A new sustainable energy solutions provider

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Metso’s and Wärtsilä’s new joint venture, MW Power, combines Metso’s boiler know-how and fluidized bed combustion with Wärtsilä’s power plant capabilities and BioGrate technology to create a solutions portfolio for medium- and small-scale power and heating plants fired on a wide range of fuels.

MW Power Oy

www.mwpower.fi

MW Power’s solutions consist of modular power plants and customer-specific boiler plants, heating plants, and oil and gas boiler plants – all based on strong technological know-how. Metso’s bubbling fluidized bed (BFB) and Wärtsilä’s BioGrate technologies are the outcome of extensive in-house R&D and cooperation with customers and research institutions.

Featuring proven designs, they are specifically targeted for renewables and other challenging fuels. Customers include municipalities, utilities, industry, and independent power producers in Europe, the Nordic region, the Baltic countries, and Russia.

MW Power brings together the expertise of Metso and Wärtsilä to create a leading European provider of medium- and small-scale power and heating plant solutions for sustainable energy generation.

Proven BFB technology

Metso is the world’s leading supplier of BFB combustion for renewable fuels, and MW Power’s BFB offering is based on this proven technology utilised in over 160 plants around the world.

Metso’s BFB boilers can be used with a wide range of fuels, from dry wood to high-moisture forest residues, sludge, and even solid recovered fuels. Fuel is fed above a hot fluidizing sand bed. Fuel drying and volatiles combustion begins in the freeboard, while heavier fuel particles burn inside the sand bed. Carefully designed overfire air jets complete combustion, resulting in very low emissions under all load conditions. Ash leaves the furnace with the flue gas, while the unburned coarse impurities contained in the fuel are removed through large openings in the furnace floor.

Featuring proven designs, MW Power’s solutions are specifically targeted for renewables.

MW Power offers BFB combustion in customerspecific designs for combined heat and power (CHP) generation using biomass and recycled fuels; and in standardised modular biomass power plants for power and CHP generation.

BioGrate combustion

BioGrate is a new-generation moving grate technology developed by Wärtsilä for use with biomass. Development work started more than 15 years ago, and there are over 100 BioGrates in operation today.

A BioGrate unit features a rotating grate with a conical primary combustion chamber. Fuel is fed from underneath to the centre of the grate. Heat radiating from the refractory lining and the flames dries the fuel in the middle of the grate without disturbing the burning fuel bed in the combustion zone. After virtually complete combustion of the residual carbon, ash falls from the edge of the grate into the ash space, which is filled with quenching water.

MW Power offers BioGrate technology in either customer-specific plants designed to generate steam and heat from biomass, or modular power and CHP solutions.

Fire-tube and water-tube boilers

MW Power’s oil and gas boiler designs are based on decades of experience. Thousands of MW Power boilers of this type are in operation in industry and district heating plants around the world.

The selection of the right boiler type and burner setup is always made on the basis of specific customer needs; and the product range includes firetube and water-tube boilers for generating hot water and low- or high-pressure steam.

Five solutions

Five solutions MW Biopower – Modular biomass power plants

standardised modular power plants
power and CHP generation from biomass, in the 5-10 MWe range
based on BioGrate or BFB combustion

MW Multipower – Flexible multifuel boiler plants

customer-specific boiler plants for heat and power generation
CHP generation from biomass and recycled fuels in the 15-60 MW fuel output range
based on BFB combustion

MW Bioheat – Local bioenergy plants

customer-specific heating plants
steam and heat generation from biomass in the 4-17 MW fuel output range
based on BioGrate combustion

MW Oil & Gas – Energy from oil and gas

customer-specific oil and gas boiler plants for steam or hot water generation
water-tube and fire-tube combustion (Noviter and VEÅ)

MW Services – Partner for performance

upgrades
maintenance and technical services
training
spare parts

Powerful references

Bayernfonds BestEnergy 1, Germany (2008)

6 x Biopower power plant (5.6 MWe/0 MWth or 4.4 MWe/10 MWth)

Fortum Power and Heat, Finland (2009)

Hot water boiler plant (30 MW)

Vattenfall AB, Värme Norden, Sweden (2010)

Power plant (63 MW)

CHP from brewing residue

Typical of the innovative solutions MW Power offers are the two combined heat and power plants being built for Scottish & Newcastle’s brewery sites at Manchester and Tadcaster in Britain.

Each plant will have a thermal output of 7.4 MWth and an electrical output of 3.1 MWe when operating in CHP mode, and an electrical output 4.7 MWe in condensing mode.

The plants, which will fire a mixture of spent grain and wood chips from local sources, are due to start operations in spring 2009, generating steam and electricity for brewery processes and exporting surplus electricity to the local grid. The new plants will enable Scottish & Newcastle to make more efficient use of residue from its beer production, reduce waste handling and energy costs, and cut CO₂ emissions.

(Published in HighTech Finland 2009)