The extensively modernised industrial power plant at Papierfabrik Palm in Wörth will be inaugurated today as part of a festive ceremony. After EUR 100 million had already been invested in the newly built power plant in 2008, a further EUR 150 million was invested in the modernisation. A second residue boiler was built and the gas and steam turbine were both replaced.
By modernizing the power plant, it was possible to further increase the environmentally friendly utilisation of the biomass and residual materials that inevitably arise during waste paper processing and to substantially reduce the demand for natural gas at the site. The combined heat and power plant is characterised by the highest standards of energy efficiency and exhaust gas purification technology. The modernisation has also significantly increased the overall efficiency of the plant and thus the efficiency of the entire site.
In addition to both the waste and biomass boilers, the company also invested in a new Siemens SGT 800 gas turbine. This is the latest and most modern generation of gas turbines from Siemens. Palm succeeded in purchasing the first 3 turbines of this completely newly developed type. The gas turbine can also be operated with hydrogen. This makes us the first paper mill in the world that can be operated completely CO2-neutral. Though it will still take some time before the natural gas network in Wörth has been converted to hydrogen, Palm has already started talks with the upstream gas network operators to support and drive forward the conversion.
When modernising the combined heat and power plant, particular emphasis was placed on significantly increasing the flexibility of the entire plant, which considerably shortens the technically required start-up and shut-down times. This makes the combined heat and power plant an ideal supplement to renewable power generation, which fluctuates depending on the weather. The highly flexible gas turbine is always started up at short notice if, for example, if there is too little electricity from wind and photovoltaics available to the power grid. In this case, we cover all of our own electricity requirements and potentially supply roughly all households in the Germersheim district with the surplus electricity. This is done over a short distance without additional long power lines.
Due to its high flexibility and the ability to support the regional power grid, as well as its relevance for security of supply, the responsible electricity transmission system operator Amprion has also classified this plant as one of the few power plants in the control area as system-relevant, which underlines its importance for the overall system.
The energy transition can only succeed if secure power generation capacities are available as a supplement and can produce electricity on demand when needed. Palm can make a significant contribution to this with this highly modern and flexible industrial power plant.
Due to the size of the power plant, Palm also sees itself in a position to supply the town of Wörth and neighbouring industrial companies with environmentally friendly district heating. Initial talks have already been held with representatives of the town.