AUSTRIA – Egger, one of the largest global wooden panel suppliers, is investing over 70 million euros in pioneering large-scale projects at the main plant in St. Johann in Tirol, Austria.

A new high-bay warehouse, a recycling tower and a second biomass boiler are planned. The investments are focused on increasing environmental and sustainability performance as well as automation.

A new, additional high-bay warehouse will take its place on an area of around 3,800 m2. The storage of wood-based materials will take place fully automatically in a total of 4,480 full-format storage locations on 33 levels one above the other. Using the latest technology, the warehouse will make many processes in the plant more efficient, faster and significantly safer.

Egger uses of waste wood recycling material in order to protect the precious resource wood. At the St. Johann site, the proportion of recycled wood in Egger products is now to be increased further, thereby reducing the need for fresh wood. For this purpose, a “Cleaning Tower” recycling tower will be built as part of the investment plans. This is used to prepare and clean the waste wood. This process will result in recycled material of the highest quality, which is ideal for the production of wood-based materials

But that’s not all: The environmental and energy project is to be expanded with a second biomass boiler. The integrated energy concept at the St. Johann plant already makes it possible to save fossil fuels. Thermal energy is generated through the combustion of biomass and biogenic production residues, which can no longer be used as a material. This not only covers its own requirements, the plant also feeds waste heat into the district heating network of the communities of St. Johann and Oberndorf. With the second biomass boiler, the two communities can be supplied with even more sustainable heating energy in the future. In addition, electricity from biomass for production in the plant is being generated for the first time by means of combined heat and power.