It has been a very challenging year for many industrial companies in Germany. The report of the VDMA (German Engineering Federation) reflects the drastic situation in figures: in the first nine months of 2023, mechanical and plant engineering orders declined by 14% in real terms compared to the previous year. The weakening global economy and uncertainty among many companies had a negative impact on business and the outlook for the export-oriented engineering industry.
The Austrian plant engineering specialist Pörner and its subsidiary EDL with headquarters in Leipzig have a positive outlook despite the economic conditions. With a stable order book, the engineering group generated sales of around EUR 70 million this year. Various plant projects in the refinery and sustainability sectors contributed to this result, which is one of the best in the company's history.
Extending market leadership and investing in research
At the beginning of the year, Pörner Ingenieurgesellschaft further expanded its market leadership in bitumen oxidation technology with three new bitumen plants for road construction in India. At the same time, Pörner's unique Biturox® research center in Schwechat near Vienna, Austria, started operations to develop tailor-made quality bitumen from various crude oils and refinery feedstocks. Pörner was also awarded the general planning contract for the construction of a roller drying plant in Gmünd by the
international food and industrial goods group Agrana.
In the middle of the year, Pörner engineers supported a scheduled refinery turnaround, including integrated scheduling, and used the shutdown to complete three revamp projects - a major project that had been planned for years and was successfully completed.
Projects for waste oil treatment and plant conversions in the hydrocarbon processing industry, as well as EDL's environmental projects, contributed to the positive sales results.
“We are designing sustainable pants for new, special product qualities. We are primarily pursuing two paths: the intelligent and cost-effective conversion of existing plants, including process optimization and integration of state-of-the-art plant components, or the construction of intelligent medium-sized plants for new specialty products such as our Bio-Silicates," says Andreas Pörner, Managing Director of the Pörner Group.
Further development of new defossilization concepts
Besides the traditional refinery business, the engineering group is also making progress in the sustainability area. Together with the solar technology company Heliovis, the "Pörner Water" competence center is currently developing a solar-thermal water desalination plant in Oman that converts produced water into process water. Thermische Apparate Freiberg's pyrolysis pilot plant also started operations this summer. The company TAF, which is part of the Pörner Group, is thus making its contribution to plastics recycling.
EDL's major project - the HyKero plant - is also making progress. Starting in 2027, the plant near Leipzig will produce 50,000 metric tons of electricity-based sustainable aviation fuel (PtL-SAF) per year, making it the first plant of its kind to produce PtL-SAF on an industrial scale in Germany. The HyKero technology is a breakthrough solution for the CO2-free production of PtL-SAF. In October, it was announced that the Fischer Tropsch (FT) CANS™ technology jointly developed by Johnson Matthey and bp will be used in the HyKero plant. The plant will make an important contribution to the defossilization of the aviation sector in Germany.
The Outlook: What lies ahead for plant engineering in 2024
The VDMA's general forecasts for 2024 are no more promising than before: Production is expected to decline by two percent. "To remain competitive, the industry needs intelligent plant engineering. This is why the Pörner Group is focusing strongly on optimization projects in its local markets. Internationally, the successful plant supply business will be further developed with our own technologies", says Peter Schlossnikel, Managing Director of the Pörner Group, looking optimistically into the future.
"The process industry is at the dawn of a new era and faces the challenge of managing change through technological innovation and energy-efficient production. With our technological expertise, we are helping to create future-proof systems for modern products and sustainable fuels (e.g. SAF) that save energy and reduce the use of resources and emissions. With our knowledge and experience, we support the competitiveness of the local industry," says Dr. Michael Haid, CEO of EDL Anlagenbau Gesellschaft mbH.
