Economical, Reliable and Efficient
Recovering the energy content of waste is a key component of WtE technology. Since the process is largely renewable and involves only a low level of emissions, it also helps significantly reduce greenhouse gases. The energy extracted is used in the way most appropriate to the client’s needs and the local infrastructure. Here we distinguish between four basic approaches: pure electric power generation, pure heat generation, combined heat and power (or cogeneration), and trigeneration (power, heat and cooling, or combined cold and power). If the electricity generated is additionally used to upgrade gas (power to gas), Waste to Energy can go even further to helping achieve ambitious climate targets as part of an integrated energy approach. By combining different systems and using additional heat exchange components in flue gas treatment, we are able to recover up to 99% of the Waste to Energy by means of thermal treatment. In doing so we benefit from the fact that our plants are intelligently designed on a modular basis and can be individually adapted to the wishes of the client and the infrastructure of each particular site.
Electric Power
Proven and Reliable Baseload Power
The power plant concept is proven, reliable and easy to operate. Superheated steam from the waste treatment plant drives a steam turbine connected to a generator. A small portion of the electric power produced by the generator is used for the plant itself, allowing it to run self-sufficiently. The rest can either be fed into a public grid or used by other industrial facilities on site, for example power-to-gas (gas upgrading), power-to-water (desalination) or other applications. The overall net efficiency of a plant producing only electric power is around 35%.
References: Ferrybridge I, Ferrybridge II, Edinburgh, Herefordshire, Severnside, Buckinghamshire, Cleveland, Newhaven
