In Russia, forest industry major Segezha Group, part of Sistema JSFC, has announced that it has commissioned two 7 MW thermal oil heating installations and two 8 MW installations for the production of saturated steam at its Vyatka Plywood Mill in Kirov Region. Using wood waste and bark as fuel, these new biomass installations allow for the decommissioning of the old fossil gas fired steam boiler.
oil boilers to Segezha Group’s Vyatka Plywood Mill in Kirov Region, Russia (photo courtesy Segezha Group).
Supplied by Austrian biomass combustion specialists Polytechnik GmbH, these new installations will provide thermal energy for industrial equipment and are intended for full-scale disposal of bark and wood waste products generated during the production of plywood. The launching of the new equipment will allow the decommissioning of the old steam boiler that used fossil gas as fuel and significantly reduce the cost of energy for the facility.
The new equipment will generate around 61 000 Gcal per annum providing an estimated RUB 43.5 million (≈ EUR 605 987) per annum in savings compared to gas.
We will get the maximum of the positive environmental effect as we burn the waste products with minimal generation of smoke gases, said Yuri Shadrin, Vice President of Segezha Group and Head of Plywood and Timber Slabs Division.
The equipment has been fully automated, from the fuel supply to production of thermal energy. All the information on the performance of the installation is presented in the form of easy-to-understand graphs, tables, and charts on the visual control screen.
All the installations can be run by two operators, an electronic engineer, and a shift supervisor. No other technical personnel is required to run the installations.
Rolling out bioenergy and zero-waste production
In addition to the energy project in Kirov, Segezha Group is working on bioenergy and waste-free production in the Group’s other regions of operation. Recently, Segezha Group revealed that Segezha PPM is in the commissioning phase of a new 90 MW multi-fuel biomass-fired bubbling fluidised bed (BFB) boiler from Valmet.
The modern boiler system uses bark and wood waste as fuel, generates steam for technological processes at the combine. It has been commissioned as part of the 3rd stage of the investment project to modernize and increase production capacity at the Segezha Pulp and Paper Mill (Segezha PPM) in Segezha city, Republic of Karelia.
