NNE5-2000-00189 Demonstration of Three Innovative Steam Boiler Parts for a Considerably Higher Electricity Recovery Rate in Waste Incineration - HIGH ENERGY RECOVERY

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EESD (Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development) : Electricity : Thermochemical Conversion

Proposal No:	NNE5-2000-00189
Date Prepared:	February 2004
Source:	European Bio-Energy Projects (EUR 20808)

Introduction

The city of Amsterdam will extend its existing waste incineration plant with two new lines, the HR-AVI, high-energy recovery waste incineration. One of the main objectives of the new plant design is to raise the steam parameters to reach considerably higher efficiency in electricity generation than is common in existing wasteincineration processes.

Activities

A number of interdependent measures are being taken in order to deal with raised steam parameters and to avoid corrosion of boiler tubes. The boiler is designed for high steam parameters and is based on innovative elements to allow this highly conditioned steam to be generated. Three innovative installation parts will be at the heart of the demonstrated design:

• The superheater temperature will rise from 400° to 440°C. Higher steam parameters cause unavoidable massive corrosion on the superheaters, if conventional materials and conventional boiler designs are used. In order to overcome this limitation new alloys with a high corrosion resistance will be applied; and the incineration process, the boiler design and the flue gas flow will be thoroughly optimised to minimise corrosion attack.
• A reheater will be used after the first turbine stage. High steam parameters permit a further increase of process efficiency by using steam reheating which has not been applied in any other waste-to-energy plants to date.
• A larger economiser will reduce the actual boiler outlet temperature to 180°C and thereby minimise flue gas losses. Besides that, a second and third economiser in the flue gas treatment facility will provide extra energy recovery.

A main limitation to process efficiency is the flue gas temperature at the boiler outlet. This temperature is normally in the range of 200 to 240°C, and the remaining energy contents of the flue gases are not used. The high efficiency boiler will utilise the energy of the flue gases down to a temperature of 180°C. Energy recovery with the second and third economiser is possible due to the special patented heat exchanger with an economically acceptable lifetime.

A number of other measures will accompany these main features. They represent advanced techniques and will further contribute to the improvement of heat transfer in the boiler or otherwise improve the performance. The balanced combination of all the measures must guarantee undisturbed functioning at the level being pursued.

Project structure

The project is structured in four stages:

• Design;
• Tendering, construction and installation;
• Commissioning; and
• Monitoring, evaluation and dissemination.

Progress

At the moment the second stage of the project is ongoing. The tendering and contracting procedure for the main parts of the installation is in preparation. Afval Energie Bedrijf, part of the administration of the city of Amsterdam, which is also the principal contractor for the FP5 project, will coordinate the project. Furthermore, there are two assistant contractors mainly responsible for the global design of the high-energy concept and for the evaluation and dissemination programme.

By concluding the Basic Design Report the outlines of the new incineration lines have been defined. The two lines will have the following characteristics:

Nominal waste flow (two lines)	67.2	t/h
Availability (design)	> 90	%
Yearly waste flow	530,000	t
Electric output	63.55	MW<e
Gross efficiency	34.0	%
Net efficiency	31.3	%

The highest standards are being pursued as regards the burden on the environment. The guaranteed emission level will be clearly below Dutch flue gas emissions limits. In the worst case, NO_x will be on the same level as the Dutch limit - 70 mg/m³.

Impact and exploitation

The present project can act as a pilot for a new generation of waste-to-energy plants in Europe and far beyond. It will bring the efficiency of electricity generation in waste incineration processes to a new level and will form the basis for further development. The effects on the CO₂- reduction potential will be substantial.

On the European scale - with 220 million tonnes per year of household waste and household-like municipal waste - the potential with over 34% gross efficiency waste-fired power plants is a base load electricity production of approximately 25,000 MW_e which is roughly twice the installed capacity in the Netherlands.