturing site, said the group.
The project will see Princes enter into a long-term agreement with Energie des Mascareignes (EDM) – a joint waste-to-value venture between UK-based Green Create and IBL Energy – and will convert all semi-solid waste from PTM sites, alongside effluent water, into biogas via anaerobic digestion.
At PTM’s Riche Terre site, the biogas will power 100 percent of the facility’s steam-cooking requirements, replacing heavy fuel oil. Any fish waste currently sent to landfill will be eliminated.
A further byproduct created through the removal of nitrogen and phosphates in the waste effluent water from both PTM sites will be extracted for use as a biological fertilizer.
Additionally, chemicals such as flocculants, precipitants, and coagulants, as well as cleaning chemicals used in the current waste treatment system, will be eradicated through the project, which amounts to approximately 80 metric tons a year.
Work on the new bio plant has started and completion is expected in late 2022.
Solid fish waste at PTM, including tuna heads, offal, skin and bones are already diverted to a nearby plant of Marine Biotechnology Products (MBP) – a subsidiary of IBL – for fishmeal and oil creation.
The biogas venture is part of a number of changes being implemented across Princes sites to reduce its environmental impact as the group works towards carbon neutral operations by 2030.
