The new flue gas scrubber will increase the plant’s energy efficiency and district heating production capacity and decrease the power plant’s emissions.
The plant will be ready for use in the fall of 2015, in time for the start of a new heating season. The order will be included in Valmet’s fourth quarter 2014 orders received. The value of the order is around EUR 8 million.
The district heating for the city’s residents and electricity for the national grid produced by the Joensuu power plant are mainly generated using wood and peat. The plants’ heat output is 130 MW and electrical output 50 MW.
Valmet and Fortum have already earlier cooperated at the plant. In 2013, a bio-oil plant based on integrated pyrolysis solution technology supplied by Valmet was started up in Joensuu.
Waste heat utilized in district heating
Valmet’s delivery includes a two-stage scrubber system and related process equipment. Valmet’s experience in flue gas cleaning technology extends all the way back to the 1970s and the company has supplied similar technology to Fortum before, such as to the company’s Järvenpää power plant.
The investment will allow Fortum to improve the energy efficiency of its Joensuu power plant and increase its heat production capacity; heat that was earlier released into the atmosphere with flue gases can now be utilized as district heating. The new equipment will also decrease the power plant’s flue gas sulfur and dust emissions as specified in the new EU directive on industrial emissions (IED) that will come into force on 1 January 2016.
"Our customers’ goal is to improve the efficiency of their power plants and the flue gas heat recovery technology will help to achieve this goal. At the same time we are supplying them with solutions for reducing emissions, which will help them to meet the tightening emissions regulation," says Risto Hämäläinen, Director, Environmental Systems from Valmet.
"We are delighted to be carrying out this project on behalf of Fortum and thus continuing our good co-operation. Valmet supplies complete flue gas cleaning solutions for extensive emissions control. We have solutions for both wet and dry flue gas cleaning, heat recovery, flue gas desulfurization and NOx reduction," Hämäläinen continues.
