MMK Frohnleiten Mill setting Standards Today for Tomorrow‘s Generation
03.03.2014 - Sustainability, Company / Mills
The optimum use of resources and continuous increases in energy efficiency have always been a part of our corporate strategy. The Frohnleiten mill serves as an example of the important strides which have already been made – since 2006 we have succeeded in reducing the specific energy consumption by 17 %.
Systems optimisation: Aligning ourselves with state-of-the-art technology guarantees the continuous optimisation of all environmentally relevant matters. For example modernisation work started on KM3 in the autumn of 2013 which will be completed in around one year. As a result of a new, integrated drive system, the board machine will work more effectively and with greater energy efficiency.
LED lighting: By converting to an LED system in the production buildings we managed to save electrical energy along with CO2 while the lighting quality remained the same or even improved in some areas.
Thermal energy generation: A significant increase in efficiency has been achieved with numerous projects by using the thermal energy produced on site. Heat is recovered in several stages from the exhaust gases of the power generation systems. This waste heat is used to pre-heat feed water and it also takes care of a large part of the heating of the buildings on site. In addition thermal energy is also transferred to the district heating of the town of Frohnleiten. Large volumes of energy are recuperated from the exhaust air of the board machines in sophisticated heat recovery cascades and used to preheat process air, to heat spray water and to ventilate production buildings.
Modernisation of stock preparation:
The modernisation will enable the extraction of fibres for recycling to be increased by several thousand tonnes per year. Besides a better yield the quality and purity of the material will also improve and energy consumption will be significantly optimised.
Application of new technologies for coat drying: As a result of installing new, more efficient infrared drying aggregates and a coupled heat recovery system, savings were made in gas and electrical consumption in a pilot project on one single coating aggregate. The same technology will now find further applications in the mill after this successful trial.
With all these measures and many other small projects, the Frohnleiten mill has succeeded in reducing its specific energy consumption by 17 % since 2006 – a great success which at the same time acts as motivation to initiate further improvements and more advances. Besides being the market leader in the field of cartonboard, MM Karton is also leading the way in innovations to process technology and optimisation.
