Hardox® HiAce combats wear and corrosion in biomass cogeneration plant
February 13, 2026
5 min read
Case details
Product
Hardox® HiAceCountry
Germany
Company
Metallbau Perger GmbH
Industry
Mining and raw material processing
Hardox® HiAce fights wear and corrosion in the fight for a good cause – minimizing climate change. Learn how it’s used in bulk handling equipment at cogeneration plants that turn biomass waste into energy.
Regionalwerke Neckar-Kocher, a German regional energy cooperative, wanted to do its part to achieve one of the global goals for reducing CO2 emissions: convert conventional power plants to plants that turn waste into energy. So back in 2003, it commissioned the construction of a combined heat and power plant (or cogeneration plant) that uses waste heat to generate electricity and heat. Now, it supplies hot water and district heating to about 500 industrial, commercial and residential consumers.
Plants like these use biomass – wood chips and woody materials – instead of fossil fuels to produce energy in a way that is gentle both on the environment and the wallet, and to provide energy around the clock. But woody materials can be abrasive, and place new challenges on bulk material handling equipment. Normally, this can require customizations like abrasion-resistant liners and reinforced high-wear areas, as well as the careful selection of buckets and attachments.
Perger Metallbau used Hardox® HiAce to renew the areas affected by wear in the Neckarsulm wood chip cogeneration plant.
A more seamless flow with minimal problems in bulk material handling
That’s why the plant turned to metal fabricator Metallbau Perger – and to Hardox® HiAce. The unique characteristics of biomass require careful consideration in equipment design to achieve a seamless material flow with minimal problems. Attachments like grabs and buckets need a relatively low dead weight so they can handle vast amounts of wood chips and bark mulch with minimum spillage, quickly and efficiently.
Each year, parts of the plant’s bulk handling equipment that is subject to extra stress, such as the orange peel grapples (a multi-blade grab), the lining in the fuel bunker and the burner’s conveyor, are inspected to detect wear. This is because in addition to mechanical wear, the moist biomass chemically attacks the material-carrying parts and results in increased wear in the system. Metallbau Perger had been repairing and renewing these affected areas using Hardox® 450 wear plate around every eight years. For the most recent order to repair the affected wear-intensive areas, the company chose Hardox® HiAce, the abrasion-resistant steel designed for acidic environments.
How Hardox® HiAce works in a range of bulk handling equipment
The orange peel grapple, which transports the biomass from the receiving bunker to a storage bunker, was specified in Hardox® HiAce for the first time. Each batch, which is usually delivered in containers by truck, is sampled, analyzed and evaluated in an in-house laboratory before being conveyed to the storage bunker.
To control a continuous combustion temperature in the power plant, the biomass is first sprayed with water in the storage bunker and dosed according to requirements. This ensures an optimum, constant furnace temperature in the combustion chamber later on. The moving floors in the storage bunker continuously convey the biomass to the furnace. Hardox® HiAce was used to line the floors and for the side walls.
Turning waste into worth – Hardox® HiAce® in forestry and waste sectors
Hardox® HiAce combines the best of two worlds. With a hardness of 450 HBW, it offers the proven low abrasive wear of Hardox® 450, and thanks to its optimized chemical composition, it performs better under corrosive conditions. Heiko Ziegler, regional sales manager at SSAB’s Special Steels division, sees the benefits of this combination in several industries:
“Because of this special combination of properties, Hardox® HiAce makes a great fit for bulk material handling equipment and facilities in the forestry industry, like sawmills. But it’s also a good candidate for waste disposal equipment, like in waste collection trucks.”
“We were surprised by the great properties of the steel during machining. It’s comparable to Hardox® 450, so we didn't have to make any changes to the existing machinery or even train our employees.”
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About Metallbau Perger
Founded in 1961 and based in Heilbronn, Germany, Metallbau Perger GmbH & Co. KG provides fabrication and maintenance services for industries, municipalities and private customers. The company also has experience using Hardox® 600, for example when refurbishing excavator buckets for construction companies.