Whether you’re looking for technologies and services for renewable or conventional energy production, you can count on Outotec for the best solution.
Our combustion and gasification technologies can use a wide variety of fuels such as biomass, sludge, agricultural and industrial byproducts, and sorted municipal waste. Fuel flexibility eliminates the risk associated reliance on a single supplier or fuel type.
We also offer solutions for oil winning from oil shale and sustainable phosphorus recycling from sewage sludge ash. Our energy solutions provide high levels of energy efficiency and recovery of recyclable materials.
We can support your project by delivering the boiler island and supporting with erection, installation and commissioning.
Technologies
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| Technology | Bubbling Fluidized Bed (BFB) Boilers | Bubbling Fluidized Bed (BFB) Gasifiers | Sewage Sludge Incineration Plants | Circulating Fluidized Bed (CFB) Boilers | Circulating Fluidized Bed (CFB) Gasifiers |
| Typical capacity range | 20 – 300 MWth 70 – 1020 MBtu/h |
< 200 MWth < 680 MBtu/h |
> 15.000 tpa d.b. | < 600 MWth < 2050 MBtu/h |
< 600 MWth < 2050 MBtu/h |
Decades of experience in fluidized bed technology and waste-to-energy applications
World-class test facilities at your service
Our test facilities were built to test various fuels, including different types of biomass, tires, municipal and paper sludge, carpet scraps, garbage and industrial plastics as well as coal, oil shale, semi-coke and other difficult fuels to optimize the boiler design.
Fluidized bed test facilities in Coeur d’Alene, USA
Outotec owns and operates a 3.0 MBtu/hour (0.9 MW) (nominal HHV output) combustor and a 3.0 MBtu/hour (0.9 MW) (nominal HHV) gasifier pilot scale atmospheric, bubbling type fluidized bed system in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
The combustion fluidized bed pilot unit contains 0.8m2 (9 ft2) of bed area and 7.9m (26 ft) of freeboard above the nozzles.
Seven sets of overfire air ports penetrate the refractory of the freeboard space, with each set housing eight individual ports. Each set of overfire air ports is individually controlled and may be used to inject atmospheric air, flue gas recirculation (FGR), and/or reagents for selective non-catalytic reduction (SNCR) NOX abatement.
For staged combustion studies, a refractory choke is installed to reduce the bed size to an area of 25-100mm x 25-100mm (1”-4” x 1”-4”). This “choked” (or reduced) bed allows for gasification modeling of the fuel within the bed and staged combustion in the vapor space.
Fluidized bed test facilities in Frankfurt, Germany
In experimental R&D we can perform tests with your feed materials to demonstrate the performance of our technologies and their applicability to particular raw materials.
This includes process steps such as combustion, gasification, charring, pyrolysis, cooling and drying of solid fuels. The knowledge and data acquired is further applied in process and plant design.
Pilot scale equipment
For initial studies we start with a small-scale approach, using laboratory equipment and material analysis. Progressing to larger scales, we have an extensive set of mid-scale fluidized bed pilot plants available (80mm (3”) CFB, 185mm (7”) CFB reactor, 200mm (8”) CFB reactor, 250mm (10”) CFB reactor).
Our test equipment set-up is completed by a semi-industrial 700 mm (27,5”) CFB reactor, operated up to 1050°C (1922°F) and 1,5 MWth (5,1 MBtu/hour).
Oil winning test facility in Frankfurt, Germany
Outotec Assay
The Outotec assay is a modified and improved Fischer assay, specializing in oil winning applications. It is a laboratory scale batch test that allows for the prediction of oil, gas and coke yield pyrolising substances, such as oil shale, containing organic carbon.
Enefit bench scale plant
An oil shale bench scale rotary kiln unit is used for primary testing of different oil shales.
The Enefit bench scale plant includes solid heat carrier heat-up, a pyrolis unit and a gas cleaning unit consisting of hot de-dusting, oil condensation and a product gas flare. The Enefit Bench has an oil shale throughput of up to 15 kg/h (33 lb/hr).
The scale plant provides access to key data necessary for the basic design of new shale oil winning plants. Tests have been performed with oil shales from Estonia, Jordan, USA and China.
Enefit pilot plant
The Enefit pilot plant can process approximately 300 kg/h (660 lb/hr) of oil shale feed and produce larger amounts of shale oil samples. This allows semi-coke combustion and solid heat carrier production to run simultaneously and continuously.
The oil shale batches are tested for yield, oil quality, solids behavior and ash characteristics. The pilot plant also allows for testing different set-ups of the condensation section. Tests have been performed with oil shales from Estonia and USA.