In two incineration lines 300,000 tons of waste are disposed of annually in an environmentally compatible manner. Besides disposing of waste, during its incineration 170 million kilowatt hours of electricity and 300 million kilowatt hours district heating are generated per year – enough to supply approx. 44,000 households in Magdeburg.

The construction of the waste bunker with a surface area of 50 m x 27 m and a height of approx. 40 m was a special engineering challenge. The waste bunker was built completely of reinforced concrete. Complex details such as, for example, various recesses and projections in the walls or the simultaneous slipping of craneway consoles as well as the precise installation of various built-in parts had to be considered.

For the concrete, too, (impermeable concrete or waterproof concrete) special quality requirements had to be considered. Respective mixtures were prepared together with a concrete technologist and tested in advance by sample concreting.

Once the approval procedure according to the Federal Immission Control Act had been completed in February 2003, the construction of a waste incineration plant in Magdeburg Rothensee could begin in March.

Since 2005, in two incineration lines 300,000 tons of waste are disposed of annually in an environmentally compatible manner. Besides disposing of waste, during its incineration 170 million kilowatt hours of electricity and 300 million kilowatt hours district heating are generated per year – enough to supply approx. 44,000 households in Magdeburg.

Structure of the CHP plant

The waste is supplied through an elevated delivery area. The unloaded waste is stored in a waste bunker where it is also partly homogenised with the bunker crane. The waste is then transported to the combustion grate by means of a feed hopper. In the boiler, the waste is incinerated. During this process steam is generated which is used to generate electricity and partly for district heating. The ashes originating from the combustion are temporarily stored in a grate ash bunker and then transported to the landfill.

Next to the boiler house there is a flue gas purification plant. This plant covers an extensive area and comprises complex processes which serve the purification of the flue gases before these are discharged through the chimney with reduced emissions. Between boiler house and flue gas purification plant the switchgear building is located. Here, the centrepiece of the whole plant, the control room, is situated from which all relevant processes are controlled, analysed and operated. The plant also comprises a 50 m high stair tower, a power house, a social building and a gatehouse.

The construction of the waste bunker with a surface area of 50 m x 27 m and a height of approx. 40 m was a special engineering challenge. The waste bunker was built completely of reinforced concrete. To clear the site for the construction of the plant, the waste bunker had to be built in the shortest possible time. For this reason the slipforming method was chosen.