Skip to main content

Sulphur 420 Sep-Oct 2025

19 September 2025

Aurubis completes major maintenance at Pirdop plant

BULGARIA

Aurubis completes major maintenance at Pirdop plant

Aurubis says that it has successfully completed scheduled maintenance at its Pirdop plant on time. The two-month operation marked the largest planned maintenance shutdown at the site in the past 30 years. With an investment of €115 million, Aurubis says the work ensures the long-term reliability and performance of the facility. Key upgrades included a full overhaul of the flash smelter, replacement of two electrostatic precipitators, and a major modernisation of the sulphuric acid production line. This modernisation involved installing a new converter and replacing six heat exchangers.

With the plant now fully back online, the improvements are expected to extend the interval between maintenance cycles from two to three years while also reducing the duration of future downtime. Sulphuric acid production at Pirdop is estimated at around 1.3 million t/a. It remains unclear whether these recent upgrades will result in a production increase at the site.

Latest in Europe

SRU commissioned at Petrobrazi refinery

Romanian oil and gas group OMV Petrom has commissioned a new sulphur recovery unit at its Petrobrazi refinery, near the southern city of Ploiesti. Development work on the new SRU began in 2023, and represents the second at the site, treating acid gas produced during the refining process. The euro 45 million investment is part of euro 2 billion of improvements that have been made over the past 20 years as part of the company’s strategy to modernise its refining capabilities, aiming to reduce environmental impact. Last year, the company said it would invest around euro 750 million to build several sustainable fuel plants at the refinery, which are expected to become operational in 2028.

DOMO files for insolvency

Three German subsidiaries of the Belgian chemical group DOMO Chemicals have filed for insolvency, following weak demand in the European chemicals sector, high energy costs and a significant increase in imports of polyamide resins from outside the European Union, in particular from China. Court appointed administrator Prof. Lucas F. Flöther said that day-to-day operations would continue for the time being. Around 585 employees are affected across the three companies; DOMO Chemicals GmbH and DOMO Caproleuna GmbH in Leuna and DOMO Engineering Plastics GmbH in Premnitz.