|
GME
Opening Ceremony.
|
GME - Gorduras e Margarinas Especiais (Special Fats and Margarines), was inaugurated on 3 April 2002, and today operates the most modern industrial complex in its segment in Latin America. It is part of the M. Dias Branco group – a business group present all over the country, which is considered to be the leader of the biscuit and pasta market in Brazil and Latin America – with facilities in Fortaleza covering a total area of 50,000 m2. It is situated close to the Port of Mucuripe, in a small bay on the sea front, which occupies an excellent strategic location in the state capital.
The GME facilities include a multi vegetable oil refinery, a hydrogen plant e a hydrogenated fat, vegetable fat and margarine factory. This is the result of a project that was started in 1997, and which involved market research into the advanced technologies coming out of several countries in Europe and North America, as well as construction work, personnel training and equipment acquisition.
With the future in mind, the GME complex produces the quality required for new, tasty, healthy, nutritious products. It has been ISO 9001 certificated, and is continuously investing in the use of latest-generation technology and giving precedence to environmental conservation, research and innovation, whilst always assuming commitments to social responsibility.
Structure
Aerial View.
|
Covering an area of 22,000 m2, GME boasts an extensive development project. With its flexible layout, the complex has been prepared for expansion of its infrastructure according to the development of market requirements.
The industry possesses a group of refrigerating chambers, an experimental kitchen, a laboratory for microbiological analyses, lines of machines for receiving and automatically storing margarines, and platforms which enable simultaneous loading of thermally isolated trucks.
The analysis and quality control laboratories, for example, are equipped with pilot plants, which are able to prepare the final products required, in advance.
Production
2.400m Pipeline to Port of Mucuripe.
|
GME uses state-of-the-art equipment from Germany (for refining), Denmark (margarines) and North America (hydrogen) in its production.
As it uses several vegetable oils as raw materials, the factory is connected to the Port of Mucuripe (situated in Fortaleza, the capital of Ceará), by a 2,400 m long pipeline.
Rigorous tests and technical analyses, using automated processes, are carried out during the production of multi oils. After they have been transferred to the homogenization tanks, they go through neutralization and whitening and even refining processes. In view of the high level to which the products are prepared, manufacturing is a hermetic, computerized process, supervised by qualified technical staff, without the need for human contact. As far as vegetable oil storage is concerned, GME is considered to be one of the largest companies in Brazil.
The complex also has its own hydrogen plant, which is able to produce hydrogen with a high degree of purity. This is used in the vegetable oil hydrogenation process.
The Environment
GME uses natural gas (which is not a pollutant) as fuel for the steam production process at the plant. It is also notable for its own solid residue recovery system, which completely separates out the oily material, preventing it from being cast directly into the natural environment.
GME’s conservationist philosophy has made it possible to put a project into practice that makes use of all the effluent produced, transforming it into water, which is then reused to cool down the auxiliary equipment.
|
