Finland-headed combustion technology provider KPA Unicon, a Partnera Group company, has announced that it has been selected for a biomass boiler refurbishment project in Sweden.
According to a statement, KPA Unicon has been selected by energy utility Katrinefors Kraftvärme AB (KKAB) to modernize an existing biomass boiler unit at KKAB’s combined heat and power (CHP) plant in Mariestad to correspond to today’s technology.
KKAB is jointly owned by Metsä Tissue AB, a Swedish subsidiary of Finland-headed forest industry major Metsä Group, and municipal district heat provider VänerEnergi AB.
The Katinefors Kraftvärme CHP plant supplies steam for Metsä Tissue’s paper mill in Mariestad, district heating for Mariestad, and power for the grid.
Boiler refurbishment and upgrade
The KKAB plant consists of two CHP units, 37 MWth/9 MWe and 28 MWth/7 MWe that were commissioned in 2002 and 2015 respectively, and uses paper mill sludge as fuel in the former unit and recycled wood in the latter.
Four 15 MW oil-fired boilers, of which two are hot water boilers for district heating and two are steam boilers. make up the reserve and backup for the plant.
The technology and the modernization will be done to the 37 MW boiler that was originally delivered in 2002 by a third party and is based on KPA Unicon’s fluidized bed (FB) technology. The 28 MW boiler, an Unicon Reneflex boiler, was supplied by KPA Unicon in 2015.
The work will be completed in autumn 2022 and is expected to have significant impacts on the plant’s fuel flexibility and usability.
When we made the decision to update the boiler after 20 years of operation, we compared the current technology to the boiler which KPA Unicon delivered in 2015 and its operating experience. The goal of the redevelopment is to achieve the same high usability that we have on the Reneflex boiler with better environmental performance, said Johan Nilsson, Managing Director, KKAB.
KPA Unicon’s delivery includes the modernization of the 2002 boiler’s fluidized bed, renewal of the bottom ash removal system, starter, and load burners as well as the circulating gas system.
The old boiler will be renovated to meet today’s criteria. This will significantly increase the usability of the plant. The benefits of modernization include environmental efficiency, a longer life cycle, and improved reliability, said Jukka-Pekka Kovanen, Managing Director of KPA Unicon.
