Stora Enso has released plans detailing how it will help Volvo Car Gent cut CO2 emissions by more than 40% with energy produced entirely from waste by using the mutli-fuel boiler at its Langerbrugge Mill. This means 15,000 tons of CO2 emissions eliminated each year, equivalent to the heating of 5, 000 households from traditional energy sources. Stora Enso's Langerbrugge Mill joined forces with Volvo Car Group, the global car company, to reduce carbon emissions at Volvo's plant in Belgium with renewable energy, via a district heating connection.

 

Langerbrugge Mill is located in Gent, Belgium close to Volvo's manufacturing facility, Volvo Car Gent. Stora Enso will install an underground hot water pipeline starting next year to transport hot water at a temperature of 125 degrees Celsius to the car production facility. This will be used to heat Volvo's buildings and paint booths. The first hot water will be delivered in the autumn of 2016.

 

Stora Enso has a stated purpose to do good for the people and the planet. The joint project with Volvo is an additional step on this journey. Volvo Car Gent will, as a direct result of this initiative, substantially reduce its use of fossil fuels for heating purposes, decreasing its CO2 emissions by 15 000 tonnes per year, a net decrease of more than 40% of total CO2 emissions.

 

"We do not use gas or coal, we use waste to produce renewable energy. Our power plants produce combined heat and power, currently providing all of the heat and more than 70% of the electricity to meet our mill needs. With rising energy costs, this is a great asset for us. And now we can deliver green heat to Volvo as well."says Stora Enso Mill Manager Chris De Hollander.

 

The mill has invested in bioenergy in recent years – it has a highly efficient multi-fuel boiler that is capable of using industrial waste for energy production. Such waste includes demolished waste wood from construction sites, along with other waste from the community that would otherwise end up in a landfill including discarded timber sections not able to be used in traditional saw mill or pulp mill processing.

 

The project has been made possible with financial assistance from the Flemish Government through an ecology subsidy of EUR 2 million.

  

Stora Enso's Langerbrugge Mill's business model is fully based on recycling waste. The mill produces premium paper products out of recycled paper, collected within a 300 kilometre radius from the mill gates. This radius encompasses about 80 million people and 70% of the purchase power of Europe. Major European cities in this radius include Paris, London, Amsterdam and Brussels, along with the Ruhr area in Germany and the Netherlands.

 

"We call it an urban forest. We get the fibre we need by collecting old paper from the households. There is no need to use wood," adds Chris de Hollander. "This kind of sourcing is cost-efficient and sustainable as we minimise emissions from transportation."