In response to the call for applications, Hamburger Hungaria Ltd applied for the awards with its environmental projects of the past 3 years, with 1 water-management and 2 sustainable energy management developments.
The first project was aimed at increasing the anaerobic treatment rate of the paper mill’s own wastewater treatment plant, which modernisation resulted in an outstandingly high, 95% rate of treatment efficiency. Besides, the waste water produced during the activities of the company is used for generating nearly 9 million m3 of biogas with a calorific value of 23 MJ/ m3. This makes Hamburger Containerboard Dunaujvaros one of the most significant biogas producers of Hungary.
The second project submitted for the competition was the company’s biogas-fuelled small power station investment in 2017. The biogas generated as a source of renewable energy during wastewater treatment is used by the small power station to produce 2400 kW of certifiably green electrical power and heat with related production. The rate of efficiency of the conversion is 86.3%.
The third project presented was the one that was designed to modernise the composition of the fuel used by the power plant of the site. As a result of the transformations the annual waste processing capacity of the company rose from the previous 74 500 tonnes to 113 100 tonnes. This capacity increase is significant because for each unit of the ingoing calorific performance provided by the waste-based fuel instead of coal, the company decreases the CO2 emission of the process by 44%. With this development Hamburger Hungaria prevents ~20 thousand tonnes of CO2 emission every year.
With this prize Hamburger Containerboard Dunaujvaros joins those international companies that compete for the European Business Awards for the Environment.
The company has set another example with the above investments, showing that business interests can coincide with environmentally friendly solutions, thus the successful use of green technology.