Fifteen Years of Reactivation in Premnitz

The Beginning

Back in 2008, Jacobi was looking to develop a reactivation plant which would deal with our plans to treat municipal water and reactivate the resulting spent carbon. When the site was first acquired, it was an empty shell.

“I was shocked at first,” said Hans Werner Baums, Technical Director. “There were broken buildings, defective piping systems and non-existent production facilities – the situation was dire.”

A small team, including Jan Reinier Gosker, Global Business Development Director, and Hans set themselves the challenge of completely turning the site around.

Getting the New Plant Off the Ground

Starting with barren premises was a large undertaking to say the least, building up a factory like this is an enormous job. Significant investments, both monetary and in terms of time, effort and knowledge from Jacobi’s people, were made to get the ball rolling.

“In the beginning it was difficult,” said Hans. “Building up the factory was a tremendous task.”

To begin with the biggest challenge was the physical rebuilding of the factory and its then non-existent facilities. Once everything was in place to ensure that the factory would run efficiently, then the ‘behind the scenes’ elements began. This included various administrative steps, including obtaining legal permits from legal authorities, which was the largest hurdle faced by the team.

Making Changes

In 2014, Engineer and Operations Manager, Heiko Thiedeke, joined Jacobi Group and began to put plans in place to overhaul the production facilities, making changes in several different areas. These changes were not necessarily all made at the start of Heiko’s career with Jacobi, rather they were carefully planned and have been steadily implemented throughout the past ten years.

Firstly, the grinding systems at the plant were replaced. The grinding area in particular was very old and so was replaced with new equipment. Adaptions, such as elevators, were installed to make day-to-day processes for the production staff easier.

Elsewhere, within the reactivation area, all new systems and software were introduced to replace older ones and ensure a smooth and streamlined process.

Changes were also made within resins where a new washing area was introduced. This was a large endeavour, where the machines and new processes were designed entirely in-house.

These changes have led the plant to huge growth and successes. In 2024, the factory used its entire capacity for the first time. This is an increase of over 3000 tons in the past ten years, an excellent result that represents impressive growth.

Alongside the above changes, mobile filter units and the services business of Jacobi Group were introduced. Led by Jan Reinier, the project was initially fairly modest with around 20 filters in total. These filters are used on-site mainly in gas, air and water applications. As well as the filters, customers also have access to our team’s technical expertise and whatever level of technical support they might need. All logistics and spent media handling is included within this support, along with lab and on-site testing and evaluation.

This entirely new part of the business has grown exponentially since its inception. As well as celebrating their 15th anniversary at Premnitz, our services team also celebrated their 1000th filter being sent out to a customer – another huge milestone.

Challenges Over the Years

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the largest problem encountered at Premnitz was the covid-19 pandemic. This crisis brought a number of obstacles to businesses across the globe and Jacobi was no exception.

Production at our factories is a 24-hour operation and our products are used in many essential applications and so, even when facing a global crisis, the show must go on. For many businesses, remote working options could be introduced, however, with activated carbon production this is simply not a possibility.

Working together, the production personnel and the management team found several innovative solutions that would enable people to work together hygienically and safely. Testing was also provided frequently and free of charge to eliminate the risk of spreading the virus as much as possible.

Following this, problems with access to natural gas in Germany began. Whether or not the plant could access natural gas was uncertain and this put our reactivation capabilities at risk. In response, the plant’s burning system was changed very quickly, thus giving two options for gas in the future and enabling reactivation to continue.

Today and Beyond

Currently our most significant obstacle is acquiring qualified employees. We are investing in improving in this area and making changes to ensure our personnel are happy and fulfilled at work. For example, we have reduced the number of hours for a standard working week and have altered the shift patterns too, both resulting in a better work-life balance for our people. We take our message out locally too, making sure people living close to our plant are aware of Jacobi and the benefits of working with us.

Finally, regarding those already employed by Jacobi, it is also important to us that younger and new employees are supported. As such, our more experienced engineers are encouraged to help their peers grow and develop in their knowledge and careers.

Looking at processes and production itself, we are currently in a phase that involves rebuilding the impregnation systems and automating, to make the lives of our people easier. This can be tricky to achieve whilst the plant is running, however, we are making progress in this area and the first phase of the project has been completed.

In 2025 and the near future, the plant at Premnitz hopes to continue in its growth. The plant is functioning well and management are hoping to move into different areas in the future.

Sustainability at Premnitz

At Jacobi, we take our environmental responsibilities seriously and are acutely aware of the effect our operations could have on the planet. As part of this, we have a goal to become the most sustainable supplier of activated carbon, and we have implemented our Go Green initiative which aims to help make the most sustainable options the easiest for both our people and our customers.

With this in mind, the next challenge at Premnitz is working to reduce energy consumption.

 “We want to play our part in the company’s sustainability journey,” said Heiko.

Currently, several projects are in place that have saved thousands of Euros’ worth of energy. These are mostly small projects, but bigger ones with even more environmental potential are in the pipeline.

As we continue to go from strength to strength with our various improvements at the Premnitz site, we look forward to increasing our opportunities to serve our customers in a sustainable manner. Watch this space for more updates about our global plants in the future! #joinourjourney