Day 2 Newsletter, 25th October 2013
Metso has an enormous mission to accomplish: create practical, realistic and economically sound ways of generating power using bio-based raw materials and consequently complement the use of fossil fuels.
Metso’s solutions enable power producers to reduce environmental impact, while fulfilling their mission to produce energy competitively. With advanced energy management controls, plants can reduce fuel consumption and at the same time increase capacity to become more competitive. Environmental monitoring and reporting systems enable these plants to take care of their responsibilities
In the past ten years, Metso has delivered more than 13 GWth of boiler capacity that utilises renewable fuels and reduces emissions associated with fossil-fuel-fired boilers. In practice, this CO2 neutral energy production has helped to avoid 40 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually, corresponding to emissions from over 24 million cars! Metso owes its success in this area to its fluidized bed boiler technology and its ability to convert various renewable raw materials, such as forest residuals, reed canary grass and municipal waste, into energy. It aims to create technology that can efficiently and sustainably use bio-based fuel sources.
As we already know, in most countries, the current infrastructure for generating power and heat is based on coal and heavy fuel oil. Metso has found ways and means of making the existing power and heating plants greener by using different kinds of biomass as fuel.
Here is an example: the gasification power plant in Lahti, Finland, uses solid recycled fuel to efficiently generate electricity and district heat. Metso supplied the main equipment, which included a millwide automation system. This new solution reduces CO2 emissions by an estimated 410,000 tons a year compared with the same amount of electricity and heat generated using coal.
Here is another example: the Metso-supplied gasification plant in Vaasa, Finland, where biomass would be introduced as a second raw material source at a conventional coalfired plant. The plant’s 140 MW capacity would be enough to heat about 10,000 single-family houses even during the coldest winter spells.
