Developing Finland's first dedicated waste-to-energy plant

Green energy for a high-tech country in the polar region
Finland is renowned as a high-tech knowledge center and for its technological prowess. Electronics and mechanical engineering industries have grown significantly in the last decade, requiring less energy than the more traditional industries like wood processing, metallurgy and chemical industry.
Nevertheless, electricity consumption is still expected to increase by 1.5% annually until 2010.
Being a Nordic country, with a third of its surface geographically located above the Polar Circle, Finland requires lots of energy, especially in the dark, cold winter days.
This need for energy and the absence of oil, coal and natural gas resources, has made Finland a forerunner in efficient energy use.
The country has always been well ahead in protecting the environment and promoting sustainability.
In 1998, they developed a national sustainable development program, one of the first such programs in the world. This sustainability program demands that all sectors of society be responsible for looking after the environment. Its main goal is to curb climate change, make production and consumption patterns more environmentally friendly, and to maintain biodiversity. The latter resulting in 35 national parks, totaling a vast 8150km².
In light of this, choosing WTE as a sustainable solution for waste treatment, and at the same time renewable energy production, is a logical step to take for Finland.
Finnish households generate an average of just under 500 kilos of municipal waste per person each year - a slightly lower figure than the EU average. Some 35% of this waste is today recovered in one way or another. Like many other European countries, this integrated waste management approach leaves only the absolute necessary amount of waste to be sent to landfill or be treated.
The order for this plant clearly shows the acceptance of WTE as sustainable source of renewable energy in Finland as the country moves towards meeting European Union s ban on landfilling.
What is an integrated waste management concept?
As a leading company in the field of waste treatment, Keppel Seghers believes in integrated waste management as a sustainable development approach with the concept of waste being replaced by a concept of waste as a resource .
Keppel Seghers offers an integrated waste-to-energy concept that maximizes the reuse and recovery rate from waste streams and minimizes the quantity of waste going to landfill.
Keppel Seghers provides an entire suite of proprietary waste-to-energy technologies related to the integrated waste recovery concept:
The DANO drum technology significantly reduces the waste volume and splits the waste into different fractions by mechanical waste pre-treatment. The residual waste stream is sent to the waste-to-energy plant where the Keppel Seghers grates guarantee optimal combustion for waste streams with heating values between 4,000 and 30,000 kJ/kg.
- The proprietary Boiler/prism technology allows optimal energy recovery. Waste is converted into valuable green energy.
- The waste-to-energy plant is equipped with state-of-the-art flue gas cleaning technology that meets the most stringent emission regulations in the world.
- The organic part of the integrated waste management center is sent to an aerobic or anaerobic installation, where valuable fertilizers and biogas are produced. Steel and aluminum are recycled separately, allowing for the waste being fully recovered via several channels.
Kotkan Energian Oy from electricity distributor to pioneer in utilizing bio- and waste fuels
The order for Finland s first WTE plant was signed with Kotkan Energia Oy, a local energy company with the city of Kotka as major shareholder.
Kotkan Energia generates district heat and electricity, using renewable energy sources such as hydro power, solar energy, biomass, wind energy and now soon also through waste-to-energy.
Approximately half of the households in Kotka heat their houses with green district heat from Kotkan Energia.
The Keppel Seghers WTE plant in Kotka, Finland
The Kotka WTE plant will be able to turn 300 tonnes of municipal solid waste a day into renewable energy when it is completed in 2008.
To achieve this, Keppel Seghers will supply its air-cooled grate with bottom ash removal, boiler with fly ash removal and nitrogen oxide removal using SNCR (Selective Non Catalytic Reaction) technology to convert acidic nitrogen oxide components into harmless nitrogen.
These will enable the plant to enjoy longer continuous operation, high waste throughput, and high steam production for power generation, improving productivity for the plant operator. Below is a picture of the completed WTE plant.