Clean-Coal Platform Provides Cost-Effective Energy While Reducing Emissions

Foster Wheeler AG (Nasdaq:FWLT) announced today that the world’s largest circulating fluidized-bed (CFB) steam generator – which is also the world’s first supercritical CFB -- has successfully started operating at the Lagisza power plant, owned by Polish utility company Południowy Koncern Energetyczny SA (PKE).

Foster Wheeler’s Global Power Group provided the turnkey supply of the boiler island, including engineering and design, erection, civil work, start-up, and commissioning. The new CFB replaces 1960s-era pulverized coal units at the power plant and was built adjacent to the old boilers. Many existing plant systems, including coal handling and water treatment, were renovated for use with the new CFB unit.

The Lagisza CFB produces 460 MWe of electricity at an efficiency level well above that of typical coal plants. The unit incorporates a number of advanced design features such as compact solid separators, INTREX™ super heaters, and low-temperature flue-gas heat recovery that captures valuable heat that would otherwise be lost.

The unit incorporates – for the first time ever in any CFB – highly efficient BENSON vertical-tube supercritical steam technology. BENSON vertical tube is a new steam technology that is more efficient and reliable than conventional supercritical technology prevalent in the market today.

“This CFB represents a culmination of 30 years of design evolution for developing a reliable, fuel-flexible technology for utility scale electricity production,” said Jaroslaw Mlonka, president and chief executive officer for the Polish subsidiary of Foster Wheeler's Global Power Group.

“The BENSON vertical tube technology not only lowers the cost of power production but, more importantly, improves the environmental performance of the plant. Specifically, in relation to the older, de-commissioned boilers, the new CFB burns less fuel and produces significantly lower levels of carbon dioxide (CO₂) and other emissions for each megawatt generated,” said Pertti Kinnunen, who is executive vice president of engineering and technology for the Finnish subsidiary of Foster Wheeler’s Global Power Group and who was responsible for the conceptual design of the boiler in 2003.

CFB technology is a clean-coal platform with a unique low temperature combustion process that cleanly and efficiently burns both traditional fuels and carbon-neutral fuels; typical fuels can include biomass, waste coals, tires and processed waste materials. The CFB’s unique multi-fuel capability can utilize opportunity and carbon-neutral fuels to significantly reduce CO₂ emissions in relation to conventional pulverized-coal boilers while improving the economics of power generation.

Unlike conventional steam generators that burn the fuel in a large high-temperature flame, CFB technology does not have burners or a flame within its furnace.