Process heat from forest residues for the battery industry in Austria
The use of biomass for energy in industry is growing rapidly in the last 15 years or so. Until about 2010, the use of biomass residues for process heat in industry was originally limited to industry sectors that had their own residues available to cover (some of) their own heat demand, e.g. sugar, palm oil, wood processing, pulp and paper, etc. By processing these residues, a waste problem could be avoided while generating useful heat at the same time. With the increasing demand for cost effective renewable heat however, also other industries have recognized the opportunity for biomass based heat provision to reduce the carbon footprint of their processes.
While there is a large potential to displace fossil fuels with biomass fuels in the large and energy intensive industries (steel, cement, etc), there are also many small and medium sized process industries such as food industries, paper industries, etc. In contrast to the larger energy intensive industries where these case typically require that large volumes of biomass are shipped to an individual site, the heat demand in these smaller industries can often be better matched with the biomass resources that may already be locally available, resulting in smaller transportation distances.
Download the full case study “Process heat from forest residues for the battery industry in Austria”
Case Study
This case study is about the Austrian company Microporous in Feistritz in the province of Carinthia. Mictoporous produces separator foil for lead-acid batteries. For the production of the separator foil process steam is required, which was produced with a fuel oil steam boiler until November 2022.
In 2019 the company Microporous approached Carinthia’s largest private district heating provider, BC Regionalwärme Group from Köttmannsdorf, and a project was planned for the production of a process steam from biomass.
The biomass-based steam generation plant was then constructed from March 2022 to the beginning of November 2022 and went into operation on 08 November 2022. The grate-fired wood chip boiler produces process steam which then leaves the heating plant through the 120 meters of steam piping for use in the production of Microporous company.
The fuel used in the plant is exclusively forest wood chips from the region. These wood chips mostly come from storm wood, which usually cannot be used for any other refinement due to the breakage. Since Carinthia has a very high proportion of forest, about 60% of the land area, using forest chips as a renewable fuel source was an obvious choice.
The biomass steam generation plant has various plant components. These include, for flue gas cleaning, the multicyclone for the coarse dust particles, and an electrostatic precipitator for the fine dust particles. Two energy efficiency optimizers with grate cooling and the economizer are also installed in the plant system.
Another important plant component is the district heating outcoupling system, which supplies other customers in the Feistritz im Rosental industrial park with sustainable heat.
More case study reports
This report is part of a series of reports on the use of bioenergy in industry to supply process heat. Following five case studies and a concluding policy synthesis report on biomass based industrial heat were published (Find out more about the ITP on Bioenergy for High Temperature Heat in Industry). In 2024, another 5 examples were prepared by Task 32 on application of biomass combustion in industry.
Find more information on Task 32 website
Find more case studies on Bioenergy for High Temperature Heat in Industry
