At its Oberkirch site, the Koehler Group, a prominent paper-making firm with ambitions in the renewables industry, is investing in the expansion and conversion of its power plant in order to use environmentally friendly biomass as fuel. And now that the last piece of coal has burned at the plant, the large-scale project has reached another milestone. More than 150 000 metric tons of direct fossil CO₂ emissions will be cut per year at the site as a result of the switch to biomass.
Converting the combined heat and power plant from hard coal to biomass requires extensive conversion work. Now that Biomass Receiving Area 1 and four new silos have been completed, the material handling equipment and the conveying path from the silos to the power plant are being worked on. In addition, building services are being installed at Biomass Receiving Area 2. This new material handling equipment will soon be used to transfer biomass to the boiler inside the power plant.
The project reached another milestone in the beginning of June: After 38 years, the last piece of coal was burned at the Oberkirch plant, and extensive overhauling and conversion work for switching over to biomass fuel has been going at full speed since 10 June.
The commissioning and testing phase will start in mid-August, and the power plant should run on environmentally friendly biomass starting in October. Koehler Group CEO Kai Furler commented: “For us, decarbonisation of our coal-fired power plant in Oberkirch is another crucial step in our efforts to achieve our climate goals and produce more renewable energy than we need for our paper production operations starting in 2030.”
