Nations worldwide are taking actions to respond to the challenges of global warming by reducing their greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, increasing boiler efficiency and the use of multiple fuels, such as biomass and other hard to burn solid fuels are well in line with these objectives. The fuel mix is constantly widening, thus combined with efficiency, availability and emission performance requirements, this calls for flexible baseload technology to support power grid. CFB boilers are capable of multifuel firing, including biomass, agro-biomass, RDF, coal and oil shale thus being ideal to meet current market requirements.
As one of the latest references in CFB technology - Sumitomo SHI FW was awarded in April 2017 two CFB boiler plants for oil shale (2x627 MWth, 2x277 MWe, 234/205 kg/s, 172/44 bar, 541/541°C), as well as technical advisory services. The project is Jordan’s first CFB’s, located in Attarat Um Ghudran, approximately 100km southeast of Amman. Two CFB boilers are designed to burn 100% of Jordanian oil shale. This project will help Jordan utilise its substantial oil shale reserves, estimated to be approximately 30 billion tonnes, thereby reducing its reliance on imported oil and gas. It is expected to meet 10-15% of Jordan’s annual power demand.
The paper also reviews relevant boiler references, firing combinations of solid biomass fuels, in commercial operation, including Lahti Energia - Finland (158 MWth), Mälarenergi AB Västerås – Sweden (150 MWth), and MGT Teesside - UK (299 MWe) that is the world’s largest newbuild 100% solid biomass firing CFB boiler today.