The briquette production branch of "Brikel" EAD is the unique “Briquette Plant” in the Republic of Bulgaria. It is situated at about 5 km from Galabovo town and 45 km from Stara Zagora city.

On the South, it shares a border with "Rozov kladenetz" dam. The plant has been put into operation on October 17th, 1961 and produces coarse-grained fuel (briquettes) size H - 70/75 mm, D - 91 mm, Wtr (water) - 11%, Qrj (heat capacity) - 4 300 Kcal/kg, Ad (ash content) – 20 ÷22%, Str (sulfur) - 3,8%. The briquetting technology in the plant does not use adhesives.

The maximum annual productivity of the briquette production plant is about 750 000 t and the productivity of fuel supplied to the “TPP-1” is over 800 000 t.

The Briquette production complex consists of the following main plants:

1. Preliminary works plant.

This plant serves for preliminary treatment of raw material (crushing and grinding to dcp 2/35 to 2/80 mm). The stock is transferred from “Maritsa East” mines: "Troyanovo-1" pit, "Troyanovo-3" pit and “Troyanovo-2” pit and is placed into raw coal bunkers via railroad transport.

Raw lignite coal shows the following technical and economical characteristics: Wtr (water) - 59%, Qrj (heat capacity) - 1750 Kcal/kg, Ad (ash content) - to 24%, Str (sulfur) - 4,5%.

The main equipment and units in the preliminary works plant consist of: 4 propeller feeders, 2 roll crushers (propeller), 2 hammer crushers for middle-grained crushing, 12 hammer crushers for fine-grained crushing, 21 double shaking sieves, 5 motionless pipe grill installations, dust catching installations, rubberized conveyors, deflectors, etc.

2. Main production plant. In this plant, the following main operations are implemented: drying, crushing, size control, pressing in order to shape the material into briquettes.

The main equipment and units in the main production plant are: 24 drum dryers with steam parameters - P - 44 ata, T oC - 185 oC, 24 electric filters, 48 briquette presses, 8 hammer crushers, dust catching installations, chain conveyors, worm conveyors, cell wheels, electronic railroad scale for raw coal, etc.

3. Technological - transporting shop.

The shop is the place where chippings are transported, cooled and separated from briquettes and the briquettes are truck loaded into railroad carriages or trucks. The main equipment and units in “Technological-transporting” shop consist of wire cooling conveyors, ranging units, 6 mechanical railroad scales, 1 electronic railroad scale and 2 electronic auto scales to weigh out the ready production, dust catching installations, rubberized conveyors, deflectors and other units.

-The electrical power supply to briquette production site is realized via 4 leading-in wires (6 kV) coming from the neighboring electricity production site.

Five substations (6 or 0,4 kV) feed the machines and equipment.

The main units consist of power panels 0,4 kV, transformers, high voltage distributors, etc.

-The steam supply to briquette production site is also realized from the electricity production site via 4 steam leads and the waste steam is recycled after the drum driers. The laboratory for testing of solid fuels at “Brikel” EAD exists from 1961, when “Briquette plant” was put into operation. The laboratory implements testing of lignite, brown, black, anthracite coal, briquettes of lignite coal, coke.

An acknowledgement of the technical competency of the laboratory is the fact that it has been accredited to implement state tests since 1976 and it maintains this status until now.

In 1998, a new enriched fuel line getting to electricity production plant has been introduced and established. Its coming into operation gave the possibility to abandon the drying plant of the power plant and brought positive economic effect which was manifested after the integration of "Briquette plant" and TPP "Maritsa - East 1" in the year 2000 which changed their names to "Brikel" EAD.

"Brikel" EAD is the unique briquette production complex in Bulgaria. The briquettes are offered to the clients in bulk condition, and in packages. In the beginning of 2002, by an order of “Brikel” EAD, the Spanish company “ELIA- OBREO” designed, manufactured, delivered and assembled a packing machine model E480 with a capacity of 160 sacks per hour. The machine does sifting, dosing, filling and ordering of the sacks on pallets, completely automatically. According to the requirements of the market, the sacks can be with a weight of 25, 20 or 15 kg.

The decision of the construction of a plant of this kind has been given to satisfy the domestic needs with coarse-grained fuel, considering the reserves of young lignite coal which Bulgaria disposes in sufficient quantities.

Mine Academy, town of Friberg - Germany made the full technological analyses of the briquetting capacity of the Maritsa-East coal and the research of proper technology of the process. The project was assigned to a German designer's bureau for industrial engineering, town of Leipzic, Germany.

The construction of the plant started in 1958 and has been finished in two stages, and the putting of the plant into operation has been done in three stages.

The construction and the process of putting the plant into operation has been accomplished with the help of German specialists.

On October 17th, 1961 the operation of the plant started with production capacities of 600 000 t annual briquette production. In 1969 has been finished the second stage of the civil works and the third one of the erection works. This was the end of the project construction of the plant, which actual production capacities are 1 600 000 t briquettes.

From June 30th 2000, TPP "Maritsa - East 1" and the briquette production plant are transformed in a sole joint-stock company which has the following range of activities:

-electricity production, heat production, traffic and distribution of heat.

-briquette production, chippings production and high grade fuel production from lignite coal as raw material and sale of them.