01.04.2021
Energietechnik

Efficiency increase in energy production from waste

Müve-Biel Seeland AG is responsible for the environmentally viable thermal utilization of waste from the Seeland region (Bern canton, CH). The plant treats waste from 49 associated municipalities with over 151,000 inhabitants, producing electricity, district heating and process steam for the town and the surrounding region.

In order to increase steam production and thus, with the help of a new steam turbine, generate more electricity and in a further step more district heating, the company intends to modify the combustion chamber of its waste incineration plant. Already in 2019, as part of a project to increase the energy efficiency of the entire plant, the hot steam parameters were increased to 360°C, 24.5 bar.

WEHRLE and its Swiss subsidiary Ecotherm AG will replace and modernize various boiler components, such as the feed water station, evaporators, boiler wall parts, superheaters with injection, drum internals, safety valves with silencers and the main steam line, thus adapting them to the news process parameters.
The next step will now be to rebuild the combustion chamber, including the dismantling of the air-cooled side walls of the combustion system, the replacement of the water-cooled grate surface and the pulling down of the left and right boiler side walls down to the grate.

The project is currently still in the planning phase, especially in terms of interface clarification with regard to technical details and schedule. The implementation phase is to start soon with the procurement of components. The actual renovation is planned for August 2021.
This modernization, which is expected to be completed in 2025, will turn the now thirty-year-old plant into a state-of-the-art system when it comes to ecology and energy efficiency. 

  Capacity today Future capacity Increase
Waste quantity 46.000 to/a > 50.000 to/a 9 %
Power production 19.135 MWh/a 31.441 MWh/a 64 %
Energy export 3.776 kW 4.442 kW 18 %
Heat recovery from
flue gas
0 kW 1.500 kW 100%
Net energy efficiency 42 % > 70 % > 67 %