Excess heat from the industrial processes at Stora Enso’s Maxau paper mill in Germany, will be used to provide renewable, biomass-based district heating for the city of Karlsruhe.

A new, approximately two-kilometre-long connection pipeline will transfer the heat from the mill to an existing pipeline that links up the local refinery with the municipal heating grid. The local district heating supplier Stadtwerke Karlsruhe will start the construction of the pipeline in late 2020, aiming for completion by the end of 2022.

More than 80% of the fuel used at Maxau Mill is biomass-based. In addition, a new steam turbine, to be taken into use at the mill during 2020, will further increase the potential of combined heat and power production at the mill. Thanks to these factors, the city of Karlsruhe and Maxau Mill expect to cut 10,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions annually.

Roughly 40,000 households and a large number of businesses in Karlsruhe currently use district heating. More than 90% of the heat is sourced from industrial processes and from the excess heat generated in combined heat and power production. The excess heat from Maxau Mill will add to current local sources of heat – an oil refinery and a power plant of an energy supplier. This expansion contributes to the German energy transition and is one of the biggest climate protection projects in the state of Baden-Württemberg.

Photo: Maxau paper mill / storaenso.com