Factory location | Frechen, North Rhine-Westphalia |
Factory type | Coal refining (briquettes, fluidised-bed lignite and pulverised lignite) |
Commissioned in | 1902 |
Capacity | Up to 6.5 million t/a raw lignite |
Factory equipment | 32 driers, 40 briquette presses, 14 vibration rod mills |
Facts and figures
Energy for industry and domestic use
The Frechen factory (Rhein-Erft district) focuses its production on briquettes and pulverised lignite. Briquettes are used for home heating and industry, pulverised lignite is for industrial use only.
Energy is generated in two fluidised-bed power plant boilers and three mill-fired boilers. Fine-grained raw lignite is stirred up by an air current and fired. This process ensures a high burn-up at a relatively low temperature. Sewage sludge is co-fired in both fluidised-bed boilers in order to dispose of waste material, for example from municipal water utilities, in an environmentally sound manner, while generating energy at the same time. All boilers work according to the combined heat and power principle, which means that they generate electricity as well as hot steam for drying raw lignite.

