German manufacturer of high-performance adhesives, Orafol, is currently undergoing a 160 million Euro production expansion and is also adding in capacity for the supply of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) to safeguard against potential natural gas supply issues as the conflict in Ukraine continues.
The move comes after Orafol conducted an extensive analysis of its business processes as Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action raised the threat from crisis level to “alert” level in Germany in June 2022. The federal agency is continuing to guarantee the security of supply in Germany at present, but Orafol says the situation is tense and it could deteriorate further.
Orafol’s Energy working group examined ways to safeguard operations and has introduced the necessary steps for converting all process equipment that currently run on natural gas to also run on liquefied gas.
“Upon completion of these expansion projects, Orafol will still be able to manufacture its products regardless of any future disruptions to the supply of natural gas,” the company said.
Dr Holger Loclair, Chairman & CEO of the ORAFOL Group says, “Orafol’s continuous investment in performance development has been driven by well-considered and sustainable business practices from the outset.
“And we have only been able to expand our ongoing investment programme to this extent thanks to this disciplined approach. Expanding our production processes on the technical level to run on liquefied natural gas means that we do not have to rely on any potential Tradeable Energy Quotas.”
The conversion process will be split into two phases.
The first phase involves procuring a temporary supply of liquefied gas containers. The second phase involves constructing a single liquefied gas storage tank with a capacity of 180 tonnes with the possibility to expand this capacity. Construction is due to start this quarter with the project to cost three million Euros.
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