UPM Chapelle Darblay inaugurates new biofuel power plant

UPM inaugurates today a new biofuel power plant at its Chapelle Darblay mill in France. The investment of EUR 80 million has included a new boiler plant which produces 85 MW of thermal energy and a back pressure turbine producing 20 MW of electricity.

The plant combusts annually 160,000 tonnes of energy wood available in the region and all the sludge produced in its recovered paper recycling process. UPM Chapelle Darblay's production capacity is 340,000 tonnes newsprint based solely on recovered paper.

"This investment will benefit the environment and the community by reducing mill's CO2 emissions by 95 % and creating new activity in the bio fuel supply chain in this region. Our production here is based on 100% recycled fibre and energy generation on renewable biofuels", says Mr Hartmut Wurster, President of UPM's Newsprint Division, in his inauguration speech.

The project has been supported by the Regional Council of Haute-Normandie and the Community of Agglomeration of Rouen.

Mr Patrice Dupray, Vice President of Haute-Normandie region greets the environmental aspects of the investment. "In fact, the consequences caused by the global warming and pollutions transferring to the future generations need to be solved collectively where politics and industry have an essential role to play. The issue concerns economic and social life as well as the whole civilization".

Since nineties UPM has invested in building new mill site power plants using biomass as fuel. In addition to the new power plant at Chapelle Darblay mill, there were new bio power and boiler plants started up at UPM's Shotton mill in UK and Rauma mill in Finland in 2006. New investments at Caledonian paper in Scotland and Kaukas in Finland are on-going and starting up in 2009 and 2010.

 

Source: UPM