Each year, Malteries Soufflet, a subsidiary of the Invivo group, charters 550 full trains to transport cereals and malts to port silos and industrial sites. To reduce its carbon bill, the shipper now uses a biofuel, Oléo 100.

With 29 malting houses in Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa, the annual production capacity of Malteries Soufflet reaches 2.4 million tonnes of malt and represents 11% of the world market.

The subsidiary of the Invivo group was looking for a way to decarbonize its transport, particularly rail, in France. A bold bet for a shipper who charters 550 full trains of cereals and malts every year. Especially since this mode of transport inherits a whole history to dust off: “Until then, the locomotives, which mainly use non-electrified capillary lines, ran on non-road diesel, the historic fuel of locomotives”, recalls Europorte.

100 trains running on Oléo 100

The manufacturer then carried out a first test on nearly 70 trains of malting barley propelled by the Oléo 100 destined for the Strasbourg malting plant. The commercial promise of Saipol, a subsidiary of Avril, which produces this biofuel of 100% vegetable origin, is based on a reduction of CO2 of 60 to 80% compared to diesel, and this “without significant modification of the equipment”.

The experiment proving conclusive, the client put his foot in the dish by deciding that the 100 trains he entrusts each year to Europorte bound for Rouen, Metz, and mainly the Strasbourg malting, would now run at the Oléo 100. The key: savings of 900 tonnes of CO2 per year, out of the 1,300 tonnes saved at group level.