PROCESSING AND REFINING OF VEGETABLE OILS

Cargill GmbH in Riesa is one of three German sites where vegetable oils are processed and refined. The products manufactured include rapeseed oil, sunflower oil, rapeseed meal and sunflower meal.

The Riesa site was founded in 1904 as OHG Einhorn & Co. as a typical oil mill of the time; linseed and later rapeseed were processed. The complex modernization and expansion of the oil mill took place in the 1990s. Since then, rapeseed and sunflower seeds have been processed here. In 1993, two newly built parts of the plant, the refinery and the bottling plant, went into operation.

Cargill took over the Riesa plant together with the Hamburg site in 1999. Today, the Riesa plant employs 90 qualified and dedicated employees in the oil mill, refinery, bottling plant and laboratory.

RESOURCE CONSERVATION IN RIESA

Processing oilseeds and refining crude oils into refined edible oils is an energy-intensive process. Cargill has been optimizing and improving its processes for years in order to ensure quality-compliant production without interruptions, i.e. without energy losses.

On the other hand, the company has succeeded in reducing its consumption of steam and electricity year on year by installing various energy recovery measures. In summer 2015, Cargill implemented a very important project for the site – the construction of a highly efficient energy generation plant (combined heat and power plant) to generate the electricity required at the plant itself while simultaneously reusing the waste heat generated.

MEMBER OF THE “WASSERSTOFFLAND SACHSEN” INNOVATION CLUSTER

Cargill GmbH Riesa wants to use the potential of green hydrogen as an energy carrier to further decarbonize its production processes and has been actively shaping hydrogen issues in the “Industriebogen Meißen” region as a member of the “Wasserstoffland Sachsen” innovation cluster since September 2022.