The fruit, starch, and sugar Group AGRANA will begin to put up an additional drum drying plant at the location of its potato starch mill in Gmünd / Austria in 2023. With an investment of EUR 23 million, AGRANA wants to increase the production of technical starches for the construction and adhesive industries by one third. The Group commissioned Pörner Ingenieurgesellschaft with the overall planning of this project. Pörner Vienna is responsible for basic and detail engineering, construction supervision as well as project management and commissioning support. The new industrial plant is expected to be completed in July 2025.
Pörner project manager Manfred Paulus explains the challenges: “A new production building is being erected for the drum drying plant from raw material input to drying the finished product. For this, we have to execute the installations and tie-ins so that the ongoing operations will not be interrupted. Moreover, only limited space is available for the construction and installation activities.”
Pörner has already implemented several projects for AGRANA, such as a betaine plant, a plant for the production of baby food and the largest bioethanol plant in Austria with an investment volume of EUR 125 million.
Bio-based feedstock for sustainable products
The current project follows the industry’s efforts aimed at decarbonization. “Due to legal requirements, technical sectors are increasingly relying on organic materials and, therefore, selecting starches as a sustainable alternative to oil-based products. The expansion of our facility is in response to this rising demand and safeguards the competitiveness of the Gmünd site”, emphasizes Dr. Norbert Harringer, CTO of AGRANA Beteilungs-AG.
AGRANA’s starches are used in the construction chemicals industry in form of starch ether in gypsum and slaked lime as well as in cement and slaked cement construction materials to provide the requested consistency. Due to their superior adhesive properties, AGRANA starches are utilized in the adhesives industry as an alternative to synthetic adhesives and are referred to as green glues.
AGRANA manufactures over 300 different starch products at the Gmünd site. The Group is the market leader in Europe for technical starches as well as organic starches.
