Südzucker's Offstein plant
The Südzucker plant Marloffstein is a subsidiary of Südzucker AG , with headquarters in Mannheim is. The plant in Obrigheim - Neuoffstein mainly produces household sugar and isomalt from sugar beets .
geography
Despite its name, the "Südzucker-Werk Offstein" is not located in the municipality of Offstein , which is part of the Alzey-Worms district , but on state road 395 in the area of the neighboring municipality of Obrigheim in the Bad Dürkheim district . The altitude of the plant is a good 130 m above sea level. NHN . Immediately to the south-east, beyond the L 395, the Eisbach flows past from south-west to north- east.
The catchment area of the Südzucker Offstein plant for the delivery of sugar beet includes the Vorderpfalz and Rheinhessen on the left bank of the Rhine and parts of North Baden and South Hesse on the right bank of the Rhine .
history
When the Offstein sugar factory was founded in 1883 , it was done by an entrepreneur from Offstein, who owned a large area west of the municipal boundary. In the course of time, the factory premises and the few houses that were subsequently built in the immediate vicinity became the hamlet of Neuoffstein, without the sugar factory reproducing this in its name.
In the 1980s, the Offstein sugar factory was taken over by Südzucker AG as the Offstein plant , although the actual community affiliation was not included in the name.
Offstein plant
production
During a harvest campaign that lasts roughly from the end of September to the end of December, the sugar factory is in operation 24 hours a day. Around 16,000 tons of beet are processed every day, from which 1,500 to 1,700 tons of sugar are obtained directly. A third of the daily raw material, corresponding to an additional daily amount of 600 to 800 tons of sugar, is temporarily stored in the form of syrup in two tanks , each with a capacity of 50,000 m³. In a syrup campaign in May / June of the following year, a further 80,000 t of sugar will be produced from these storage capacities . The plant's silos have a capacity of 100,000 tons of sugar. In addition to table sugar, liquid sugar, fructose , caramel syrups and isomalt are produced.
Employees
Südzucker's Offstein plant itself employs 400 people, plus 30 seasonal workers during the autumn campaign. In addition, the central research department of Südzucker AG with around 130 employees is located in Neuoffstein. Südzucker AG's central archive is also located here. With a total of 530 to 560 employees, the Südzucker Offstein plant was the largest employer in the former community of Grünstadt-Land .
Infrastructure
traffic
1988, the hitherto usual transport the beets over which was railway Worms Green Town set and the railway line in the section Worms-Neuoffstein shut down . The Neuoffstein – Grünstadt section of the former railway line was retained as the siding of the sugar factory. It has been leased from Deutsche Bahn by Rhenus Rail St. Ingbert since 2009 .
After the route was closed, the beets were delivered with large diesel-powered vehicles - later increasingly with biodiesel -powered vehicles - via the L 395. The average length of stay on the factory premises is twelve minutes per deliverer. Since the 2009 campaign, beets have only been allowed to be delivered by truck. Previously, this also happened with slower agricultural teams, e.g. B. consisting of a tractor with up to two trailers.
The sugar was partly removed by road and partly by rail via the siding. Since the autumn season 2017 - after a four-year break - the railways have been increasingly used again, as the abolition of export restrictions for sugar has led to a sharp increase in deliveries to seaports. Block trains of 20 wagons with loads of 1200 tons of sugar each are loaded into a new loading facility on the factory premises and then drive to Hamburg . Since the original route to Worms no longer exists, the trains run with a diesel locomotive via Grünstadt and Monsheim with a change of direction in both stations to Worms . There the trains are given an electric locomotive for the journey to Hamburg.
water
The considerable amounts of water required for the internal transport and rinsing of the sugar beets are obtained from the raw material, the average of which is 72% water content, which is separated off during sugar production. At the end of the cycle, the water is freed from earth and suspended matter by recycling in clarification ponds and processed for return to the natural cycle; per day about 350 m³ are discharged over the Steinborner Graben into the Reisbach and from there from the left into the Eisbach. The eleven clearing ponds with a total area of 60 hectares in the northern area of the factory premises serve numerous bird species as breeding grounds or are used as resting places during bird migration ; they are now classified as a bird sanctuary .
power plant
If the energy required for production cannot be obtained through the use of waste heat or the like, natural gas is purchased; the limestone that is used to clarify the sugar juice is burned with coke . Waste heat, steam and exhaust gases, e.g. B. methane , are fed into a company's own power plant. It generates steam from (recycled) water , which drives turbines to generate electricity .
literature
- Sugar factory Offstein zu Neuoffstein (Ed.): 50 years sugar factory Offstein zu Neuoffstein, Pfalz . 1884-1934. Worms 1934.
- Willi Weinz: Chronicle of the sugar factory Offstein . In: Municipality of Offstein (ed.): 771–1971. 1200 years of Offstein . Grünstadt 1971, p. 212-216 .
- Südzucker AG Mannheim / Ochsenfurt (ed.): 125 years of the Offstein plant . 1884-2009. 2009 ( online [PDF; accessed January 2, 2014]).
Web links
- Südzucker AG: Offstein site
- Südzucker-Werk Offstein on: Map service of the landscape information system of the Rhineland-Palatinate nature conservation administration (LANIS map) ( notes )
Individual evidence
- ↑ Map service of the landscape information system of the Rhineland-Palatinate nature conservation administration (LANIS map) ( notes )
- ↑ a b c d e f Offstein plant. Südzucker AG, accessed on April 4, 2015 .
- ↑ asei / 6036: Sugar from Offstein back on the rails . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International 2/2018, p. 67.
- ↑ asei / 6036: Sugar from Offstein back on the rails . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International 2/2018, p. 67.
Coordinates: 49 ° 35 ′ 57.6 ″ N , 8 ° 13 ′ 11.9 ″ E