THE ECHO - Ferrostaal
THE ECHO - Ferrostaal
THE ECHO - Ferrostaal
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24<br />
projects & contracting<br />
01 02<br />
01. The pulp plant in Stendal, Germany<br />
02./03. The Estonian Cell pulp plant in Estonia<br />
conditions are completely different in Europe, where the “crop”<br />
cannot be harvested before 35 years in Germany and 60 in<br />
Finland.<br />
In the past, some pulp plants practised deforestation wherever<br />
and however they pleased in densely forested areas. As a result,<br />
the entire industry was regularly the object of criticism by conservationists.<br />
This situation has now radically changed. Today,<br />
investors can only build new plants if they use wood produced by<br />
sustainable forestry. In other words, they must prove that they are<br />
managing their raw material in a sustainable way, i.e. growing new<br />
trees to replace those that are cut down. Otherwise, no bank will<br />
even consider financing their project. MAN <strong>Ferrostaal</strong> fulfils this<br />
requirement for all of the very promising RWE projects it has<br />
acquired.<br />
STATE-OF-<strong>THE</strong>-ART PLANTS<br />
The essential features of pulp manufacturing can be illustrated<br />
using the example of the state-of-the-art pulp plant in Stendal in<br />
Saxony-Anhalt in Germany. The most important component is<br />
the “fibreline” production line, which accounts for one third of the<br />
total cost of constructing a new plant. The machinery and<br />
equipment used there extract most of the lignin from the fibrous<br />
raw material (hardwood or softwood). Lignin is a chemical<br />
compound that gives a tree its strength and durability. At the end<br />
of the process, after cleaning/sifting, bleaching and draining,<br />
the pulp is ready to be used as a preliminary product for further<br />
processing into paper.