Stoppage for overhaul works at the Kehl biomass combined heat and power plant—Koehler Renewable Energy invests EUR 10 million

B E B Bio Energie Baden GmbH owns and operates two biomass combined heat and power 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 combined heat and power plant is now set to lose its entitlement to the EEG payments.

Accordingly, 10 million euros are 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 combined heat and power 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 combined heat and power 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. 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 chips, green waste, and mill residue. This means that starting in 2024, it will be possible to take fuels that can no longer be used, such as sewage sludge
and waste from paper production in the form of paper mill sludge, and instead use them in the biomass combined heat and power plant in Kehl. In addition, flue gases produced in the biomass combined heat and power plant at the Kehl site are used to produce calcium carbonates (PCC). This ensures that the circle will close within the Koehler Group: 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.