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B E B invests EUR 10M in Kehl CHP boiler overhaul

B E B invests EUR 10M in Kehl CHP boiler overhaul
Two biomass combined heat and power (CHP) plants supply process steam to the paper production processes at the Koehler Paper site in Kehl, Germany (photo Koehler Group).

In Germany, Koehler Renewable Energy GmbH (KRE), part of the privately held specialty paper and energy company Koehler Holding SE & Co. KG (Koehler Group) has announced that its operating subsidiary B E B Bio Energie Baden GmbH is investing EUR 10 million in the overhaul of Block I of its Kehl biomass-fired combined heat and power (CHP) plant.

B E B Bio Energie Baden GmbH owns and operates two biomass combined heat and power (CHPS) plants fueled by waste wood at the Kehl site. These generate electricity and process steam at the same time through combined heat and power technology.

After 20 years of supplying energy back to the public grid under the German Renewable Energy Act (Erneuerbare-Energien-Gesetz – EEG), Block I of the CHP plant is now set to lose its entitlement to the EEG payments.

Two-phase upgrade

Accordingly, EUR 10 million is being invested into Block I of B E B Bio Energie Baden post-EEG. Regular maintenance measures are essential in power plants.

However, the majority of such work requires a shutdown of the plant or individual plant components. The same is true of the planned upgrade to the biomass-fired CHP plant in Kehl.

As the measures are too extensive for a single overhaul session, the work will be carried out in two phases. The first partial implementation will be carried out in October/November 2022, and a second in 2023 with the aim of using additional fuels.

Block I of the biomass-fired CHP plant in Kehl is currently being fueled exclusively with waste wood.

However, in order to make it possible to achieve the circular economy and synergistic effect goals set by the Koehler Group, the objective is to make it possible to use new fuels such as sewage sludge and paper mill sludge to also be used in the future.

Increasing circularity

The Koehler Group is planning to fully convert the power plant at its Oberkirch location to biomass by 2024. In the future, the energy required for paper production will therefore be produced exclusively from woodchips, green waste, and mill residue.

This means that starting in 2024, it will be possible to utilize alternative fuels, such as sewage sludge and waste from paper production in the form of paper mill sludge, and use them in the biomass CHP plant in Kehl.

In addition, flue gases are used to produce calcium carbonates (PCC). Thus the by-products from paper production will be used by the company to generate its own energy, while the flue gases produced will be the basis used to produce PCC, which is an important raw material for paper production operations at the Koehler Paper Kehl site.

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