After several months' work, the first tests of the converted power plant have begun at Koehler's Greiz paper mill in Germany. At a cost of around 8 million euros, the German group has converted the power plant at this production site, which employs over 100 people, from coal-fired to fine wood fraction operation.
Teams from Koehler Renewable Energy, part of the Koehler Group, have succeeded in developing a technique for using this type of biomass as fuel in the existing coal-fired power plant.
Udo Hollbach, General Manager of the Koehler Paper site in Greiz, said in a statement: "Switching from lignite to the fine wood fraction will save us over 24,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions per year at the Greiz plant."
The German Koehler Group has set itself the target of producing more energy than it uses in its five paper mills, all located in Germany, by 2030, and reducing its direct greenhouse gas emissions by 80% compared with 2022 levels.
To achieve this, it is currently rolling out a plan based on the installation of energy production equipment from renewable sources, such as combined heat and power plants using biomass, wind farms, hydroelectricity and solar power.
The converted plant at Koehler Paper's Greiz site is a pilot site.
