Zanders is converting its on‐site power plant from hard coal to natural gas and is investing several million Euro in modernization, as the company says in the press release received by Lesprom Network.
The power plant conversion alone promises a significant increase in efficiency in the production processes of the paper mill. In common with a gas grill, which heats and cools down much faster than a coal grill, a gas-fired power plant enables rapid changes of load. This will transform starting and stopping the paper machines into considerably more flexible and efficient processes as well as contributing to a longer service life of the systems. In addition, the previous coal-fired operation produced costs for the disposal of the ash. This expenditure will be eliminated completely and efficiency will be further enhanced by a simultaneousreduction in the overall cleaning effort. Regarding the CO2 balance, Zanders expects a reduction in emissions of over 40%.
"The conversion of two boilers in our power plant has mostly been completed. The gas has been flowing since the end of July and the commissioning of the first boiler is expected to be completed by the end of August, so that we will probably no longer need coal for the steam supply of our plant during normal operation by the end of September," explains Ralf Wenz, the power plant manager at Zanders. "We are now preparing the conversion of the third boiler, which will take about a year. By that time, both main boilers and the reserve boiler, and thus the entire power plant, will be converted to gas." According to Wenz, the total investment will amount to around Euro 7 million.
Zanders is a German manufacturer of high-quality special papers and cartons for labels, packaging and graphic applications.