Masdar "Greens" Egyptian Sugar Co. With Fuel Switch from Mazut Oil to Natural Gas

If you enjoy sweet treats from Cairo, they are about to get sweeter: Cairo sugar co is now greening its emissions by switching to natural gas.

Abu Dhabi’s Masdar energy and development company is helping to further make the Middle East more green by signing a 10 year CO2 Emissions Control Agreement with Egyptian Sugar and Integrated Industries Company (ESIIC) to reduce 57,200 tons of its CO2 gas emissions per year for a ten year period.

Masdar, a part of the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (ADFEC), and whose Masdar Clean Tech Fund recently raised more than $265 billion in funding, will replace Egyptian Sugar’s consumption of Mazut heavy fuel oil with natural gas, which is expected to reduce carbon emissions by an equivalent of 57,200 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) over 10 years.

According to Wikpedia, Mazut is a heavy, low quality fuel oil, used in generating plants and similar applications. In the United States and Western Europe mazut is blended or broken down with the end product being diesel.
Mazut may be used for heating houses in former USSR and in countries of Far East that do not have the facilities to blend or break it down into more traditional petro-chemicals. In the west, furnaces that burn Mazut are commonly called “waste oil” heaters or “waste oil” furnaces.

The agreement for the Cairo company to stop using this popular, cheap and polluting fuel could not have come too soon for a company which supplies refined sugar and other food products for much of Egypt’s 80 million population, and whose present CO2 greenhouse gas emissions help contribute to Egypt’s growing pollution problems which make its largest city, Cairo, one of the most polluted cities in the world. For a recap, we talked about the emissions problems in Cairo in the article:  Egypt Takes Smog Prize Aheard of 2009 Under 20 World Cup.

Commenting, Hassan Kamel Hassan Noman, CEO of ESIIC said:

“This agreement marks an important milestone for ESIIC and we are proud to be paving the way within the sugar industry to develop a fuel-switch under the guidelines of the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). Through the cooperation with Masdar we aim to significantly reduce our emissions targets over the next ten years, and alleviate the negative impact that they are having on the environment”.

As reported in the UAE’s Financial Post, this agreement will enable ESIIC to develop a fuel-switch project under the guidelines of the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). It was also noted by Mr. Sam Nader, Director of Masdar Carbon: ”

“This is our first CDM project in Egypt and we look forward to supporting ESIIC in its quest to reduce its carbon emissions. We hope this agreement will act as a catalyst for other organizations to explore the financial and environmental benefits that CDM can offer. This project reinforces Masdar’s commitment to promote energy efficiency and sustainability in the region.”

Although this kind of project is not comparable to ones such as Masdar’s carbon neutral and renewable energy fueled project Masdar City , it’s at least a start for a country that not only has some of the worst pollution problems in the world, but one of the fastest growing populations as well. We wish these types of projects the most success, as less CO2 emissions  in Egypt will eventually benefit us all.

More on Masdar, pollution, and Egypt:

Egypt Takes Smog Prize Ahead of 2009 Under 20 World Cup
Masdar City’s Dream of 100% Carbon Neutrality Is a Goal For Us All
12 Million Egyptians to be Affected By Climate Change

Image via Tracyhunter