Delipapier Frouard begins operations at new biomass facility

Delipapier Frouard's new biomass plant is now operational. The overall investment for the plant was approximately €6.5 million. The works are part of the BCIAT 2011 project (Biomasse Chaleur Industrie, Agriculture et Tertiaire) launched by ADEME (Agence de l'Environnement et de la Maîtrise de l'Energie) to encourage the industry to produce thermal energy using biomass.

The plant is used to produce thermal energy in the form of saturated steam and provide approximately 60% of the plant's overall need; it has a power of 9.24MW and is powered by a mixture of wood chip (approximately 80% of the entire fuel supply) and spent wood.

This is yet another important step forward in Delipapier's strategy – the French Sofidel subsidiary – to reduce greenhouse gases, with the aim of cutting over 6,800,000m3 of gas and reducing CO2 emissions by over 13,500 tonnes annually.

To optimise performance, the plant is also equipped with a system for recovering the heat energy from the flue gas coming out of the combustion chamber. By recovering this energy, the overall performance of the plant is further improved and the amount of biomass consumed can be reduced.

Special attention has been paid to the flue gas processing section of the plant: a cyclone system reduces the amount of flue ash emitted into the air. This is complemented by a bag filter that captures the finer particles of ash.

Delipapier has also asked the supplier of the plant, Bono Sistemi, to continuously monitor emissions from the plant and to intervene if necessary to optimise performance.

Delipapier is a member of Sofidel Group, the second largest tissue paper manufacturer in Europe.
The overall investment for the implementation of the project, the first in the paper tissue sector, was €3 million.