InfraLeuna commissions wastewater plant for UPM biorefinery at Leuna

InfraLeuna, operator of the Leuna chemical park in Germany, has commissioned a purpose-built anaerobic wastewater pre-treatment plant for UPM's biochemicals biorefinery, investing EUR 42.7m in total, EUR 36.7m for the plant and EUR 6m for biogas feed-in infrastructure. The unit can treat up to 4,000 cubic metres of wastewater a day, cuts organic load by at least 80 percent, and generates about 6 MW of biogas fed into the site's gas grid, with commissioning proceeding in stages as UPM ramps up discharge volumes.

Why this mattersThe dedicated treatment and energy-recovery infrastructure removes an operating bottleneck for UPM's large-scale biochemicals plant, a reference project for bio-based inputs relevant to packaging.

• InfraLeuna invested EUR 42.7m in total: EUR 36.7m for the plant and EUR 6m for a biogas feed-in system.
• The plant treats up to 4,000 cubic metres of wastewater a day from UPM's biorefinery at Leuna, Germany.
• The process cuts chemical oxygen demand by at least 80 percent and generates about 6 MW of biogas continuously, fed into the site's natural gas grid.
• Commissioning is proceeding in phases as UPM gradually increases wastewater discharge while bioreactors are seeded with specialised anaerobic bacteria.
• The plant was custom-built by InfraLeuna for UPM's biorefinery process rather than as a standard design.
• The Leuna biorefinery is described as Europe's largest investment in biochemicals.

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