Case study 8: Process heat from forest residues for the battery industry in Austria
Microporous in Feistritz in the province of Carinthia produces separator foil for lead-acid batteries. For the production of the separator foil process steam is required, which was produced with a fuel oil steam boiler until November 2022.
In 2019, Microporous approached Carinthia’s largest private district heating provider, BC Regionalwärme Group from Köttmannsdorf, and a project was planned for the production of process steam from biomass. A biomass-based steam generation plant, a grate-fired wood chip boiler, was then constructed and went into operation in November 2022.
The fuel used in the plant is exclusively forest wood chips from the region. These wood chips mostly come from storm wood, which usually cannot be used for any other refinement due to the breakage. Since Carinthia has a very high proportion of forest, about 60% of the land area, using forest chips as a renewable fuel source was an obvious choice.