Coop 3A Arborea

The Arborea Assegnatari Associati cooperative (3A) has become the main production hub in the dairy sector in Sardinia. It is an organisation with 248 members who are owners of specialised and selected farms located throughout Sardinia, which every day supply an average of 524,000 litres of milk from about 50,000 cows. 3A collects about 90% of the cow’s milk produced in Sardinia, for an annual volume of about 191 million litres.

Needs

The 3A plant located in Aborea, in the province of Oristano, has an energy requirement of 15.5 GWhe/year and 32 GWht/year. The objective was to gradually reduce the use of LSFO (low sulphur fuel oil) during its production cycle and replace it with a more ecological and efficient fuel in order to self-produce at least 60% of the structure’s energy needs.

Solutions

Given the context of the Sardinia region (the only Italian region without methane distribution) it was decided that liquefied natural gas was the only possible solution for an alternative energy source to meet Cooperativa 3A’s requirements. Thanks to a partnership between CPL CONCORDIA and POLARGAS (company of the group specialised in the distribution of LNG), an important energy upgrade project was carried out that involved:

Construction of a Liquefied Natural Gas Regasification Plant
Storage capacity: 110 cubic metres – Plant capacity 1,500 Sm3/h
Construction of a co-generation plant powered by natural gas (size 1 MWe and about 1.2 MWt)
Upgrading of the central heating plant with the addition of Dual-Fuel burners (LSFO and methane gas)

Advantages

The use of natural gas for the production of electricity and heat as an alternative to LSFO brought great environmental benefits through the reduction of emissions into the atmosphere: CO2, SOx and NOx. The supply of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), managed by POLARGAS, guaranteed more than 8,000 hours of operation/year of the co-generator.
The logistics developed by POLARGAS to deliver LNG to the island ensured the competitiveness of the price and the continuity of the supply. Currently, LNG is loaded on tankers (capacity: 20 tonnes) at the Sagunto Terminal (Valencia, Spain), transported by ferry from Valencia to Cagliari, and then continuing on the road to the Aborea plant. Currently, the plant covers almost 60% of its electricity needs with the photovoltaic system and the co-generator.