Polish utility Poludniowy Koncern Energetyczny SA (PKE) has started operation of the Lagisza power plant, host to the world’s first supercritical circulating fluidised bed (CFB) boiler.
The 460 MW plant replaces the 1960s-era pulverised coal units at the facility and has been built next to the old boilers. Many of the existing plant systems, including coal handling and water treatment, were renovated for use with the new CFB-based unit.
US firm Foster Wheeler provided the boiler island, including the engineering and design, erection, civil work, start-up and commissioning, on a turnkey basis. The boiler incorporates a number of advanced design features and produces electricity at an efficiency level well above that of typical coal plants, according to Foster Wheeler.
This CFB represents a culmination of 30 years of design evolution for developing a reliable, fuel-flexible technology for utility scale electricity production, according to Jaroslaw Mlonka, CEO of Foster Wheeler’s Polish subsidiary. Advanced design features include compact solid separators, Intrex superheaters, and low-temperature flue-gas heat recovery that captures heat that would otherwise be lost.
The unit incorporates – for the first time ever in any CFB – highly efficient Benson vertical-tube supercritical steam technology. Benson vertical tube is a new steam technology that is more efficient and reliable than equivalent conventional technology prevalent in the market today.
‘The Benson vertical tube technology lowers the cost of power production and, more importantly, improves the environmental performance of the plant. In relation to the older, de-commissioned boilers, the new CFB burns less fuel and produces significantly lower levels of carbon dioxide and other emissions for each megawatt generated’ said Pertti Kinnunen, a vp of Foster Wheeler’s Finnish subsidiary and the boiler’s conceptual designer.
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