15 May 2013
Managing Editor of Waste Management World magazine
Finnish power company, Fortum (FUM1V.HE) has commissioned a new combined heat and power (CHP) waste to energy plant in Klaipeda, Lithuania, which is capable of supplying 20 MW of electricity and 50 MW of heat with an additional 15 MW available at peak demand.
The company said that the plant, the first of its kind in the Baltic countries, uses municipal and industrial waste as well as biomass as feedstock, and provides district heating to the residents and businesses in Klaipeda and electricity to the Lithuanian power grid.
The new facility replaces old natural gas-fired heat production in Klaipeda and according to Fortum reduces CO2 emissions by approximately 100,000 tonnes per year.
The company added that the move to waste-fired combined heat and power generation also considerably increases energy efficiency compared to heat-only production and has a positive impact to the competitiveness of district heating as well as waste management costs.
According to the power company, with an energy efficiency of close to 90%, the plant’s boiler can incinerate 230,000 tonnes of waste and biomass annually, giving it a power production capacity of 20 MW of electricity and 50 MW of heat. Furthermore, the company added that the plant is equipped with flue-gas condensers that enable the recovery of an additional 15 MW of heat at peak demand times.
In total the plant is expected to produce approximately 140 GWh of electricity and 400 GWh of heat per year, which covers approximately 40% of Klaipeda’s district heating demand. Heat from the plant will be sold to AB Klaipėdos energija, which also holds a 5% stake in the facility.
Fortum added that construction of the LTL 435 million (€130 million) began in March 2011 and took about 1.2 million hours or 750 man-years to complete.
Flue gas treatment
The flue gas treatment and heat recovery system for plant was supplied by transport and energy infrastructure and equipment developer, Alstom (ASLO:PA).
Alstom explained that the equipment reduces the sulphur dioxide, hydrogen chloride and various metals in the flue gas below permissible limits before it is discharged into the atmosphere.
The flue gas cleaning system is based on Alstom’s NID concept, which it said is a high performance system developed from its proven dry and semi-dry systems, and is an effective, robust, compact and cost efficient system for meeting the emission requirements of the EU on both existing plants and new installations.
In the Klaipeda CHP plant Alstom said that the NID is complemented by a flue gas condenser which further improves the plants energy efficiency.
More to come
“Using sorted waste as fuel in combined heat and power production is a sustainable solution for urban areas”, commented said Fortum’s CFO Markus Rauramo.
“It offers a cost-efficient answer to energy and waste management needs alike, and helps to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions compared to depositing waste in landfills,” he continued.
“The Klaipeda power plant is the first of four we will inaugurate this year in the Baltic and Nordic countries,” concluded Rauramo.
A video of the inauguration ceremony can be seen below.
Source: Waste Management World
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