PAPER TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL - How paper factory Vrancart cut its natural gas consumption by 50%. Markus Schranzer, Managing Director, HoSt Bioenergy Systems - Paper Technology International 2026 - Book - Page 115

PAPER TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL - How paper factory Vrancart cut its natural gas consumption by 50%. Markus Schranzer, Managing Director, HoSt Bioenergy Systems

PAPER TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL - How paper factory Vrancart cut its natural gas consumption by 50%. Markus Schranzer, Managing Director, HoSt Bioenergy Systems
INTRODUCTION:
When gas prices spiked and Romania’s energy markets turned volatile, paper manufacturer Vrancart faced a choice: absorb
the cost or engineer a way out. They chose the latter. The result is a 15 MWth RDF-昀fired combined heat and power plant, built by HoSt
Bioenergy Systems, that now replaces half the factory’s natural gas consumption with renewable energy generated from its own waste.
A Romanian paper factory under pressure
Vrancart SA is one of Romania’s most established paper and
packaging manufacturers. Based in Adjud, in the Vrancea county
of eastern Romania. The company produces corrugated cardboard
and packaging materials at an industrial scale, serving customers
across Romania and international markets. Like every company of
its kind, Vrancart’s manufacturing process is energy-intensive. Paper
production demands continuous, reliable supplies of steam for
drying and process heat, alongside electricity to drive its equipment.
For years, that energy came predominantly from natural gas
purchased from the grid. It was a model that worked well enough
until it didn’t. The energy market shock that followed Russia’s
invasion of Ukraine in 2022 sent gas prices across Europe to levels
that fundamentally threatened industrial competitiveness. Romanian
industry was far from immune. Gas prices that had once been a
manageable operating cost became, almost overnight, a threat to
production margins.
Vrancart’s leadership recognised that the answer to energy
price volatility was not better purchasing contracts or hedging
strategies. It was structural. The company needed to generate its
own energy, from a fuel source it controlled, at a cost it could predict.
That thinking led directly to the decision to invest in an on-site
combined heat and power plant 昀椀red by refuse derived fuel (RDF):
the combustible waste that Vrancart’s own recycling operations
already produced in substantial quantities.
The project, delivered by Dutch bioenergy specialist HoSt
Bioenergy Systems, was commissioned in 2024. It represents one
of the most compelling examples in the European paper industry of
how waste-to-energy technology can transform an energy liability
into a competitive advantage.
The Challenge: Energy costs, waste management,
and regulatory pressure
High dependence on external energy
Paper manufacturing is one of the most energy-intensive
industrial sectors. Steam is required throughout the production
process, particularly in the drying phase, and must be available
continuously and at consistent pressure and temperature. Any
interruption in supply carries immediate production consequences.
For Vrancart, this reliance on externally sourced natural
gas created two compounding
vulnerabilities. The 昀椀rst was cost:
energy represented a considerable
share of operating expenditure,
and that share grew sharply as
European gas markets tightened.
The second was security of supply:
dependence on a commodity traded
on volatile international markets
introduced a level of operational
risk that is, in principle, avoidable
for a manufacturer with access to
its own combustible waste streams.
Image 1: Combustion of RDF.
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