The Swedish company Essity is starting a pilot project in the Mainz-Kostheim district of Wiesbaden, which is intended to lay the foundation for carbon dioxide-free paper production. In the plant on the Main, natural gas is being successively replaced by more environmentally friendly hydrogen while production continues. In this way, around 11,000 tons of carbon dioxide should be saved by autumn 2022, as plant manager Thorsten Becherer announced on Tuesday during the presentation of the project. The company is investing four million euros in the project and has won, among others, the Mainzer Stadtwerke as a cooperation partner. "We will be the first in the world to use green hydrogen in the manufacture of tissue paper," said Becherer.
According to the plant manager, the Wiesbaden plant currently still emits around 140,000 tons of CO2 annually. He described the necessary transformation of industry on the way to climate neutrality as a mammoth task that no one could accomplish alone. Nevertheless, Becherer reminded us that climate-friendly innovations had already been developed in Kostheim. "We invented the circular economy here at the site," he said, adding that in 2017 we succeeded in closing this cycle completely. That alone saves around 40 percent of CO2 emissions.
In the next year, the energy-intensive paper production of the largest machine in the plant is to be made possible at least partially with hydrogen.
According to project manager Christian Schüller, this works as follows: The machine needs electricity, steam and hot air to produce the paper.
Two thirds of the energy is used to dry the paper.
So far, according to Schüller, it has not been possible to use electricity to heat air (400 to 600 degrees) so that it can be used in industrial paper drying.
That is why up to now this has been done with natural gas.
In the future, hydrogen should replace natural gas, which is harmful to the climate.
"We want to completely displace natural gas"
To make this possible, the necessary infrastructure is to be built on the factory premises by mid-2022. In addition to new pipelines, a mobile hydrogen mixing plant will be installed by Mainzer Stadtwerke, where hydrogen will be mixed with natural gas. The machine's burners need to be replaced so that hydrogen can be burned there. According to Schüller, it starts with a hydrogen content of ten percent and then gradually increases it to 100 percent. “We want to completely displace natural gas,” he clarified.
As part of the pilot project, this production part is to become CO2-free by autumn 2022.
Since electricity and steam can already be produced technically today without the emission of carbon dioxide, Becherer announced that the machine should work completely CO2-free by the end of 2024.
It currently emits around 37,000 tons of carbon dioxide a year.
According to Schüller and Becherer, one of the sticking points is the availability of green hydrogen.
The electrolysis to produce the hydrogen also requires a lot of energy, and only if this comes from renewable sources is the hydrogen green.
Negotiations are currently underway to be able to buy such hydrogen, which should also be certified by TÜV.
Municipal utilities supply hydrogen
This is where the Mainz municipal utilities come into play: they have been operating an energy park in the Hechtsheim district of Mainz since 2015, where they use wind energy to produce green hydrogen, which they feed into the natural gas network with a share of up to ten percent. According to Michael Worch, managing director of the municipal utility subsidiary Mainzer Netze GmbH, they can supply the 800,000 cubic meters of hydrogen required for the pilot project, but not from ongoing production.
The retrofitting of the infrastructure for the use of hydrogen is funded by the State Energy Agency Hessen with 1.47 million euros from the European fund for regional funds.
“With our plan to use green hydrogen instead of natural gas industrially for the first time, we are doing our part towards decarbonisation.
We are thus creating a sustainable industrial process, ”said Schüller.
"It will set an example for other companies in the future."
Company sells products in around 150 countries
Essity is an international company in the field of hygiene and health products.
The head office is in Stockholm.
The company sells its products in around 150 countries and achieved sales of 11.6 billion euros in 2020.
The company includes brands such as Zewa, Leukoplast, Tempo, Saba and Lotus.
With a turnover of 1.3 billion euros last year, Germany was Essity's highest-turnover market in Europe, according to company information.
In addition to administrative locations in Mannheim, Munich and Hamburg, the company has production facilities in Kostheim, Emmerich, Hamburg, Mannheim, Neuss and Witzenhausen.
The workforce counts 4600 employees in Germany.
Around 140,000 tons of paper are produced and sold by around 540 employees in Kostheim every year.