“We need to protect what we have in the world. We have beautiful nature around our mill.”
PETER FRÖMMRICH
Project Engineer UPM Schongau
UPM Schongau: We need to protect what we have
When you’ve been in business for 130 years, you learn a few things about adapting to change. So when Germany introduced new emissions targets, UPM’s Schongau mill stayed ahead of the game with a major upgrade of its bubbling fluidized bed (BFB) boiler. Welcome to futureproofing.
Originally built in 1887, UPM’s newsprint and supercalendered magazine paper mill in Schongau, Bavaria, Germany, has been taking the environment seriously for a long time.
Schongau was already deinking wastepaper in the early 1960s. Today, it has FSC, PEFC, EU Ecolabel, and German Blue Angel Ecolabel certification, as well as being ISO 14001 Environmental Management Systems ISO50001 and EN16001 are also in force. Schongau also typically recovers and uses or sells 97% of its waste as a product.
UPM Schongau’s Project Engineer, Peter Frömmrich, was involved with this project from start to finish and he insists, “We need to protect what we have in the world. We have beautiful nature around our mill.”
STANDING THE TEST OF TIME
In order not just to meet, but continue to beat, its environmental obligations, UPM Schongau took action when Germany lowered the national NOx emission limits for waste incineration plants. The mill’s bubbling fluidized bed (BFB) boiler, which ANDRITZ originally supplied in the late 1980s, either had to be replaced or significantly upgraded.
UPM went with ANDRITZ again and decided to upgrade. Frömmrich says, “We did consider replacing the whole thing, but it’s a really solid boiler and still in good condition.”
SO DID IT BEAT THE TARGETS?
Dr. Ulrich Hohenwarter, Director Global Sales & Products for ANDRITZ’s Power Plant Service, was also heavily involved right from the start, and he admits it wasn’t easy. But with the right equipment, control parameters, fuel mix and – crucially – trust between UPM Schongau and ANDRITZ, the upgraded plant’s steam output and emissions are still ahead of the game. Even though UPM Schongau’s BFB boiler is now almost 30 years old, its NOx emissions were brought clearly below the targets.
TIME TO REFLECT
Summing up, Frömmrich says, “The project went really well.” UPM’s investment in this upgrade by ANDRITZ reduced the BFB boiler’s emissions, as well as improving operating stability considerably. NOx emissions are now clearly below the new government limit, without even having to engage the new SNCR system. Hohenwarter says ANDRITZ was right to be confident, “Even an old boiler can achieve good things when your modernization concept is right and both supplier and client know the value of good teamwork and open communication.” Frömmrich adds, “When the people are right, the project usually runs right. UPM and ANDRITZ were honest with each other and it was a pleasure to work together. I’m guessing they felt the same at ANDRITZ – I’m still in touch with them today.”
