Green Power Aalborg Energie Technik

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Aalborg Energie Technik (AET) specialises in the design and manufacture of biomass-fired boiler plants and combined heat and power installations. Industry Europe looks at the latest from the company.

Last year (2016) AET celebrated its 20th anniversary. It was founded in 1996 when a group of leading Danish engineers decided to set up a new company following the decision by Alfa Laval Aalborg to shut down its biomass boiler business in Denmark.

Today AET is a leading, independent European contracting company that supplies biomass fired boiler power plants and combined heat and power plants (CHP) throughout Europe. As a technological leader in solving socially-created environmental problems through thermal utilisation of agro-industrial biomass waste, the company strives to continuously improve its technology in order to provide the best biomass-fired power and CHP plants in the world.

AET covers the design, engineering, delivery and service of biomass-fired plants with all forms of biomass: primarily wood chips, wood waste, sander dust and bark. In addition, the raw fuel materials can also be distiller’s grain, poultry litter and meat and bone meal as well as straw and other agricultural residues. Today AET designs and supplies power plants that range from 25 to 170 MWth and employs more than 100 people.

High-efficiency, low emissions

As one of the world’s most innovative and experienced biomass boiler suppliers, the company has a well stablished reputation for supplying biomass boilers and combustion systems with exceptionally high efficiencies and availabilities. These offer high fuel flexibility and low emission impact. In addition, the unique AET biomass boiler systems enjoy very low maintenance costs. Meanwhile the AET Combustion System is a well proven technology which, together with the boiler design, optimises the combustion process to give its

plants unique emissions and operational conditions such as low inhouse power consumption.

A spokesperson for the company said, “Unlike most of our competitors we are purely a biomass company with a clear and dedicated focus that’s committed to delivering optimal performance and service. Our core business is the design and manufacture of highlyefficient biomass boilers and we have developed advanced pre-heat equipment and components that allow us to develop advanced boiler units and full turn-key systems. Furthermore, we have our own in-house design teams and provide our own operations and maintenance packages.

“What we focus on is the value of long-term partnerships and how we can optimise our business case with better fuel efficiency and innovative technology. Due to our technologically advanced boiler systems we are able to operate with as little as 2–5 per cent oxygen, which in turn means extremely high boiler efficiency. In fact, in this respect our boilers can be compared favourably with oil-fired boilers. We also supply a variety of manufacturing industries including paper mills, district heating companies, pharmaceutical companies and chipboard manufacturers.”

latest projects

Last year, in a consortium with BWSC, AET installed a pressure boiler for UK-based Tilbury Green Power Limited for its renewable power plant fuelled by waste wood, within the port of Tilbury on the banks of the River Thames. The plant has a capacity of about 40 MW and will produce up to 319,000 MWh of renewable electricity each year – enough to supply around 97,000 average homes.

In December that same year, the company announced it had started construction of a turnkey biomass-fired Cogeneration Plant in France at the Gemdoubs paper mill in Novillars. The plant consists of fuel handling, AET Biomass Boiler, steam turbine,

flue-gas cleaning system and steam connection to Gemdoubs. The cogeneration plant will be highly optimised in order to fulfil the requirements set by the French government in the CRE 4 auction round, and will therefore have an overall efficiency of more than 65 per cent. It will come equipped with the advanced AET Combustion technology and AET SNCR DeNOx system to ensure very low emissions levels.

Finally, in May this year AET secured an order for a 30 MWe biomassfired power plant to be built in Russi near Ravenna, in the province of Emilia-Romagna, Italy. Through this contract, a joint venture between the Italian company Termokimik Corporation Impianti e procedimenti industriali SpA (TKC) and AET will provide the equipment for a biomass-fired power plant, including an AET Biomass Boiler, to be developed in Russi.

The project is owned by PowerCrop Russi Srl, a company owned and operated by Enel Green Power and Seci Energia. The AET Biomass Boiler is designed for a fuel heat input of 88 MWt and will generate live steam at 122 bara and 542°C. The AET Biomass Boiler will at normal continuous rating have a fuel heat input of 84 MWt, and the power plant will then produce 30 MWe (gross). The annual power production corresponds to the consumption of around 84,000 households, and the biomass fired power plant permits a reduction of carbon emission of 117,000 tonnes of CO2/year. n

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