The initiative transforms industrial waste into high-value-added renewable fuel and is expected to add more than 14 million m³ of biomethane per year to the company’s energy mix.
The project began in 2021, when Friboi implemented biodigesters for wastewater treatment in nine meat processing plants.
Amber Energy, the energy unit of J&F SA, will invest R$ 65 million in expanding biomethane production at its plants in Campo Grande II (MS), Lins (SP), and Andradina (SP), with the potential to add more than 14 million cubic meters of biomethane per year to the company’s energy matrix and increase the replacement of fossil fuels with renewable energy.
The project began in 2021, when Friboi implemented biodigesters for wastewater treatment in nine meat processing plants, capturing the methane generated by industrial operations and converting it into biogas. This capture effort has been responsible for preventing the emission of more than 263,000 tons of CO₂ equivalent since 2023.
In 2023, four Friboi factories—in Ituiutaba (MG), Mozarlândia (GO), Barra do Garças (MT), and Andradina (SP)—began generating electricity from methane captured from biodigesters in the meat processing plants, replacing diesel with biogas. The program has accumulated more than 13,000 MWh of renewable energy generated, a volume sufficient to supply approximately 7,000 Brazilian homes for a year, and has avoided the emission of more than 3,000 tons of greenhouse gases (GHG), measured in CO₂. Diesel emits, on average, 231 kg of CO₂ per MWh generated, while biogas, being of biogenic origin, is not accounted for in the balance of direct greenhouse gas emissions, according to international methodologies.
“ We are expanding solutions that combine operational efficiency, energy matrix and emissions reduction, by transforming waste into a source of energy. In addition to replacing fossil fuels, biogas allows us to advance in a circular economy logic, in which industrial waste generates value within the production chain itself ,” says Sérgio Sampaio, Operations Director at Friboi.
The expansion with Âmbar represents a qualitative leap in the strategy: while biogas is used directly in the generation of electricity, biomethane is a renewable fuel with higher added value and greater versatility of use. The initiative also paves the way for the use of biomethane by other companies in the J&F group, expanding the reach of clean energy use beyond the JBS supply chain.
“ Together, we were able to combine JBS’s operational reach with our expertise in biogas and biomethane to build a solution that goes beyond a one-off project; it’s a decarbonization platform with growth potential within the group itself and for the market ,” says Marcelo Dresch, Sustainability and Biogas Manager at Âmbar.
