ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY
Besides social progress and economic growth, the ecological balance is a pillar of sustainable development. Global efforts in support of climate protection over the past few years have significantly increased the relevance of energy generation from renewable sources such as hydropower and biomass.
It is a declared goal of Andritz to help customers achieve their goals with regard to profitability, sustainability, and environmental targets. Thus, Andritz’s R&D programs strongly focus on the development of sustainable ‘Top Global Products’.
| Already 35-40% of the Andritz Group’s total Sales are derived from technologies and systems that generate energy from renewable sources such as hydropower and biomass. |
In the area of hydropower, Andritz offers modern equipment and services for hydropower plants, thus substantially contributing to the use of renewable, clean energy sources. The Andritz Group is committed to promoting environmental protection and conserving natural resources by using biomass as raw material. Andritz has a comprehensive product portfolio for biomass starting from wood handling equipment, dryers and pelleting machines, to fluid bed boilers and gasifiers for lime kilns.
The Andritz Group offers sustainable global top products in all of its Business Areas:
In the Pulp and Paper Business Area, Andritz’s developments in improving fiber yield, minimizing water consumption, increasing energy efficiency, reducing chemical consumption in bleaching, and waste recycling, all contribute markedly to the industry’s sustainability. For example, in the past 20 years, technologies developed by Andritz have reduced the amount of water required (the process of making pulp demands large volumes of water) to produce a ton of pulp by 60%. Andritz systems also help recover and reuse up to 99% of the chemicals used in making pulp.
Andritz is one of the leading suppliers of recovery boilers, which are employed in chemical pulping and basically generate power from the balance of wood not turned into pulp (black liquor). This helps pulp mills to become net energy producers and thus to become eligible for CO2 credits. The Andritz HERB (High Energy Recovery Boiler) at SCA’s Östrand mill in Sweden operates at the highest temperatures and pressures and enables the mill to generate 500 Gigawatt hours of electrical energy per year – enough to make the mill virtually energy self-sufficient. The energy is generated from biomass which emits no fossil fuel-based carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The technologies developed by Andritz help customers to further reduce emissions and maximize energy production.
Liquid biofuel produced by ‘second generation methods’ using forest residues, grass, straw, and bagasse is a fast growing area. Andritz (with its associated company Carbona) has agreed to cooperate with forestry company UPM on the development of a technology for biomass gasification and synthesis gas cleanup. In the project, forest residue is gasified and the cleaned syngas is then fed into a Fischer-Tropsch reactor (a method developed in Germany in the 1920s) for conversion into biorefinery products. Besides the main product (‘raw biodiesel’), a variety of other products such as lubricants and raw materials for the chemical and medical industries can be produced. Andritz’s experience with biomass gasifiers dates back to the 1980s and relates to gasifiers for lime kiln fuel production. As part of the joint project with UPM, an extensive pilot plant testing program will be performed at the Gas Technology Institute (GTI) in Chicago, USA.
The Hydro Power Business Area, which has been providing hydropower plants with modern equipment and extensive services for more than 160 years, holds a top global position in this field. Hydropower is the leading source of renewable energy, supplying the world with about one-fifth of its electricity. It is clean, leaves behind no waste, and neither emits pollutants nor significant amounts of dangerous greenhouse gases.
Through the use of renewable energy sources and highly efficient technologies, Andritz can already ensure future-oriented electricity generation. Andritz machines secure the daily power supply for about 100 million people and help to save approximately 23 million tons of CO2 annually.
During the last few years, the market for hydropower equipment has been driven by the strong replacement investments in industrialized countries since most of the hydropower infrastructure has surpassed its useful lifetime, as well as by the higher environmental awareness and energy needs in the fast growing emerging markets. According to renowned market researchers, this trend should continue during the next few years.
In the Rolling Mills and Strip Processing Lines Business Area, conserving raw materials and minimizing emissions is the driving force of one of the core process areas. Andritz acid recovery and regeneration systems completely recycle the acids used in the pickling process. The latest Andritz technology provides a zero-effluent process for mixed acids. More than 99% of the acids are recovered and can be reused. All Andritz process lines employ technologies to substantially diminish or completely eliminate the emission of substances into the environment. In particular, Andritz has developed technologies to substantially reduce the emissions of NOx from waste gas streams in furnaces and pickling lines.
The Environment and Process Business Area supplies complete process lines which convert liquid sewage sludge into granulate. With a calorific value of approximately 10 to 13 MJ/kg, this granulate can be used as a substitute for fossil fuels in heat and power generation systems, thus reducing CO2 emissions. With its own optimization of the combined drying/incineration process of using dried granulate as fuel and the energy generated in the incineration process as heat for the drying process, self-sustaining reduction of CO2 is achieved. Directives and stringent environmental regulations are long-term major growth drivers in this Business Area, especially in the U.S. and Europe.
The Feed and Biofuel Business Area is the world market leader for plants and systems for the production of environmentally friendly biofuel pellets out of renewable materials, such as wood and agricultural by-products. In this way, highly valuable fuels are generated from materials which would otherwise have to be disposed of, and the effect on CO2 emissions is neutral. Andritz also supplies pelleting equipment for industrial and household waste. The pellets produced offer an environmentally friendly alternative to fossil fuels in heating power plants.