Qemetica Soda Polska secures funding for biomass boiler

Qemetica Soda Polska, a soda ash producer company, has secured funding to convert a coal-fired boiler to biomass at its Inowrocław plant in Poland.
The funding is coming from Poland's National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management.
The conversion is one of the main elements of the company's strategy in energy transformation and will allow the reduction of coal consumption by approximately 100,000 tonnes per year, according to Qemetica Soda Polska. It will facilitate a CO2 reduction of approximately 200,000 tonnes per year, it added.
The scope of the investment includes the construction of a biomass fuel management system, alongside the boiler conversion.
The investment will include the creation of a comprehensive infrastructure, including nodes for unloading, separation, storage and transport of biomass.
Unloading will be possible for both road and rail transport, which will provide logistical flexibility while reducing emissions from road transport.
The biomass storage system will be equipped with silos with enough capacity for a five-day supply of fuel.
Biomass will be transported to the boiler using modern feeders and the entire installation will be protected against noise, dust emissions and fire hazards.
The conversion of the boiler to biomass is an important step towards decarbonising Qemetica's operations.
As part of its strategy, Qemetica plans to reduce the soda industry's CO2 emissions by 45% by 2029 (compared to 2019) and to completely eliminate coal combustion at its plants by 2033.
"The introduction of biomass into the energy mix is one of the projects aimed at reducing our company's coal consumption and its environmental impact. It is also an opportunity to develop and implement modern technologies. In preparation for the investment, we have made a study of the availability of biomass - we want to use mainly woodchips in the combustion process. It is an ecological fuel with low ash content which does not emit offensive odours,’ said Tomasz Molenda, CEO of Qemetica Soda Polska.