Cellulose pulp production has begun at the Montes del Plata industrial plant. The project required a USD 2,000 million investment, the country`s largest private investment in history. The industrial complex is located in Punta Pereira (department of Colonia) and includes a state-of-the-art pulp production mill, a port terminal and a biomass power plant.

 Montes del Plata´s  pulp mill has been designed to produce 1.3 million tonnes of Eucalyptus fibre pulp per year sourced mostly the company´s own forestry plantations that are located in 11 departments. Production will involve the use of the world`s best available techniques for the pulp sector by following IPPC BAT European Union standards.

 The mill is the last link of a value chain that comprises over 5,000 full-time jobs (including direct, indirect and induced jobs) throughout 11 of the country`s departments. As a whole, these jobs have an accumulated net wage bill of USD 100 million per year.

 In operation, the industrial complex will inject USD 844 million into Uruguay´s GDP.

 Additionally, the power generation plant will supply up to 80 MW to the national grid through renewable and sustainable transformation of biomass.

 Montes del Plata is a joint venture formed by the Swedish-Finnish Stora Enso and Arauco of Chile, two major industrial forestry sector players. As such, the company´s  values and support stem both parent companies.

Additional Impacts

 Montes del Plata`s investment in Uruguay included the construction of three barges. Each barge has the capacity to transport 5,000 tonnes of roundwood. The construction of these barges entailed a highly significant support to the development of the national shipbuilding cluster.

In terms of transportation, Montes del Plata adds a modern port terminal to the country. Its port terminal can be used for river and maritime traffic given its connection to the Martín García Canal, thus enabling pulp production to be directly loaded to its final market destinations.

In addition to a grade separation interchange, 12 km of national highway were built to expand Route 55 its merger with Route 21 to the Punta Pereira mill. The roadway was constructed for heavy traffic in order to circumvent towns close to the mill, thus improving safety while ensuring the cultural integrity of a town with significant historical value.

 Lastly, surplus power fed to the national grid will be transported via a high-tension cable linking Punta Pereira with Colonia, thus enhancing the country`s general infrastructure.

 In addition to continuously carrying out integration activities with its surrounding communities, Montes del Plata donated housing infrastructure used during the construction of its industrial project: a 150-house neighbourhood in the city of Colonia, which will now be transferred to the departmental government to be used for social purposes the Carmelo Housing Centre, whose infrastructure now belongs to communal administration and will also be used for social purposes and the components of the Punta Pereira Housing Centre, which are now part of the executive branch`s Plan Juntos. 

Furthermore, 30 social purpose housing units were also built in Carmelo to be directly donated to the Ministry of Housing`s National Housing Bureau.

 Of similar relevance are the sewage and water works that are already finished or currently underway in the department itself: an effluent treatment plant for the city of Colonia´s sewage, an effluent pre-treatment plant in Carmelo, a sewage treatment plant in Conchillas and a potable water plant also for Conchillas.

  Training and Safety

All technical personnel working at the Punta Pereira site have been trained by Montes del Plata in Uruguay and abroad (Brazil, Chile and Finland) in industrial operation activities.

 One of the most interesting experiences in this field was hiring motivated high school graduates Colonia with a willingness to grow. 26 talented young people Colonia, who had neither experience nor previous studies in the area were intensely trained in basic sciences and in the physical aspects of the mill and are now part of its operations team.   

 Training sessions were also held throughout the forestry production chain with over 64,000 training hours in forestry harvesting, plus training of more than 100 operators the Montes del Plata nursery and over 400 drivers who were specially trained for heavy vehicle operation for forestry cargo.

 In addition to these sessions, training was provided along with FOCAP, UTU and INEFOP during construction. Over 700 workers were trained in construction and assembly tasks through courses held during their work schedule, which counted as hours worked. These workers now have official certification of their abilities and are better prepared to obtain new jobs.

Appendix

Montes del Plata industrial process Wood

Wood arriving at Punta Pereira consists of debarked Eucalyptus roundwood (the sole species used by the mill), and is staged the wood yard.

The roundwood is cut into small chips to reduce and standardize size, which will facilitate the digestion process.

A transport belt carries the chips piles to the digestion process facilities.

Digestion

Chips are treated with steam and white liquor (mixture of sodium hydroxide and sodium sulfide) under high temperature and pressure conditions to dissolve lignin and release cellulose wood.

This process ends in an impure pulp paste (brown-coloured with some remnants of lignin) and black liquor (chemical substances used mixed with bits of wood that separated the cellulose).

The pulp is then sent to a tank where it is treated with oxygen (delignification) to improve quality.

Bleaching

Brown cellulose pulp is subjected to a four-stage process to eliminate components that give the fibre its colour and to achieve market quality.

Bleaching is performed with chlorine dioxide, which is in turn minimized by incorporating sodium hydroxide and hydrogen peroxide to the process.

The pulp is washed between each step to remove impurities.

Drying

While still in a nearly liquid state, pulp paste is first dried through a mechanical process and later by heat.

It becomes a thin sheet of pulp, which is cut and packaged into 250 kg bales.

These bales are later grouped into packs of 8 (weighing 2 tonnes) and are shipped to their final destination.

A mixture of sodium hydroxide and sodium sulfide, known as white liquor, is used to separate cellulose the rest of the wood.

The liquid containing organic material wood leaves the digester after its separation cellulose, thus becoming black liquor.

Evaporators concentrate the black liquor (by removing water) to then enter the Recovery Boiler for burning.

The heat generated by combustion is used to create steam, feeding turbines and creating electricity (which self-supplies the industrial complex, while the remainder, up to 80 MW, is supplied to the national grid).

Combustion gives way to ashes, which contain chemical products that are recycled within the process.

The ashes are processed (causticizing process) and the white liquor is reconstituted and introduced once again into the wood digestion cycle.