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OPERATING EXPERIENCES OF LARGE SCALE

CFB-GASIFICATION PLANTS FOR THE
SUBSTITUTION OF FOSSIL FUELS

Conference Paper June 2016

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Markus Bolhar-Nordenkampf
Valmet GesmbH
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 OPERATING EXPERIENCES OF LARGE SCALE CFB-GASIFICATION PLANTS FOR THE SUBSTITUTION
OF FOSSIL FUELS

M. Bolhar-Nordenkampf, J. Isaksson
Valmet Technologies Oyj
Lentokentnkatu 11, 33900 Tampere, Finland; markus.bolhar@valmet.com

ABSTRACT: The paper focusses on large scale operating CFB-gasification to substitute fossil fuels. The first
example is the Vaskiluodon Voima concept where in a high efficiency 560 MWth coal fired supercritical PC boiler
140 MWth fuel power is substituted by producer gas coming from a CFB gasifier. The fuel fed to gasifier is a mixture
of various kind of biomass, like saw dust, forest residues, bark, shredded stumps, uncontaminated waste wood, etc.
By this concept the operability of the existing power plant is not affected and the high steam parameters could be kept
without problems of corrosion and fouling. The gasifier has been operating successful for over 16 000 hours with an
availability of over 97% managing to substitute up to 40% of the fossil fuel on annual basis. The emissions clearly
improved as well, CO content dropped, SOx emissions were reduced and the NOx emissions dropped by 30%, though
the original PC boiler was already designed as Low-NOx boiler. The second successful CFB gasification project is the
Kymijrvi II plant in Lahti, were SRF (solid recovered fuels) with a biogenic part of 50% is gasified to produce a gas
that is then cleaned and combusted in a dedicated gas fired boiler at high steam parameters (540C and 120 bar).
Using this concept efficiency from waste as a fuel can be achieved, yielding out of 160 MW fuel input 50 MW el and
90 MW district heat. The gasifier has been operating successful for over 26 000 hours. In the future the Lahti concept
could also be applied in the same manor to existing boilers to utilized existing infrastructure, gain advantages of high
steam parameters in combination with the use of waste and low investment costs.
Keywords: gasification, industrial scale applications, biomass, municipal solid waste.

1 INTRODUCTION The CFB gasification process can be operated with

fuels having a wide range of moisture content, but as the
Gasification has long tradition within Valmet. moisture content in the fuel increases, the product gas
Gtaverken delivered CFB gasifiers for lime kiln heating value decreases. Figure 2 illustrates this
applications already in the 1980s and Tampella Power phenomenon for a fuel that has initial moisture contents
carried out extensive research on pressurized fluidized of 20 and 40 w-%. The drier fuel results in product gas
bed gasification in the 1990s. Both companies are part of that has approximately 30% better heating value than that
Valmet today. resulting from the wet fuel.
On a small scale, biomass can be gasified in fixed-
bed reactors, in which case the size is limited to below
10 MWth. High-pressure oxygen-blown entrained flow
gasifiers typically used in refinery processes are in the
size range of several hundred MWs, which is, in many
cases, are too large for the biofuel supply chain. The
circulating fluidized bed (CFB) gasification process is
well suited to intermediate-sized (20-300 MW) industrial
and power generation units, which is why Valmet is
developing CFB gasification.
Gasification is a process where solid feedstock is
converted into combustible gas. Feedstock for the CFB
gasification process is carbonaceous fuel, such as wood-
based biomass, peat, waste-derived fuel or agro-based
biomass. These fuel types are suitable for CFB gasi-
Figure 1. Effect of air coefficient and fuel moisture on
fication due to the high share of volatiles and the
relatively high reactivity of the solid compounds in the adiabatic reaction temperature.
fuel. Typically, carbon-conversion efficiency for reactive
fuels in CFB gasification is 9598%.
In the CFB gasification process, the heat required for
gasification reactions is produced through the partial
combustion of the fuel, while the rest of the fuel is
converted into product gas. Typically, the air coefficient
in the process is 0.20.4, and the CFB gasification reactor
is operated typically at 800900 C. The air ratio required
to reach the right process temperatures is highly related to
the moisture content of the fuel, as shown in the
Figure 1. Fuel moisture has a considerable impact on the
product gas heating value. If the fuel is dry, a smaller
share of the fuel needs to be combusted in order to bring
the required heat to the system. This means reduced use
of air and less dilution of the product gas with CO2 and Figure 2. Effect of air coefficient and fuel moisture on
N2. the gas heating value.
 The product gas contains both chemical energy and Table II: Comparison of different technologies for
sensible heat. The typical heating value of the product Vaskiluoto case
gas is in the range of 3 - 7 MJ/kg (LHV), depending on
the fuel quality and especially on its moisture content. New CFB boiler Pulverized biomass Gasified biomass
The only losses are unreacted fuel and sensible heat in co-combustion co-combustion

the bottom ash and heat losses from the outer surface of + wide range of fuels + low investment costs + low investment costs
the reactor. Hot gas efficiency is approximately 98%,
whereas the corresponding cold gas efficiency is in the + good technical - utilizes high-cost + wide range of fuels
range of 8487%. Therefore, unnecessary cooling of the solution biomass (pellets)
product gas is avoided, but if the product gas needs to be - uncertain investment - lim. coal replacement + existing boiler can
cooled down, it is vital to utilize the excess heat from the environment by biomass be utilized
cooling. The overall efficiency of the process depends on
- high investment costs + short delivery time - technical risks of
the heat-integration possibilities. and minimal boiler new technology on
The most desirable compounds in the product gas are modifications this scale
combustible CO, H2, CH4 and CxHy:s (see Table I). The
product gas also contains higher hydrocarbons (tars) - process risks and
uncertainties with co-
which have a high heating value. Tars are advantageous firing in existing
as fuel, but they have a tendency to condense on surfaces boiler
at decreased temperatures and can cause operational
problems in the equipment if the gas is cooled down too 2.1 Gasification plant and process
much. The gasification plant connected to the VL2 unit
consists of the following main areas: fuel reception, pre-
Table I: Typical product gas composition for different handling and storage area, fuel dryer, gasification island,
fuels in CFB gasification and biogas burners at boiler (Figure 3&4). The
gasification plant was completely Valmets delivery,
Component Unit Wet fuel Dry fuel including plant electrification, automation and required
Fuel moisture w-% 25 - 40 7 - 12 boiler modifications.
The solid fuel is transported to the plant site by
Product gas composition trucks, approximately 30 trucks per day, and stored in
CO vol-% dry 6-8 17 - 21 two large storage silos. The fuel is pre-treated by
H2 vol-% dry 7 - 10 12 - 16 removing oversize particles and ferrous metals.
CH4 vol-% dry 3-5 4-7
CxHy vol-% dry 1-3 1-2
CO2 vol-% dry 15 - 17 14 - 17
N2 vol-% dry 55 - 61 42 - 47
H2O vol-% 22 - 25 9 - 15
Heavy hydrocarbons (Tars) g/mn3 10 - 40 10 - 40

2 VASKILUOTO PLANT

The Vaskiluoto power plant is located in the city of

Vaasa, on the west coast of Finland. The power plant is
operated by Vaskiluodon Voima Oy, a utility company
operating two power plants in western Finland. Figure 3. Aerial view of the gasification and fuel
The boiler of the VL2 unit is a once-through type preparation facilities.
(Benson) pulverized coal-fired boiler with reheat. Live
steam pressure is 185 bar(g) and temperature 535 C, and
the reheat steam parameters are 46 bar(g) and 570 C.
The maximum fuel capacity is 560 MW. The boiler was
delivered by Tampella and has been in operation since
1982. The unit produces 240 MW of electricity and
170 MW of district heat and has an annual coal
consumption of 400 000 500 000 tons.
The main drivers for Vaskiluoto gasification were
commercial: the European emissions trading system
provides a feed-in tariff for forest biomass, and there is
heavy taxation of fossil fuels used for district heating. Figure 4. Vaskiluodon Voima Oys biomass gasification
Also, in Finland there is a national target to decrease the plant.
use of coal.
Before making the investment decision on the Prior to gasification, the biomass is dried to such a
gasification plant, Vaskiluodon Voima also investigated level that the original boiler performance, including
other options. The alternatives were to replace the capacity and steam parameters, can be maintained. The
existing coal-fired boiler with a completely new CFB belt dryers drying capacity is approximately 10 t/h of
boiler, or to grind and pulverize biomass and fire it in the evaporated moisture.
existing boiler. CFB gasification technology was selected
for its merits as listed in Table II.
 The dried biomass is fed into the CFB gasifier
(Figure 5) and converted into biogas. The produced
gas is then led to dedicated gas burners installed in
the lower part of the boiler, and the biogas is co-
combusted with coal. The capacity of the gasification
plant is 140 MW, which is approximately 25% of the
nominal boiler capacity. The plants load control is
achieved by first reducing the coal (Figure 6), which
means that annually 2540% of the coal can be
replaced with bio-energy. This operational strategy
makes it possible to reduce carbon dioxide emissions
by roughly 230 000 tons per year.
Figure 5. Key components of CFB gasifier.
2.2 Project experiences
The contract for the construction of the gasification
plant was drawn up on May 6th, 2011. The gasifier was
started up for the first time on November 21st, 2012 and
handed over to Vaskiluodon Voima Oy on February 1st,
2013, which means the agreed delivery time of 20
months was met.
In the summer of 2012, the annual maintenance
revision for the existing plant lasted 5 weeks instead of
the normal 4 weeks, due to gas burner modifications. All
other gasification plant construction and erection work
was carried out while the power plant was running,
causing no loss of production for the power plant.
The start-up of the gasification plant took place in
late 2012. Commissioning went smoothly and caused no
trips or loss of production for the main boiler plant. Even
though the gasification process was started and stopped
on a regular basis during commissioning, it caused
practically no control disturbances in the main boiler
process.
A challenge during commissioning was to trim the
biogas burners flame monitoring devices to distinguish
the biogas flame from the surrounding coal fire.
Eventually the flame scanners were trimmed in a
satisfactory manner.
All performance tests for the gasifier were passed.
Performance guarantees included plant capacity,
minimum biogas heating value, electricity consumption,
plant availability and proper operation of the VL-2 boiler
with new gas burners.
2.3 Operational experiences
Commercial operation of the gasification plant started
when the delivery was handed over to Vaskiluodon
Voima Oy in the beginning of February 2013. Since then
the gasification plant has been operated according to
owner production strategy. After hand-over gasification
plant was in operation until the end of April when it was
shut down for the summer season. Due to changed fuel
market situation it turned uneconomical to use forest
residues when district heating season ended and the
power plant was producing electricity only. Gasifier
started again in October 2013 and has been in operation
since then. By the end of April 2016 the gasification plant
had been in operation for about 16,000 hours. The plant
could have been operated more, but it was the owners
operation strategy to keep it on stand-by.
The availability of the gasification plant has been
excellent. During the first heating season (spring 2013)
the availability of the gasifier was 97%. During the
second heating season (autumn 2013) there were no
incidents causing unavailability, so the total availability
during 2013 was even better. In 2014 and 2015 and
availability of 99% could be achieved. The gasification
plant has been stopped for fault six times, but the boiler
has always been able to continue the operation and so the
gasification plant has not caused any unavailability for
the boiler plant.
The gasifier fuel during the operating period
consisted mainly of wood-based biomass. Several kinds
of biomass types have been used: forest residues, stump
chips, sawdust, bark, milled peat etc. Typical fuel
specifications shown in the Table III. So far, peat has
been used for short periods of time, but not continuously.
Wood-based biomass fuel is produced mainly within a
100 km radius of the plant.
Table III: Typical product gas composition for different
fuels in CFB gasification
Fuel type Unit Forest residue Peat
Moisture before w-% 42 65 38 55
LHVAR MJ/kg 5 11 9 13
Ash w-% DM 0.4 4 36
Cl w-% DM < 0.05 < 0.06
(Na + K) w-% DM < 0.2
The boiler performance has not suffered following
the start-up of the gasification plant. Full capacity can be
easily achieved with the co-firing of coal and biogas, and
full superheating can be achieved also with the current
maximum biogas share (see Figure 6 showing data from
gasifier load increase).
It was part of Valmets delivery to ensure the
performance of the boiler; the effect of biogas was
analyzed in depth, and the process (dryer and gasifier)
was dimensioned accordingly.

Figure 6. Gasifier load increase from 70 MW to 132 MW
(green curve), boiler steam pressure (purple curve) and
steam temperature (pale blue curve). Dark blue is boiler
coal power. Normal load reduction during night time can
be seen in the graph.
2.3 Emissions
The addition of biogas was not expected to drastically
reduce the plants emissions, other than carbon dioxide
emissions. NOx emissions seem to decrease slightly when
the share of biogas in the total boiler load is increased
(Figure 7). The CO content in the flue gases remains at
the same level as with coal firing alone.
An increase in the share of biogas compared to the
share of coal means that there is less sulphur going to the
boiler, which can be seen in the reduction of boiler flue
gas SO2 content (Figure 8). It seems, however, that a
decrease in the amount of introduced sulphur alone does
not fully explain the decreased SO2 amount, and it seems
that self- reduction of sulphur improves in the furnace
due to the sodium, calcium and potassium that comes
with the biomass-based gas. The gasification plant has
been operated according to owner production strategy.
Figure 7. NOx content of boiler flue gases with different
gasifier load shares.
Figure 8. SO2 content of boiler flue gases before sulphur
removal with different gasifier loads.
After hand over gasification plant was in operation until
the end of April when it was shut down for the summer
season. Due to changed fuel market situation it turned
uneconomical to use forest residues when district heating
season ended and the power plant was producing
electricity only.
2.4 Lessons learned
What was important from the point of view of the
entire plant operation was to integrate the gasification
plant control system with the main boiler controls. In
Vaskiluoto, the gasifier is operated at a steady load, and
coal is the controlling fuel, but there is also the possibility
in the control system to use the gasifier for trim control.
In fact, the Vaskiluoto gasifier has faster response in load
control than coal mills, which was demonstrated in the
guarantee tests.
What was additionally needed to achieve good co-
combustion of biogas and pulverized coal in the boiler
furnace was to do trimming for the air distribution of the
complete boiler.
This is because the biogas burners are located lower
than any coal burner, and thus the combustion profile
changed somewhat. Also, as the gas burners use the same
boiler combustion air, trimming of the coal burner airs
and overfire (OFA) airs was needed to guarantee good
co-combustion of both fuels.
As forest residues contain more alkalines and
chloride, and less sulphur compared to coal, the risk of
hot alkali chloride-induced corrosion needed to be
analyzed.
To evaluate the degree of hot corrosion risk, Valmet
conducted a study before the plant was brought into
operation to determine a safe operational window for
different fuel combinations. To verify the results of the
studies, an extensive corrosion measurement campaign
was carried out during spring 2013 with different biogas
load shares. Based on the measurement campaign, there
was no corrosion in the boiler to be found even with a
biogas share of 50%.
2.5 Plant operation
From the power plant operator point of view, the
gasification plant is only one additional fuel feeding line
to the VL-2 boiler, as it roughly replaces one coal mill
capacity-wise. Even though the amount of equipment
increased along with gasification, the new plant section
has a high degree of automation. Thus, no additional
operating personnel are required to operate the
gasification plant, and it is under the supervision of the
power plant operator.
Boiler is a once-through design having spiral tube
arrangement in boiler furnace. In the project planning and
design phase special attention was given for gas burner
placing in the combustion chamber. Existing coal burner
arrangement was maintained in order to have original
coal firing capacity. Therefore new gas burners were
placed to side walls a little bit lower level compared to
lowest burner level. Vaskiluodon Voima ordered separate
furnace flow modelling study prior to the project and the
results of the study were available for the project bidders.
The aim of the CFD study was to ensure the placing of
the burner, good combustion result in co-firing mode
with gas and coal combustion and also analyze the effects
on the heat flux behavior in the furnace in OTU design
when adding new gas firing system. In the engineering
phase of the project special attention was placed to
additional burner opening designs (four burners) in order
to maintain good evaporator stability and even tem-
perature distribution in the evaporator spiral tubing.
Based on the operational experiences the evaporation
circuit is working as planned, stability and temperature
variations between the tubes are at least as good as prior
to the project.
2.6 Plant safety
Safety is an essential factor when new technology is
commercialized, especially when the plant is handling
both dried fuel and roughly 1 000 m of flammable gas at
any given time. The complete solid fuel system is
equipped with extensive fire detection and extinguishing
systems, as well as explosion relief panels for dust
explosion protection. However, there have been no fires.
The gasifier is operated at a slightly elevated
pressure, approximately 20 mbar(g). To avoid personnel
risks due to poisonous gas leakages, the complete
gasification train is constructed gas-tight, and the
tightness was tested during commissioning. In addition,
all areas where a biogas leakage may occur are equipped
with CO gas detectors and alarms, and to secure
ventilation in all situations, the gasification island is a
semi-open-door installation. So far no gas leakages have
been detected.
For emergency venting purposes, the gasifier is
equipped with a back-up flare burner and inerting steam
system. The flare, which does not have a continuous
stand-by flame, but is ignited only in demand situations,
is used in cases when the main boiler trips. Biogas is
purged with low-pressure steam to the flare. These
functions, among other safety- related functions, are
realized in a dedicated safety-instrumented system
according to IEC 61511.
3 RDF GASIFICATION POWER PLANT LAHTI
Circulating fluidized bed (CFB) waste gasification
enable a high-efficiency recovery process that fits well in
the waste hierarchy [1]. Pretreatment of waste to produce
RDF is an important step in maximizing the recycling
rate of valuable materials such as metals. To make waste
suitable for fluidized bed processes it is typically
sufficient to have a single shredding followed by removal
of metals in magnet and eddy-current separators. In case
the waste contains a high amount of glass and stones an
air classifier may be recommendable. Pretreatment can be
at the energy-from-waste plant or in dedicated
mechanical recycling facilities (MRF). Properties of
resulting refuse derived fuels (RDF) vary greatly, but
heating values are typically in the range of 8 to 15 MJ/kg.
Figure 9 shows a conceptual diagram of the waste
gasification power plant concept: waste-derived fuels are
gasified in the CFB gasifier into combustible product gas,
which is cooled and filtered to produce a clean gas for
combustion in a conventional gas fired boiler to generate
high pressure steam. The steam is led to a steam turbine
for power and heat production.
The dirty product gas leaves the gasifier at about 850
to 900 C after which it is cooled in the gas cooler to
about 400 C using boiler feed water. When the gas cools
the corrosive alkali chlorides in the gas condense on to
the fly-ash particles, which are subsequently filtered out
in the hot gas clean-up consisting of rigid ceramic candle
filters. The filtration temperature window is carefully
selected to ensure condensation of corrosive compounds
but avoid condensation of tars. After extensive test
campaigns in a slip stream of an existing gasifier and
comprehensive theoretical modelling the temperature was
set at approximately 400 C.
Figure 9. Conceptual diagram of a waste gasification
power plant.
Solid waste is not directly burned, but turned into a
clean gas prior to combustion. This enables high steam
parameters in the boiler without corrosion risk and gives
a high overall power production efficiency [2,3]. In
traditional incineration steam parameters are limited to
400 C @ 40 bar due to corrosion, whilst in waste
gasification these are 540 C @ 120 bar and can be even
higher. This gives a much higher net power production
efficiency of well above 31% compared to an average
below 20% for traditional incineration [4].
3.1 Power Plant design
End of 2011, a 250 ktpa waste gasification power
plant based on gasification technology was started up in
Lahti, Finland. The Lahti plant is the largest and most
efficient waste gasification power plant in the world. It
processes 250 000 tons of RDF per year and produces
50 MW of electricity and 90 MW of district heat from
160 MW of solid waste fuel power.
Lahti Energy is an energy production and distribution
company owned by the city of Lahti in southern Finland.
The waste gasification project received significant
funding from both the EU and Finnish government. The
major delivery contracts were signed in November 2009
and construction works started in spring 2010. The plant
started gasifying waste in December 2011 and was
handed over for commercial operation in June 2012. The
total investment of Lahti Energy was approximately 160
million.
The scope included the delivery and installation of
the plant automation and the main plant components,
including the fuel feeding, two gasification trains,
common gas boiler and flue gas cleaning. Figure 10
shows an overview of the plant.
Figure 10. Lahti gasification power plant
 The plant is a full-scale commercial plant designed to
utilize pretreated waste with specification in Table IV
derived from sorted household waste, classified industrial
waste, demolition wood and industrial waste wood. The
plant consists of two 80 MWfuel gasification trains which
feed a common gas boiler. Each gasification train
consists of a fuel feeding system, gasifier, gas cooler and
hot gas filter. After the boiler fluegases are cleaned in a
conventional bag house filter with upstream injection of
sodium bicarbonate and activated carbon for control of
acid gases and heavy metals. NOx is controlled with
injection of ammonia into the boiler and downstream
catalyst system, so-called SCR. Live steam values of the
boiler are 120 bar(g) and 540 C. The design power
production efficiency is 31% (in CHP mode) with an
overall CHP efficiency of 87.5%.
Table IV: Typical product gas composition for different
fuels in CFB gasification
Design fuel
Fuel RDF from MSW and C+IW
LHV 18 24 MJ/kg,dry
Moisture < 30 w-%
Ash < 15 w-%,dry
Cl < 0.6 w-%,dry
Na + K < 0.3 w-%,dry
Hg < 0.1 mg/kg,dry
The experiences from the first years of operation
have proven both the technology and cost structure to be
viable for large-scale power generation from RDF. Until
end of April this year the plant has collected about 26,000
operating hours of which about 20,000 hours on RDF and
the remaining hours on a mixture of RDF and
construction wood waste. The key results in Lahti include
the demonstration of high power production efficiency
for energy-from-waste as well as a major reduction of
fossil fuels and CO2 emissions at Lahti Energy.
Operation of the plant has in general been stable and
easy to control. The plant has met its guaranteed capacity
and steam parameters. The gasifier has operated reliably
without disturbances of the fluidization due to bed
agglomeration. Extensive tube wall thickness measure-
ments and visual inspections in the gas cooler and boiler
showed no material loss after 4 500 operating hours. Also
today after more than 26 000 hours there are no signs of
corrosion or erosion. This means that the main principle
of avoiding corrosion despite high steam parameters in
the boiler has been successfully demonstrated.
Environmental performance of the plant has been
excellent with all fluegas emissions well within the limits
of the environmental permit. Combustion of the product
gas in the gas boiler has been in compliance with the
fluegas residence time requirement of the WID of two
seconds at 850 C and has been stable without need for
support fuel during continuous operation.
The first years of operation have also shown the
importance of fuel quality for high availability. The metal
content in the RDF has been high, which caused jamming
of fuel handling systems and disruptions in the fuel
feeding. Thanks to sufficient redundancy in the system,
on-line repair was generally possible without causing
unavailability. Additional a more selective metal removal
was installed in the fuel handling system and fuel quality
monitoring of suppliers has improved. Also the moisture
content in the RDF has in some periods been higher than
the design value causing somewhat reduced plant output.
The average availability during the first year of operation
was about 80% and some loss of production was caused
by damages in the hot gas filter. A system to keep the
surface of the ceramic candle filters clean was taken in
operation in May 2013, significantly improving
availability to over 90%.
4 FUTURE OUTLOOK
The possibility to convert waste into a clean gas for
combustion gives an exciting new possibility, namely co-
firing of waste to replace fossil fuels in existing solid fuel
fired boilers, cement kilns, lime kilns or other
applications where solid waste cannot be directly fired.
In this co-firing application a waste gasifier with hot
gas clean-up is retrofitted to an existing boiler or kiln, as
shown in Figure 11.
Figure 11. Co-firing of waste in existing utility boiler or
kiln
Waste is gasified into a product gas which is cooled
and filtered to produce a clean gas for combustion in the
existing boiler or kiln. The gas is cleaned from dust,
corrosive compounds and heavy metals prior to
combustion. Co-firing has therefore minimum impact on
boiler operation, corrosion, ash quality and emissions. In
case of disruption in the gasifier or unavailability of
waste the plant can easily shift back to the main solid fuel
and keep full capacity. The modifications required to the
boiler are also fairly minimal including new burners to
burn the gas. The overall investment is significantly
lower than for a stand-alone energy-from-waste plant and
the power production efficiency is equal to that of the
existing boiler plant. Replacing fossil fuels with waste via
gasification is an attractive option to save fuel cost and
reduce CO2 emissions without jeopardizing the reliability
and availability of the existing boiler or kiln.
The principle has been demonstrated for biomass in
Vaasa and would offer a great possibility to use existing
equipment for the clean conversion of waste to energy.
5 CONCLUSION
Gasification enables utilization of biomass and
other solid fuels in energy production in an efficient
manner. The type of feedstock and intended use of
product gas determines whether gas cleaning is needed
prior to combustion or not. Good tolerance for multiple
fuel sources gives flexibility for process operation.
The 140 MW CFB gasifier built in Vaskiluoto is the
largest biomass gasification plant in the world. After
more than 3 years of commercial operation the plant has changes in RDF quality due to increased sorting
demonstrated that gasification is a reliable and suitable and recycling.
technology for the power plant industry. The gasification In summary it can be seen that commercial
plant was easily connected to an existing plant, as only gasification of biomass and waster can contribute in the
minor modifications needed to be made to the boiler. future to utilize the feedstock with high efficiency and is
This reduced the total plant down-time and production already today proven and commercial available.
losses, compared to a complete retrofit to for example
bubbling fluidized bed (BFB) boiler. The availability of 6 REFERENCES
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The first years of experience at Lahti Energy have proven
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large-scale power generation.
The waste gasification concept with hot gas cleanup
turns waste into clean gas for combustion. This provides
many benefits for our customers, including the highest
power production efficiency for energy-from-waste and
the possibility to replace fossil fuels partly or completely
in existing boilers and kilns by co-firing of clean gas
from waste gasification.
Waste gasification is based on the circulating
fluidized bed technology, which provides similar fuel
flexibility as CFB combustion in terms of fuel properties
such as heating value, ash content and moisture content,
and enables the use of alternative fuels such a low grade
biomass waste streams and recycled wood wastes.
In summary, application of waste gasification can be
in stand-alone CHP plants using waste as competitive
fuel for high efficiency power and heat generation, either
in municipal or industrial applications. Another option is
the retrofit of existing plants with a waste gasifier to
replace fossil fuels with clean gas from waste gasification
in existing boilers and kilns.
The main benefits using gasification for energy
production are:
Increased revenue from energy business
(electricity and heat sales) by providing higher
power production efficiency than traditional
incineration,
Increased recycling of valuable materials by
separation of metals and other materials before
combustion or gasification,
Low environmental impact and simple
downstream fluegas treatment, with emissions
and ash quality in compliance with the most
stringent European environmental legislation.
This may also increase public acceptance and
facilitate permitting. Operators are also able to
adapt more stringent emission requirements in
the future.
High fuel flexibility for a wide range of fuel
properties and the possibility to co-fire multiple
fuels, including biomass, waste and fossil fuels.
Operators are also able to adapt to future