Technology is not a barrier for biomass power: Experiences from 130 biomass power plants
Finland is one of the leading countries in the utilization of biomass fuels for power production. The biomass fuels in Finland are peat and wood biomass, which are also the only indigenous fuels available. Peat and wood biomass cover about 26% of the primary energy consumption in Finland and their share in power generation is about 18% (peat 8% and wood biomass 10%). There are about 230 biomass fired boilers in operation of which 130 are used for combined heat and power (CHP) production. The wood and peat-fired power plants range in size from a small CHP plant of 5 MWe to the largest condensing plant of 154 MWe. The most common technology today for the biomass fuels is fluidized bed combustion with back pressure steam cycle for district heat or process steam production. Bubbling fluidized bed (BFB) is best for wood and peat combustion and circulating fluidized bed (CFB) is needed, when coal is wanted as a back up fuel. The largest bubbling fluidized bed in Finland has a capacity of 295 MWth using peat and wood wastes as fuels. The smallest ones are only a few MWth. Circulating fluidized bed boilers range from 25 to 290 MWth in biomass applications. Condensing power generation from solid fuels in the relatively small size scale is not economical at todays conditions. Gasification is used only in a few small heating stations. One promising application area for the gasification technology, however, is in the co-combustion processes. The peat and wood biomass fuels are good fuels from combustion point of view, and do not create any major operating problems. The investment cost biomass fired CHP plants range from ECU 1,100 to 1,800/kWe depending on the size range. The costs of electricity in the municipal CHP plants is ECU 20-35/MWh. In industrial plants with longer operating time and low fuel price the cost of electricity can be even lower than ECU 17/MWh.
- Research Organization:
- IVO Group (FI)
- OSTI ID:
- 20018927
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9806214--
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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