Successful coal phase-out in the chemical industry: Martinswerk and GETEC reduce CO2 emissions by 100,000 tons per year with state-of-the-art combined cycle gas power plant
Bergheim, 11 March 2025 – Atlanta-based J.M. Huber Corporation (“Huber”) and GETEC have collaborated to put a state-of-the-art combined cycle gas power plant at Huber’s Martinswerk production site into operation in Bergheim, Germany. This location is part of Huber Advanced Materials (HAM), a strategic business unit within Huber Engineered Materials (HEM), one of Huber´s operating companies. The power plant will save around 100,000 tons of CO2 emissions per year and generate the electricity and steam energy required for the Martinswerk operations in a climate-friendly manner. The project is an important step towards a sustainable and low-carbon energy supply for the chemical production processes at Martinswerk.
On 11 March 2025, the highly efficient energy center at Martinswerk´s production site was officially and publicly inaugurated after it was put into operation in December 2024. The switch from CO2-intensive lignite to natural gas will reduce carbon dioxide emissions at the site by around 40%, resulting in an approximately 31% carbon dioxide reduction for HAM globally, a 27% reduction for HEM globally and an about 11% decrease at Huber globally. This milestone is in line with the sustainability goals of Martinswerk and Huber to significantly reduce CO2 emissions throughout the company and protect the environment.
The new gas and steam turbine power plant supplies all energy required at the Bergheim production site. The power plant, with an electrical output of 14 MW and an installed steam capacity of up to 180 tons per hour, includes a gas turbine with a downstream waste heat boiler including auxiliary firing. Two separate twin-tube boilers have been installed for peak load and redundancy purposes. All generated steam is additionally being expanded in a backpressure steam turbine, which maximizes overall efficiency. In the future, the gas power plant could also be fueled by hydrogen.
© Martinswerk GmbH
Within the 15-year partnership, GETEC is responsible for the design, construction, operation and maintenance of the new energy infrastructure at Martinswerk's production site.
“With the new gas-fired power plant at our Martinswerk facilities, we have made a leap forward on our way towards achieving Huber´s long-term sustainability and business resiliency goals. We have invested in a cleaner technology which gives us higher flexibility for our Martinswerk operations while having a huge sustainability impact for Huber overall. Moreover, this project underlines our commitment to forging innovative partnerships to the advantage of our customers, partners and Huber,” says Gretchen McClain, President & CEO of J.M. Huber Corporation.
Dan Krawczyk, President of Huber Engineered Materials, says, “I am proud of our Bergheim team’s work to make the important transition of the plant’s energy supply from coal to gas.
It is a critical investment into the site and a significant milestone in our company´s sustainability journey. Congratulations to the many team members across Huber who worked hard to make this transition possible.”
“We are proud to have realized this pioneering project together with our partner GETEC”, says Martin Schulting, Managing Director of Martinswerk GmbH. “Our new gas and steam turbine power plant with its groundbreaking technology is an important milestone for the resource-conserving energy supply at our Bergheim site, Huber´s largest production site globally. The project underlines our efforts towards ecological sustainability.”
Dr. Thomas Stephanblome, CEO of GETEC’s Platform Germany, says, “This partnership demonstrates our commitment to developing customized and highly efficient energy solutions that both meet our customers' sustainability goals and are best equipped to meet the challenges of the energy revolution. We are proud to have successfully completed this project together with Martinswerk.”
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