Switzerland-headed specialty chemicals major Clariant has commissioned Germany-headed GETEC Group to build and operate a carbon-neutral biomass cogeneration plant in Romania. Clariant will construct a plant for the production of advanced biofuels in Podari and GETEC will build a plant for the environmentally friendly recycling of the lignin residue at this location as an energy service provider supplying the Clariant production facility with steam and electricity.
At a brownfield site in Podari, near Craiova in Romania, Clariant is building Europe’s largest industrial-scale second-generation bioethanol plant. Using its own proprietary sunliquid technology, agricultural residues such wheat straw is converted into bioethanol, which, in addition to being used as a fuel, can also serve as a feedstock for many chemical products – an important milestone on the way to global sustainable raw material extraction.
GETEC will build and operate a carbon dioxide (CO2) neutral energy generation plant for Clariant using lignin, a residue of the ethanol production as fuel. The combination of the use of lignin from wheat straw in a fluidized bed (FB) boiler is also unique in the world. For GETEC, this novel sustainable energy generation plant is of great strategic importance.
I am thrilled with the dual innovative and climate-friendly concept that we have developed together with Clariant. Production and energy supply go hand in hand and are optimally coordinated. By utilizing a residue from the production of Clariant in our power generation plant, synergies are created and significant energy efficiency potential is raised. Decentralized energy generation is completely renewable and therefore climate neutral. A showpiece project for both market leaders, explained Thomas Wagner, CEO of the GETEC Group.
GETEC assumes all services, from planning, financing, and construction to operation, maintenance, and repair. The fluidized bed boiler used in the plant will provide steam and electricity to supply the Clariant plant in combination with a back pressure steam turbine. The plant will be commissioned in close cooperation with the Clariant plant in 2020.
