Advanced Gasification Technologies for Large Scale Energy Production

摘要

Combining gasification and large scale combustion provides an opportunity to increase the share of biomass and recycled combustible material in power production gradually. Gasification enables utilization of biomass in existing high-efficiency power boilers, which do not tolerate direct biomass feed in large scale. The use of external gasifiers also supports boiler low load operations and fuel flexibility gives also some advantages to capability to control boiler operations by more efficient way. Burning low calorific gas also enables to reduce the emission level of the main boiler. This solution can extend the life expectations of old boilers. Vaskiluodon Voima Oy, a Finnish utility company, made an investment by 2011 to build a 140MWfuel biomass gasification plant. The gasification plant is integrated to their existing 240MWe coal fired power plant. Product gas from the gasifier is co-fired in the boiler. The gasifier is the largest CFB-gasifier in the world designed for biomass. As a result of the new solution, 25-40% of coal can be replaced with renewable energy sources. Due to this, a total of 230.000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions can be reduced annually. The presentation will deal with the background, strategy, and give an overview for the entire investment. The total economy of the solution, other benefits and operational experiences after two years of experiences will be analyzed. Additionally, an outlook of other applications of the gasification technologies will be given.