Final disassembly on the roof of Dürnrohr

The two 100 metre-tall boiler houses on the power plant site in Dürnrohr dominate the landscape of the Tullnerfeld. They were only ever surpassed by the 209 metre-high chimney – and currently also by two special cranes, which are being used to demolish the denitrification plant of the VERBUND block. The disassembly of all the plant equipment of the VERBUND energy generation facility is on schedule and should be completed by the end of the year.

The conditions are challenging: at a height of almost 100 metres, the workers are juggling with angle grinders and flame cutters to remove the last, highest and most exposed part of the flue gas cleaning systems from the coal-fired power plant block. The roughly 45 metre-high denitrification plant was a sensation at the time of its initial operation. Nitrogen oxides were cleaned from the flue gas using a method unique anywhere in the world. Yet with the arrival of the energy transition, this technology was also overtaken. More than 600 pieces of the processed catalytic converter elements, each of which weighing at least 2 tonnes, have already been removed in sections and transported down to the ground. Now begins the dismantling of the plant housing and its steel structure into individual segments. This duet of a 113 metre-high mobile crane and a roughly 135 metre-high tower crane ensures safe access for the personnel from outside at lofty heights as well as the securing and transport of the separated plant segments. 

Machine hall already almost empty

Inside the remaining building of power plant block 1, work is now on the home straight. The components of block 1 in the machine hall that was once used for both blocks have almost been completely dismantled, removed and recycled; the VERBUND side of the hall is nearly empty. The hundreds of kilometres of piping in the boiler house have also been disconnected and disposed of, apart from a few remaining metres. In total, around 14,000 tonnes of recyclables and waste have already been disassembled, separated, broken down and handed over to the Austrian circular economy. 

The goal of VERBUND is to carefully gut the remaining buildings while avoiding damaging the components of EVN that are still housed within them. In the end, they will be handed back to EVN for subsequent use as empty but usable buildings with still functioning safety and security systems. The dismantling work should be completed by the end of the year.