New Marl power plant to cut Evonik carbon footprint

Essen, Germany – Evonik Industries AG is investing a three-digit-million-euro sum in a new high-efficiency gas and steam turbine power plant at Marl Chemical Park to end 80 years of hard coal based power and steam generation at the site.

The move, said Evonik 30 Aug, will reduce its CO2 emissions by up to one million tonnes annually and cut direct greenhouse gas emissions of its plants worldwide by almost one fifth.

For the project, Evonik has partnered with Siemens, which will construct the two-block power plant at the North Rhine-Westphalia chemical park.

The construction work on the “high-efficiency and very flexible plant” is to start before the end of the year and commissioning is scheduled by 2022.

“The modernisation of our power plant park is a key element in achieving Evonik’s sustainability targets,” said Thomas Wessel, chief human resources officer and industrial relations director of Evonik.

“The main climate target of Evonik is to halve its absolute greenhouse gas emissions by 2025 relative to base year 2008.”

The new plant has a power output of 180 megawatts — roughly equal to the consumption of 500,000 households – and can produce up to 440 tonnes of steam per hour.

Operated by Evonik, Marl Chemical Park is one of the largest chemical sites in Germany and Evonik’s largest production location. The site covers an area of more than 6 square kilometres and provides around 10,000 jobs.

In addition to Evonik, its subsidiaries, and its affiliates, 17 other companies have operations in the Chemical Park.

Employing just under 7,000 people in Marl, Evonik manufactures basic, fine and speciality chemicals at the site.