THE ENERGY INDUSTRY TIMES - NOVEMBER 2017
issues with regard to scale. It’s very
much a proven design that we are
utilising.”
According to Sumitomo SHI FW, it
is already possible to achieve biomassonly
CFB boilers capable of producing
500-600 MW. The more difficult
challenge, it says, is fuel sourcing.
“We can do the sizes,” said Giglio,
“but the fuel supply is what becomes
the limiting factor.”
To gather the amount of biomass
needed at Teesside, MGT Teesside
will have to source fuel from both
domestic and international sources.
“They will also have to procure biomass
pellets from the US and Canada,”
said Giglio.
The fuel for the plant will be 70-100
per cent wood pellets sourced from
sustainable forest by-products in
North America delivered to the port at
Teesport. The remainder of the biomass
fuel will be in the form of sustainable
wood chips delivered overland,
primarily from the UK. Fuel
will meet a sustainability threshold in
terms of sustainable timber harvesting
and CO2 footprint based on fuel supplier
guarantees.
Biomass properties vary considerably
depending on their biological
origin, location, seasonality, farming
and harvesting practices, and ultimately
their preparation and processing.
This leads to broad variations in
chemical composition and physical
properties across different biomass
types and even within the same type.
Design fuel data for both 100 per cent
wood pellets and a mixture of pellets
and chips is shown in Table 2.
In addition to providing nearly CO2-
neutral energy by using renewable
Teesside goes big on
biomass
Like many parts of Europe, the
United Kingdom has been making
a concerted effort to reduce
its carbon emissions. This has seen
significant growth in renewables such
as wind and solar. Although to a lesser
extent, there has also been an increase
in the use of biomass for power
generation.
While projects like the conversion
of Drax (formerly Europe’s largest
coal fired plant) from coal to biomass
have been dominating the headlines
in recent years, other notable biomass
fired power plants have also been
making progress. Perhaps the most
significant of these is a £650 million
project being built on Teesside in the
northeast of England.
At 299 MW, the plant will be the
world’s largest dedicated biomass
power station and heralds a leap into
300 MW-class biomass fired units.
Teesside not only marks an important
milestone in the UK’s efforts to tackle
climate change but also demonstrates
the versatility of circulating fluidised
bed (CFB) technology and its ability
to be scaled up.
The project, owned by MGT Teesside
Limited, is being constructed by
Technicas Reunidas in a consortium
with Samsung C&T and will use an
Advanced Bio CFB (ABC) boiler
supplied by Sumitomo SHI FW.
Following the contract award for the
boiler in August 2016 boiler steelwork
erection is about to start, with
commercial operation planned for
January 2020. At this time, the plant
will not only be the biggest biomassonly
power plant ever built but also
the most efficient.
Commenting on the project drivers,
Robert Giglio, Senior Vice President,
Strategic Business Development of
Sumitomo SHI FW said: “The UK
has been doing everything it can to
reduce its carbon profile; it has done a
great job of moving away from coal.
But the problem is, it still needs
power. With nuclear being slow to
build, the emphasis has been on gas
and renewables. But while gas is good
for base load and can support intermittent
renewables, it is a fossil fuel.
Biomass, however, is considered carbon
neutral and unlike wind and solar,
it’s dispatchable.”
The power output of the boiler at the
plant is the latest step in demonstrating
what is possible in terms of building
large biomass units.
Of the more than 480 CFB boilers
sold to date, approximately 120 are
designed to burn some portion of
biomass, with 54 units firing biomass
as the primary fuel. Further, since
2008 Sumitomo SHI FW has commissioned
over 20 CFB plants firing
100 per cent biomass (Table 1). The
largest of these, and still currently the
biggest biomass-only, utility-scale
power plant in the world, is the 205
MWe (447 MWth) Polaniec 8 boiler
in Poland owned by Engie.
Known as the ‘Green Unit’, it fires a
mixture of 80 per cent wood chips and
20 per cent agricultural wastes
sourced within a 100 km radius of the
plant. The boiler island, which was
supplied by Sumitomo SHI FW on a
turnkey basis, has been in commercial
operation since November 2012.
In 2016, the Green Unit operated
with a net efficiency of 36.5 per cent
and produced 1.52 TWh, representing
about 25 per cent of Poland’s renewable
energy market. Notably, Polaniec
Unit 8 builds on the technology and
experience base of earlier plants that
burn 100 per cent biomass fuel, such
as Kaukas Kaukaan Voima Oy’s
power plant, located UPM-Kymmene
Oyj Paper Mill site in Lappeenranta,
Finland (385 MWth), Kraftringen
Energi AB, Örtofta, Lund, Sweden
(110 MWth), and ZE PAK, S.A.,
Konin, Poland (154 MWth).
As the industry moves to the next
size-class with Teesside, Sumitomo
SHI FW says that scaling up is not
really a technology challenge. Today,
utility-scale 300 MWe-class units are
available for 100 per cent biomass
applications with subcritical steam
conditions, 600 MWe-class units for
fossil fuel applications with 50 per
cent biomass co-firing, and up to 800
MWe for 20 per cent biomass with
ultra-supercritical steam conditions.
Timo Jäntti, Senior Vice President
of Technology at Sumitomo SHI FW,
said: “From a technical point of view,
we do not see any scale-up limitation.
We have 100 CFBs burning different
types of biomass and projects burning
this type of fuel. So we know the design
criteria for the process and how
to dimension the boiler for this type of
fuel. Also, at 299 MW the boiler dimensions
are big but we have built
boilers at a similar scale, such as
Lagisza in Poland. So we know the
Special Project Supplement
When it begins commercial operation, the 299 MW Tees Renewable Energy Plant in the UK will be the largest and
most efficient dedicated biomass fired power plant in the world. Junior Isles examines the plant, which marks a new
milestone for circulating fluidised bed technology.
Polaniec 8 is currently
the world’s most efficient
biomass-only power plant
CAD cutaway of the 299 MW Tees Renewable Energy Plant
biomass project. The project is being built on a brownfield site
at the Teesport port facilities near Middlesborough