More plant efficiency, lower energy consumption and less distillation waste
Offingen (jm).
Good for the environment and for the customers: Richard Geiss GmbH has further optimised its column facility at its headquarters in Offingen. A new valve tray column ensures increased plant efficiency for the solvent specialist while minimising energy consumption and reducing distillation waste per batch. Another plus: the new unit allows Richard Geiss GmbH to respond even more flexibly to customers’ recycling requests. The new distillation column replaces an old column and modernises the plant facility for the processing of solvents. Richard Geiss GmbH invested approximately 750,000 euros in replacing the column.
“The new column is another piece of the puzzle that brings us one step closer to our vision of CO2-neutral solvents of the highest quality. With this goal in mind, we are continuously modernising our plant facility,” explains Bastian Geiss, Managing Partner at Richard Geiss GmbH. “We started 50 years ago with one column. We now have twelve distillation columns for solvent processing in Offingen.”
Self-managed column replacement
Richard Geiss GmbH oversaw the management of the replacement of column A itself and completed the task with its own team: from the dismantling of the old packed column to the installation and commissioning of the new valve tray column. “The changeover was completed in three weeks. We moved very quickly, and we were only able to succeed thanks to excellent advance planning,” emphasises Veit Jähne, Operations Manager and authorised signatory at Richard Geiss GmbH. The new column has been in operation in the area of flammable and highly flammable solvents – the largest business area of the solvent recycler in Offingen in terms of volume – since August 2025.
Valve tray column for increased separation
The new addition to the Bavarian solvent specialist’s column facility is a 26-metre-high valve tray column with 50 trays, which results in an increased separation capacity. The maximum processing capacity of 1,000 kilograms per hour has not changed compared to the old system, however. The new column also means that the separation of substances in the recycling of used goods is also easier to calculate – for higher solvent purity and the highest quality distillates.
Rapid changeover for greater flexibility
Changing from one solvent to another or from one distillation step to the next is also easier in the new column: “We are now much faster and have top quality distillate from the very first litre,” says Andreas Krebs, Assistant to the Executive Management. Instead of the previous eight hours, the changeover process in the new column takes just one hour. “This makes us even more flexible for our customers’ recycling requests,” adds Veit Jähne. And because Richard Geiss GmbH has a second identical column (column F) at its company site in Offingen, the flexibility in processing is correspondingly high.
It is precisely this flexibility that the solvent specialist requires. “We aren’t a conventional kind of company that routinely distils 3,000 tonnes of used solvent. Instead, we tend to receive many different substances from our customers for processing and only in comparatively small batches. It is therefore an advantage if we can change the distillation process as quickly and easily as possible,” says Bastian Geiss.
Sustainability and CO2 footprint
The new column isn’t only impressive in terms of separation performance, plant efficiency and changeovers, but also in terms of sustainability. Its improved insulation prevents heat loss and, thanks to modern energy management, Richard Geiss GmbH is also able to track the energy flows directly online. “We no longer have to rely on calculations and tests as we did with the old column, but can measure the actual energy consumption in the distillation process directly. This in turn allows us to calculate the product carbon footprint of our distillates,” explains Veit Jähne.
Richard Geiss GmbH is the first manufacturer ever to individually determine the product carbon footprint for each customer and each recyclate and compare it with newly produced goods. The solvent specialist issues its customers with special CO2– certificates for this purpose.
About Richard Geiss GmbH
Richard Geiss GmbH is one of Europe’s leading specialists in the field of solvent recovery, based in Offingen in the district of Günzburg. The company produces high-purity distillates from solvent waste by distillative processing. Richard Geiss GmbH supplies solvents for industrial surface cleaning, textile cleaning, and the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. Contract cleaning rounds off the range of services as the fourth business area. Richard Geiss GmbH employs approximately 110 people in Offingen. The company has an approved processing capacity of 50,000 tons of solvents per year, which are processed into high-purity distillates and is certified according to ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001, ISO 50001 as well as being a waste management specialist. Richard Geiss GmbH was founded in 1959 by Richard Geiss and today Bastian Geiss manages the family business in its third generation.
Info:
Richard Geiss GmbH
Lüßhof 100, 89362 Offingen, Phone: 08224-807-0, info@geiss-gmbh.de, www.geiss-gmbh.de
Press contact:
Fabian Baur, Product Management
Tel. 08224-807-78, fabian.baur@geiss-gmbh.de
