The new building is rising, interim location 2.0 put into operation

The research work for the paper industry gets a new home! Whether viewed from the train or from the Schoeller Bridge, the construction site for Modellfabrik Papier’s new building is impossible to miss. Since the groundbreaking ceremony in spring, the building shell has been progressing week by week. Step by step, a large technical centre, several laboratories and offices are being built here for the development of new, energy-saving technologies for the industrial paper production of tomorrow.

The research building is being constructed in the new IQD innovation quarter in Düren, the largest urban development project since the city’s reconstruction after the Second World War. Covering an area of 11.5 hectares, a new district is being created here with a focus on innovation and sustainable urban development: CO₂-neutral infrastructures, sponge city principles for rainwater utilisation, green mobility options and digital technologies are integral parts of the concept. The Modellfabrik Papier building is a prime example of sustainable construction, combining the complex requirements of innovative research on building infrastructure with circular building materials and sustainable energy supply technologies. Upon completion, it will meet the highest sustainability standards for non-residential buildings.

The building is rising, research work is in full swing.

The building developer, which is a subsidiary of the municipal economic development agency, expects the topping-out ceremony to take place in spring 2026. Meanwhile, great progress is being made in the various work packages of the Modellfabrik Papier (FOMOP) research cluster. “There was not enough space at our current interim location at the Jülich Research Centre to build our technology carriers, so we looked for a second location in Düren”, explains MFP Managing Director Peter Bekaert. A large facility has been found in the ‘Im Großen Tal’ industrial park, located between the A4 motorway and the city. In addition to offices, it offers sufficient space to set up the first pilot plants. These will be used to research and test different energy-saving approaches along the industrial paper manufacturing process.

Interim location 2.0 in Düren put into operation

The industrial warehouse was commissioned in the summer to establish the infrastructure. For instance, an initial pilot plant for dry paper laying using airlaid techniques is planned, which will replicate the entire process in a single machine. This includes the defibration of dry fibres, pre-consolidation of the web, and post-consolidation for further processing. The biggest challenge with this continuous system is achieving a uniform web consistency without using water as a carrier medium. A test stand is also being built to integrate high-temperature heat pumps into the drying process of industrial paper machines. This ensures that waste heat from drying is not lost to the environment, but can instead be recovered and reused for a sustainable heat supply, contributing to energy savings in paper production. Additionally, a laboratory test rig is being constructed to replicate real operating conditions in the press section of a paper machine, enabling precise measurement of the water permeability of press felts. This data will support research into optimising press felts.

Chemists and analysts continue to work in Jülich

Research work on the targeted modification of fibre properties, which is intended to save energy in the further manufacturing process and which relies on dry and wet laboratory infrastructure, will remain at the interim location in Jülich. “We are very grateful to our research and cooperation partners, the Institute of Plant Sciences IBG-2 at Forschungszentrum Jülich and the Economic Development Agency of the City of Düren, for their active support. The close cooperation enables us to start our research work from day one and to make rapid progress in decisive steps under conditions that are as flexible as necessary”, said Bekaert.

With the successful commissioning of the second interim location, we have reached an important milestone in the further development of our infrastructure, Bekaert continued. The Modellfabrik Papier now has the ideal conditions to smoothly continue the ongoing research work into the next sub-project phases until the research building is completed.