Press announcement
Information on planned commissioning activities of UPM Biochemicals GmbH
14.08.2024 - 08.10.2024, weekdays 07:00 - 20:00: The blowing out of steam pipes in the course of planned commissioning activities of UPM Biochemicals GmbH may occasionally lead to increased noise development, sometimes also to steam leakage, in the vicinity of the biorefinery.
Since 2021, UPM Biochemicals GmbH has been building the world's first biorefinery for the production of renewable biochemicals at the Leuna chemical site. The completion of the refinery is now in the final phase and UPM is currently planning the gradual commissioning of individual plants.
A first important step in the initial commissioning process is the so-called blowing out of the steam pipes. This involves process steam flowing into the newly installed pipes at a high flow rate over a defined period of time and escaping into the atmosphere at defined points on a special device. In order to comply with environmental and health and safety regulations, UPM uses equipment developed for vapour blowing, which is installed before the vapour is discharged into the atmosphere. Components such as a reference plate, diffuser and silencer are used here. The reference plate provides information on how clean the pipework is and defines the termination criterion for the steam blowing process in order to minimise cleaning.
The main focus of dynamic cleaning is to remove welding scale, rust particles and deposits from the pipework in order to protect downstream equipment from damage during normal operation.
This process is scheduled from 14 August 2024 up to and including 8 October 2024, from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. and only on working days. During this period, there may be occasional increased noise at the outflow points and vapour emissions in the vicinity of the biorefinery.
The background noise in particular may also be audible in the centre of Leuna. We ask all those affected for their understanding for this necessary measure, which will be accompanied by both UPM and InfraLeuna in compliance with all necessary safety measures.
If you have any questions or comments, please contact the following contact points:
UPM Biochemicals GmbH: 03461-5195 001
InfraLeuna plant security control centre: 03461-43 3150
We ask for your consideration and thank you for your understanding.
Press contact
Contact person for press and public relations
Claudia Herrmann
Corporate Communications
P +49 3461 43-3106
pr@infraleuna.de
About InfraLeuna: InfraLeuna GmbH and its affiliated companies own and operate the infrastructure facilities at the Leuna site. InfraLeuna operates according to the low-profit principle. The shares are held by several companies based here. Our acquired expertise, experience and a team of qualified and motivated employees have already convinced major international chemical groups to set up operations in Leuna.