Westmoreland — Chairman of the Sugar Company of Jamaica (SCJ), Derick Latibeaudiere recently commissioned a multi-million-dollar boiler at the Frome sugar factory.

The boiler, which was built at a cost of US$3 million, will reduce the factory’s reliance on fossil fuel in the generation of heat and also reduce the emission of greenhouse gases. In addition, it will also help to reduce the cost of production and improve efficiency at the plant.

Most of the boilers that the factory currently relies on to generate heat were installed in 1938, when the facility was built.

“The new boiler will bring us into another era, based on technology that has been made available, and is going to guarantee a higher level of efficiency and contribute to our ultimate objective, which is to lower the cost of production of sugar,” said Derick Heaven, SCJ chairman. “(The installation of) that boiler is long overdue and indeed it will allow us to retire some of those old boilers and we should see a significant reduction in our reliance on fossil fuel.”

Factory manager Norman Nesbeth added that the installation of the new boiler would help the factory become more environmentally friendly. “We should now see a reduction in the amount of extraneous matter in the form of mud going into the Dutch Canal, which takes the effluent from the factory to the sea,” he said.

The contamination of the Dutch Canal, by the water that is used to wash the cane, has been an irritant to the people of the nearby Big Bridge community for many years. Because of fermentation, a very unpleasant odour normally emanates from the canal during crop time. Residents have staged several roadblocks on the main road leading to Negril to express their displeasure about the pungent odour that normally haunts them during reaping.

But according to Nesbeth, there will be a reduction in the washing of cane and this is expected to reduce the effluent that goes into the canal and eventually alleviate the pollution problem.

The cost of production was also raised at Thursday’s commissioning of the boiler. Heaven noted that while production costs are falling, there was still room for more efficient production.