BS Energy taking steps towards zero coal
Jun 5, 2020
To decrease their carbon footprint, many energy producers are going green with Valmet’s sustainable biomass-fired plants. One of the companies taking steps towards zero coal with Valmet’s technology is BS Energy in Braunschweig, Germany. It supplies energy to the city of approximately 250,000 inhabitants and owns the local distribution networks.
“We are aiming at a climate-friendly future and will end heat and power generation from hard coal in 2022. With around 220 million euros, our energy generation conversion project represents the largest investment in our company's history. In the future, we will generate environmentally friendly electricity and heat from a new biomass CHP plant in combination with a new gas turbine CHP plant and our existing Combined-Cycle-CHP plant. Our focus was and still is on security of supply, economy and climate protection,” says Paul Anfang, Deputy Chairman of the Board of BS Energy.
Valmet will supply a Valmet CFB Boiler including flue gas cleaning and auxiliary systems for the new biomass CHP plant. “Valmet convinced us with its offer: we will get a particularly efficient and flexible boiler that is also robust and easy to maintain. Plus, we will benefit from the expertise from worldwide reference projects. Valmet provides us with a very good technical and commercially attractive concept,” Anfang remarks.
We will get a particularly efficient and flexible boiler that is also robust and easy to maintain.
Reaching high thermal efficiency
When planning the investment, BS Energy considered grate technology and bubbling fluidized bed (BFB) technology for the plant but eventually chose Valmet’s circulating fluidized bed (CFB) technology.
Anfang goes on: “Valmet’s technology enables reliable operation with waste wood of categories from A I to A IV and other demanding biomass fuels. This project will meet future environmental requirements with low emissions and high thermal efficiency. By positioning the final superheating in the loop seal, the Valmet boiler allows high steam temperatures while still achieving longer lifecycles for the other superheaters. This enables us to reach higher electrical efficiency in the process and hence higher electricity production. Therefore, higher processing costs for the fuel can also be compensated for.”
The modernization project is currently carried out step by step with ongoing operation on the existing power plant site. The biomass-fired CHP plant will produce approximately 20 megawatts of electricity and 60 megawatts of district heat. The boiler will primarily run on recycled wood.
