Only two years after the thermal waste utilisation plant at Zwentendorf/Dürnrohr was up and running, its operator EVN Abfallverwertung NÖ is already faced with the need for an enlargement. It plans to add a third line to the two existing ones. A marked increase in the volume of waste to be disposed, caused by the entry into force, in Germany, of the Technical Instructions Regarding Household Waste and the Waste Deposit Ordinance (which ban any border-crossing waste transport) and a rise in the calorific value of the garbage currently delivered to the plant (which results in a decline of the plant throughput capacity) make it necessary to add new capacity at a state-of-the-art level. What’s more, the Austrian Federal Waste Management Plan has found that the waste incineration capacities (existing ones and those scheduled to be added up to 2008) are not sufficient to ensure fully autark disposal in Austria.

Accordingly, the EVN plant is to be extended from its current output of 120 MW to 210 MW by 2010. Same as Lines 1 and 2, the new Line 3 will incinerate waste and generate steam which will then be fed to the Dürnrohr power station to produce electricity, district heating and process steam for the Agrana bioethanol plant. With this project, EVN Abfallverwertung NÖ will not just add another substantial contribution to environmentally friendly waste disposal but will, through the combined energy generation scheme with the Dürnrohr station, provide for further savings in the consumption of fossil fuels and reduce CO2 emissions.

Another ecological pillar supported by EVN Abfallverwertung NÖ is its logistic concept which provides for 90% of waste deliveries and residuals removals to be carried out by rail. This innovative concept will certainly be applied to the third line as well. After all it is not only essential that waste disposal must be as environmentally compatible as possible but also that all logistic operations need to be performed with maximum protection of the environment.

The new third line will look more or less the same as its two forerunners. The computer animation shows that the current entrance area will be – simply put – shifted slightly to the northwest and that the plant will be widened to accommodate the new line.

This line, to be built in parallel with the two existing ones, will again consist of a grate, boiler and three-stage flue gas cleaning plant made up of a dry stage (fabric filter), a two-stage scrubber (acid and gypsum scrubbers) and a DeNOx plant (catalyst).

A new feature to be added is the so-called “initial bunker” which is intended to take up the additional garbage deliveries. It stands out as an annexe to the south of the plant bridging the automated container crane unloading system painted in red. The initial bunker will be fitted with another three tipping stations and a bulk garbage shredder. The waste tipped into the new initial bunker will be transported by a travelling crane to the existing bunker.

The project is currently at the stage of filing (scheduled for late May 2006) for an environmental impact assessment. All aspects of its possible environmental impact have been investigated by the experts commissioned by EVN Abfallverwertung NÖ and are described in the altogether 20 expert opinions attached to the environmental impact statement. In late May 2006, this statement is to be handed over to the Lower Austrian Government for its environmental impact assessment proceedings. EVN Abfallverwertung NÖ expects that the approval notice will be issued in the spring of 2007, so that construction can start in the summer of 2007. Building and startup will take about three years so that the third line should be on stream by 2010.

Dates and facts