Aschaffenburg reduces its environmental footprint

In the years 2010-2013, Aschaffenburg Mill erected and started up a new cogen power plant (CHP). It has replaced the old gas turbine plant, which had been supplying the mill with energy since 1990. The purpose of the new CHP is to supply the paper mill reliably and in full with steam and electricity, at competitive energy costs.

That was a very successful project and has enabled Aschaffenburg to improve the mill efficiency in a sustainable way while realising energy savings. This new powerplant will also benefit all customers by helping them to reduce their environmental footprint by getting a paper which, compared to ten years ago, is now produced with 35 % less CO2 emissions! This project falls within the DS Smith ambition to further reduce our environmental footprint, to be fully aligned with our customers’ sustainability targets.

CHP concept:

• Gas fired plant: its main components being a Siemens SGT-700 Gas Turbine (31 MWel), a high-pressure Heat Recovery Steam Generator (max 102 t/h) from Bertsch and a TGM Kanis Steam Turbine (max 16 MWel).
• Investment costs: €58 million.
• High fuel efficiency: >88% (as a comparison, previous power plant was only 76%).
• Electrical capacity: up to 30 MWel can be exported to the grid, it has been doubled with the new CHP while the gas consumption is unchanged vs the previous plant.
• Flexibility: the new CHP allows operation against the electricity market with electricity surplusonly being generated when market conditions are attractive. Participation in the balancing market for electricity started in 2015.
• Substantially reduced environmental footprint: with the start-up of the new power plant, Aschaffenburg Mill has substantially further reduced its CO, NOx and CO2 emissions.