The Hadjilucas family founded their company in 1946 as traders in pine resins which were distilled to produce turpentine and the gum rosin used in sizing (glazing and stiffening) paper.
They started with a small factory in Chalkis, 80km north of Athens, and later built a distillation process there to produce the paper size themselves, for the paper industries.
With the growth in the wood panel making business in Greece in the late 1960s/early 1970s, Hadjilucas saw an opportunity and became a producer of formaldehyde, still in the Chalkis factory.
Then during the 1980s, the wood industry in Greece started to move north to take advantage of cheaper and more plentiful supplies of wood from Bulgaria and by 1999, Hadjilucas had decided to relocate its production to a site in Komotini in the north of the country where it has a formaldehyde and resin plant that started production in 2000. It was then expanded in 2002 and today has a capacity of 85,000 tonnes a year of resins.
In the meantime, in 1998 the Greek panel maker Shelman SA bought an 85% stake in the company.
“We are the main supplier to all Greek panel makers as well as exporting to all panel factories in Bulgaria,” said George Diorelis, general manager of Hadjilucas when interviewed in his office in Athens in December 2009. “We also expect to supply Kronospan’s new [particleboard] plant in Serbia when it starts production, probably later this year, as there is no local resin supplier in that country.”
That new formaldehyde and resin production facility in Komotini in 2000 saw the beginning of a strong relationship between Hadjilucas and the resin technology specialist Chimar Hellas of Thessaloniki.
“The design of the plant was by Cal Polymers but it was built for us by Chimar, which continues to give us resin know-how and technical support. As a result of this combination, we are considered to be the most reliable and advanced binder system producer in the region,” said Mr Diorelis. “But Chimar does not only contribute know-how, but quality control systems as well – we work very closely together.”
As part of the Shelman SA group, Hadjilucas has now become part of the Alfa Wood group, following the January 11 approval from the Hellenic Competition Authority of Alfa’s takeover of Shelman, and Mr Diorelis sees this as a positive.
“The Alfa Wood takeover is promising for us. If the market grows as we expect in the future, our sales will also grow. There is also a lot of scope to substitute for imported materials.”
“We have the capacity to cover all current and possible future needs of the Greek panel producers. We are also trying to increase our exports and already have a good reputation in the Bulgarian market, currently covering more than 50% of demand there.”
In common with all manufacturing globally, the last quarter of 2008 showed a steep decline in business for Hadjilucas and most of 2009 was lacklustre, according to Mr Diorelis, although he said the last months of 2009 showed some improvement. Again in common with other manufacturers, the general manager expects that business in 2010 will be at a similar level to 2009.
The Komotini plant
There are two production units at Komotini. The first went into production in 2000, while the second started up in 2002. Both were built by Chimar Hellas, using its knowledge and experience in the industry gained over 32 years.
Inside the production building at Komotini there are two 25m3 reactors used in the production of urea formaldehyde and melamine urea formaldehyde (UF and MUF) resins. There are also two cooling vessels in which the resin is cooled for four hours after the reaction is complete.
Also contained in this building are two smaller reactors of 12/13m3, in which paper impregnating resins are produced, and one 15m3 reactor for UF resin only. Finally there is an 11m3 reactor used in the production of phenolic formaldehyde resins (PF), for which there is lower demand in the market.
The two outdoor plants can produce up to 200 tons /day of formaldehyde at 37% concentration.
Methanol from two storage tanks is passed through a heat exchanger and then into the vapouriser where the methanol vapourises and is then mixed with air. This mixture then enters the main reactor to produce formaldehyde gas. The reaction takes place at about 280oC and the gaseous formaldehyde passes through the heat exchanger to heat the inlet of the reactor. In the process, the temperature of the formaldehyde gas is reduced to 150oC.
That gas then passes to the bottom of a 30m-high absorption column, where the formaldehyde passes up the column and is absorbed into water which is fed into the top of the column, thus producing a formaldehyde solution at the bottom. This is then pumped to outdoor storage tanks.
In order to produce urea formaldehyde concentrate (UFC), urea solution is introduced to the absorption column and mixes with the formaldehyde gas. The resultant UFC is then piped to another, separate, outdoor storage tank.
Gases and air from the top of the absorber columns are recycled into the process in a closed loop system, with 70% returning to the blower at the beginning of the system and 30% being burned in a catalytic converter to produce carbondioxide and water.
Some of the formaldehyde solution produced is sold for use in other industries, such as in medical processes.
The actual production of the UF resin is carried out in the indoor resin reactors in a process in which water and UFC are agitated and heated, producing longer-chain molecules (‘polycondensation’) and thus an increase in viscosity of the mixture. When the required viscosity is reached, the reaction is stopped, the resin cooled down and final urea added before final cooling in the cooling vessels with chilled water.
Dimitris Alexandropoulos of Chimar Hellas explained that this plant is unusual in that steam generated by the formaldehyde process is used to produce chilled water at five to six degrees centigrade, instead of using electricity.
Melamine can also be added to the resin to produce MUF, imparting water-resistance to the resultant panel product and some phenol formaldehyde resin is also produced.