Delivering greener energy

DELIVERING

GREENER ENERGY

Aalborg Energie Technik a/s (AET) is a market leading, independent company that specialises in designing, supplying, operating and servicing biomass-fired boiler plants, power plants and combined heat and power installations. Philip Yorke talked to Frank Scholdann Lund, the company’s sales manager, about its recent major contracts and high-performance technology.

The 37 MW COFELY, SODC Orleans combined heat and power plant, was commissioned by AET in 2015.

AET was founded in 1996 when a group of experienced Danish engineers decided to set up a new company focusing on biomass combustion, biomass boilers and biomass turnkey projects.

Today the company is a leading, independent European contracting company that supplies highly efficient biomass-fired boilers, power plants and combined heat and power plants (CHP) throughout Europe. As a technological leader in solving socially-created environmental problems through the thermal utilisation of wood, agro and industrial biomass waste, the company continuously strives to improve its technology in order to provide the best biomass-fired power and CHP plants in the world. With its technology and services to replace fossil fuels with biomass fuels, AET supports both the EU’s target for more renewable energy and COP 21’s target for the reduction of climate change.

AET has seen consistent growth for 20 years and it comprises the design, engineering, delivery and service of plants combusting all forms of biomass. Biomass fuels are primarily wood chips, waste wood, sander dust, brash, bark, straw and agricultural residues. Industrial wastes like poultry litter, meat and bone meal, RDF, shea nuts, olive grains, distiller’s grain and rape seed extraction can also be burned successfully. Today AET designs and supplies turnkey plants ranging from 25 to 170 MWth, equal to 8–60 MWe. AET employs more than 100 people and recorded a turnover of over €35 million in 2015. High efficiency, low emissions

As one of the world’s most innovative and experienced biomass boiler suppliers, the company has a well established reputation for supplying biomass boilers and combustion systems with exceptionally high efficiencies and availabilities. These also offer high fuel flexibility and low emission impact. In addition, the unique AET Biomass Boiler is characterised by very low maintenance costs.

Lund said: “We are purely dedicated to biomass with a commitment to delivering optimal performance and service for biomass-fired plants, no matter whether it is a new plant or a retrofit. We focus on project management and delivering the right solution on time. As we have developed our own core components from biomass dosing, combustion grate, over-fire air system to ash re-injection system, AET can supply advanced and highly efficient biomass-fired plants. This unique capability has, for example, resulted in one of our most recent contracts: a huge turnkey project for Tilbury Green Power in the UK. This is a fine example of what can be achieved when we are involved at the beginning of such a large project.”

AET’s customers include a variety of industries such as paper mills, district heating companies, pharmaceutical companies, chipboard manufacturers and utilities. Lund explained: “We focus on the value of long-term partnerships and how we can optimise the customer’s business case with better fuel flexibility, high efficiency and

high availability. Due to our technologically advanced boiler system we are able to operate with very high combustion efficiency even at 2–2.5 per cent O2, which in turn means extremely high boiler efficiency and low emissions. A secondary effect is low wear and tear, which results in low maintenance for our customers.”

Lund added: “We see our growth markets as being mainly in Europe and we have our own very experienced sales force. We also attend leading trade shows to demonstrate our unique product offering and bespoke designs. We also concentrate on fuel conversions and have developed our own combi-spreader for simultaneously combusting coal and biomass. The AET Combi Spreader can provide i.e. a fuel split of 30 per cent coal / 70 per cent biomass operation. The most recent order for fuel conversion came from Østkraft in Denmark.”

The 54 MW boiler at Biolacq Energies cogeneration plant in Lacq, France, owned by Cofely (ENGIE group), was delivered by AET in 2016.

AET performed a substantial retrofit of the Verdo CHP plant in Randers, Denmark. This enabled the plant to fire 100 per cent biomass or 100 per cent coal or any combination in between.

Unique combustion technology

AET and a consortium partner are currently delivering one of their biggest contracts in recent years with an order value of more than €270 million. The new 40 MWe biomass power plant will be located at Tilbury, London (UK) and will utilise AET’s highly efficient and proven combustion technology. The consortium supplies Tilbury Green Power biomass power plant to the owners Green Investment Bank (GIB) and the Irish Electricity Supply Board (ESB). The scope of the contract includes design, supply, construction, operation and maintenance of the biomass power plant over a period of 20 years. The advanced Tilbury Green Energy Plant is currently under construction and expected to commence operation in early 2017.

The AET Biomass Boiler for Tilbury Green Power will consume approximately 35 tonnes of waste wood per hour and have a boiler efficiency of 92 per cent. AET’s part of the EPC contract is to supply the biomass boiler, flue gas cleaning system, feed water system, PLC control system and SCADA for the entire power plant.

Lund said: “We look forward to delivering the 125 MWth AET Biomass Boiler and AET Combustion System for the Tilbury Green Power Plant and to providing the operation and maintenance of the plant in the coming 20 years together with our partners. We intend, as always, to deliver the best possible solution and technology available in the market and to ensure the long-term profitability of the plant.”

The highly efficient AET Combustion System, which includes the unique AET Dosing Bin, AET Spreader Stoker, AET Bio-Grate and the AET Biomass Boiler, have all been developed in-house and offer proven reliability and efficiency gained through numerous biomassfired plants throughout Europe. A good example of this is the large French energy company ENGIE-Cofely Services (former GDF SUEZ), to which AET recently provided one more boiler plant, following the success of the previous three biomass boiler plants it supplied. n

For further details of AET’s innovative biomass-fired plant technology and services visit: www.aet-biomass.com

AET will be rebuilding Østkraft’s about 20 year old boiler. The CHP plant will be converted from coal to biomass. The rebuilding, installation and commissioning will take place from 2016.