Paper presented at Power Gen Europe

Koln 13/06/2012

1
 POWER-GEN EUROPE 2012

From coal to biomass the challenges of a

successful conversion of the Unit 4 at
Rodenhuize

Sébastien Verhaeven, Thomas Bauthier

Tractebel Engineering GDF SUEZ, Belgium

Frank Van Den Spiegel

Electrabel GDF SUEZ, Belgium

Xavier Henry

Laborelec GDF SUEZ, Belgium

2
Glossary
BFG Blast Furnace Gas

CAPEX Capital Expenditures

CFD Computational Fluid Dynamic

EPC-M Engineering, Procurement and Construction Management

ESP ElectroStatic Precipitator

EX EXplosion proof

HFO Heavy Fuel Oil

HV High Voltage

LCPD Large Combustion Plant Directive

MWe Mega Watts in terms of electric power

MWth Mega Watts in terms of thermal power

NG Natural Gas

OFA Over Fire Air

OPEX Operative Expenditures

PF Pulverized Fuel

SCR-DeNOx Selective Catalytic Reduction of Nitrogen Oxides

1. EUROPEAN CONTEXT

Biomass for power generation purpose encounters an increasing success that can be explained
by different measures taken by Europe. During the last 20 years, the European Community
has promoted and encouraged politics aiming at the reduction of the greenhouse gas emissions
in order to prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.

In 2001, by the directive 2001/77/EC, the European Community promoted the production of
electricity from renewable energy sources and indicated this goal as one of the top priorities.

3
On one hand, this aimed at the security and the diversification of the energy supply; on the
other hand, the increased use of electricity produced from renewable energy source
constituted an important factor to comply with the commitments of the Kyoto protocol. In that
context, each Member State had to set national indicative targets for the consumption of
electricity produced from renewable sources; the global indicative target was fixed at 12% of
the gross energy consumption by 2010. In order to maintain investor confidence until the
finalization of a Community framework, the present directive allowed each Member State to
operate different mechanisms of support for renewable energy source, such as green
certificates and investment aid, at the national level. In 2009, the indicative targets have been
converted into mandatory national targets which set a share of 20% of the electricity
consumption produced from renewable energy. Moreover, in the same directive (2009/28/CE)
Europe fixed as goal the improvement of energy efficiency by 20% by end 2020.

Beyond the promotion of renewable energy sources, the Large Combustion Plant Directive
(LCPD), which entered into force in November 2001, set limits related to the emissions of
S02, NOx and dust for plant rated at a thermal input greater than or equal to 50MWth. This
directive foresees emissions reduction over the periods 2008-2015, 2016-2017 and 2018
onwards.

This whole context releases hence large interest from the energy production market to invest
in renewable energy and more particularly biomass. Sourced from forest residues, wood
industry residues and short rotation energy crops, biomass is considered as renewable energy;
reference is made to the White Paper (COM/2001/0069) issued by the European Community.
Considered as CO2 neutral fuel, the biomass plays a major role in reducing the CO2 emissions
related to the energy production sector.

Electrabel took hence this opportunity, to retrofit the Unit 4 of the Rodenhuize power station
to burn clean wood pellets. To date, on a yearly base, this power station is able to supply
green electricity to 320.000 families.

After a brief site and project description, this paper provides some process key figures related
to the combustion of coal and biomass at the Rodenhuize power station. It describes the main
challenges met during the project development and realization phases and develops the
strategy applied in order to address them. In conclusion, it spends a few words about the
operation of the plant over the last six months.

4
2. RODENHUIZE SITE DESCRIPTION

The Electrabel power station of Rodenhuize located in the surrounding of Ghent is installed
along the Ghent-Terneuze canal close to the “Ghent coal terminal”. This strategic location
allows an easy fuel supply by boat and offers an important storage capacity provided by the
Ghent coal terminal.

The plant was composed of four units.

Unit 1 was put out of service several years ago and its dismantling is completed.

Units 2 and 3 have been built in the sixties and were producing each 133MWe. After more
than 40 years the units 2 and 3 were considered being too aged to be refurbished, therefore
those units have been shutdown mid 2011.

Unit 4 has been built in 1974. This unit is constituted of an outdoor water pipe boiler with
natural circulation and gastight walls and was able to produce up to 280 MWe. The boiler was
built by Brouhon under Riley license. Originally sized to burn Blast Furnace Gas (BFG) and
Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO), the Unit was modified in 1989 to allow the combustion of coal. In
2005, the unit was modified for a second time in order to burn the equivalent of 65 MWe of
biomass in the form of pulverized pellets. In the year 2008, modifications have been
performed to allow the unit to burn the equivalent of 200 MWth Natural Gas (NG) instead of
HFO and to double the biomass share.

At the end of the year 2010, Arcelor Mittal Ghent installed a new BFG power station burning
the totality of the BFG allocated to the Rodenhuize power station to produce 300 MWe during
90% of the time.

As Electrabel decided to abandon the coal combustion, Unit 4 has to be retrofitted to allow,
on one hand, the combustion of 100% biomass up to 180 MW (net electrical output) without
support firing during 90% of the time, and on the other hand, the combustion of the BFG as
back-up plant of the Arcelor Mittal Ghent BFG power station during 10% of the time.

Electrabel mandated Tractebel Engineering to manage the whole extent of the modifications
required to achieve the retrofit of the unit 4 in an EPC-M (Engineering, Procurement and
Construction-Management) approach, which represented the Max Green project.

5
3. THE MAX GREEN PROJECT

The Max Green project has been managed in the frame of a “EPC-M” approach. In that way,
the whole extent was split into different packages listed here after:

 boiler retrofit:
a. installation of 12 new BFG burners, 16 new NG/Biomass burners and 8
new Biomass burners including the membrane walls modifications;
b. modification on the water steam cycle to avoid steaming in the economizer;
c. modification on the air supply circuits;
d. modification of the flue gas recirculation circuit;
e. installation of 8 Over Fire Air ports.
 installation of a Selective Catalytic Reduction of Nitrogen Oxides (SCR-DeNOx);
 retrofit of the ElectroStatic Precipitator (ESP);
 installation of a third milling biomass unit;
 installation of a new auxiliary boiler to allow the start-up of the plant and the
warming-up of the catalyst;
 condenser revamping;
 modification of the auxiliary circuits (vacuum, closed cooling water system, fire
fighting, water circuits).

The main contractors associated to this project were: Babcock Borsig Steinmüller GmbH for
the boiler, Termokimik Corporation for the SCR-DeNOx, Hamon Research Cottrell S.A. for
the ESP and Geldof Metaalconstructie N.V for the biomass handling and milling installation.

This EPC-M approach in the frame of a brown field project highly interfaced to the existing
plant installations represented several challenges which will be further described.

6
 Unit 4

2 3

Figure 1: General overview of the plant before conversion to biomass showing the location of the main boiler (1), the future
SCR-DeNOx (2), the ESP (3) and the auxiliary boiler (4). This picture shows the unit 1, which is at this time dismantled.

Unit 4

Figure 2: General overview of the plant after installation of the first biomass installation (4) showing the turbine hall where
the condenser has been revamped and the auxiliaries have been reconfigured (5). This picture does not show the second
milling unit (6) which was already erected at the beginning of the Max Green project.

7
4. PROCESS DESCRIPTION AND KEY FIGURES

The Unit 4 is a classic thermal cycle consisting of on balanced draft boxer firing boiler with
reheat and one condensing steam turbine which burn, each year, about 1 million Tons of fresh
wood pellets.

1
2

3
6
5

Figure 3: Illustration of a classic thermal power plant: boiler (1), turbine (2), condenser (3), cooling tower (4), SCR-DeNox
(5), ESP (6).

In such conversion, there are different limiting factors inherent to the change of the fuel.
Those limiting factors such as furnace residence time, boiler heat fluxes, metal temperature,
slagging, fouling, corrosion may have an impact on the net electrical output generated on the
grid. The real impact of those limiting factors is difficult to predict at an early stage of the
project, however those are of utmost importance to release the “go / no go” for project
realization. As the converted Plant is in commercial operation since September 2011, a
comparison of the main process key figures related to the operation of the Unit 4 before and
after the conversion to pure biomass has been prepared in table 1.

8
 Pure coal Pure biomass Pure biomass
MCR (*) Max Rate (**) NCR (***)

Gross electrical output [MW] 279 242.1 216.5

Net electrical output [MW] Unknown 223.3 200.0

De-rating of gross electrical output [%] Reference -13% -28%

Steam production [t/h] 808 697 600

Pressure/ temperature [bara, °C] 124.5 / 540.0 124.3 / 536.9 124.1 / 538.0

Fuel LHV [kJ/kg] 20500 17740 17740

Fuel input [t/h] 126.7 123.4 113.5

Thermal input [MW] 721.6 608.2 559.3

Thermal input per burner [MW]/ number of burners in

30.1 / 24 27.6 / 22 28.0 / 20
operation

Site Heat Rate (thermal input vs net electrical output) 9804 10067
Unknown
kJ/kWh 36.7% 35.8%

Emission at boiler outlet (NOx) [mg/Nm³ @ 6% O2] <1300 198.1 192.8

Emission at chimney (NOx, CO, dust) [mg/Nm³ @ 6% O2] <1300, <125, - 74.7, 27.6, 3.3 72.3, 30.0, 3.6

Table 1: Main process key figures related to the operation of the Unit 4 before and after the conversion to pure biomass.

(*) Maximum Continuous Rate during coal (only) operation according to design values given in instruction manual
established after the Plant conversion to coal combustion conducted in 1989.

(**) Maximum Rate during biomass (only) operation. The given values in this column have been measured during a 2 hours
test (with dedicated instruments)

(***) Nominal Continuous Rate during biomass (only) operation after the Plant conversion to biomass combustion (Max
Green project). The design value for the heat input is 560 MWth (which has to be compared to the measured value of 559.3
MWth). The given values in this column come from Plant measurements.

As the combustion of biomass is interesting from NOx emissions point of view, the figure 4
shows the NOx and CO emissions and the nitrogen content in the fuel after the conversion to
pure biomass.

9
 Figure 4: NOx, CO emissions and nitrogen content of the fuel over the year 2011 (weeks 31 to 52).

5. TECHNICAL CHALLENGES

The realization of this project requires a good integration of different technologies such as
biomass handling, biomass combustion and flue gas treatment. When those technologies are
applied to a highly interfaced brown field, with a tight time schedule, challenges arise. This
section summarizes the challenges met by Tractebel Engineering in the frame of the Max
Green project.

5.1. Brownfield ECPM approach

In order to reduce the investment cost and time to realize the project, the client required to
limit the extent of the modifications on the existing installation. In that framework, Tractebel
Engineering had to develop one concept fitting the existing installation that met client’s
operational and safety needs without impacting the availability and reliability of the Plant.

An EPC-M approach imposes a good and efficient coordination of the different packages
constituting the project to guarantee the consistency and the efficiency of the whole process
from the fuel supply to the electrical power produced with the respect of the environmental
emissions limits.

10
In that framework, Tractebel Engineering in close collaboration with the Electrabel project
team took care of the good integration of the new systems with each other and within the
existing plant by identifying the required equipments to be added or changed, by defining and
quantifying all process data at the interface points.

5.2. Biomass sourcing

The biomass sourcing had to be clarified at an early stage of the project. On one hand the
client had to secure the supply of pellets on long term, on the other hand, the design of the
boiler had to cover the widest range of biomass quality.
Because of their availability, relatively high energy density (between 15 and 19 MJ/kg) and
low moisture content (max 12% of weight as received) clean wood pellets are chosen to
produce electricity in retrofitted pulverized fuel (coal) boiler.

At the time of project development and realization, the pellets that the client is able to buy on
the market are of a good quality level. By good quality level, it is understood low ash content
(<1% of weight dry material) with high ash fusion temperature (>1200°C), low chlorine
concentration (max 300mg/kg dry matter) and a larger amount of fine wood particle (>60% of
weight being constituted with particles smaller than 1mm). In the course of the time, the good
biomass quality level will become scarce because of the increased demand and the rarefaction
of the wood exploited to source this biomass category mainly composed of older trees.

As indicated earlier, from the fuel characteristics different combustion and chemical
behaviours are induced in the furnace chamber leading to boiler limitations that have to be
taken into consideration at an early stage of project development in order to secure its
realization within the imposed time schedule and guarantee a reliable operation of the plant.

In order to address this issue, especially when the new fuel specification is far away from the
design fuel of the boiler, it is recommended to issue a CFD study especially in the case of
100% new fuel combustion. As a complementary approach, it is also recommended to
evaluate through the physical and chemical characteristics of the fuel’s the slagging, fouling
and corrosion phenomenon. This evaluation does not consider the boiler design and
operational conditions but is mainly based on tools using simple chemical equations and
calculations derived from and applied for pulverized coal combustion showing trends in
slagging, fouling, corrosion and fly ash quality.

11
Even if from this approach arises some limitations concerning the reliability of the results in
terms of absolute values, the comparison and relative differences with the “design case” gives
a good overview of the trends to be expected.

5.3. Biomass handling, storage and milling

The handling of the wood pellets releases dust which is unavoidable in the power stations that
use woody biomass as fuel source. As pellets, then wood dust, have to be carried to the
combustion chamber, the dust explosion and fire problems that are associated with biomass
storage and handling arise.

The risk of fire exists when the following three elements meet: an ignition source, a
combustible, an oxidizing agent. These three elements are well known as the fire triangle.
When two extra elements are added to the fire triangle: the dust dispersion in sufficient
concentration and the dust confinement; this gives rise to the risk of dust explosion. Those
five elements are well known as the dust explosion pentagon. Based on returns of experience
from installations operated in dusty atmosphere, measures have to be taken into account to
mitigate the risk as far as possible.

The mitigation of the risk has to track the following approach:

 in first instance, the building up of explosive atmosphere must be avoided to the

greatest extent possible;
 if this goal is not reachable, ignition must be prevented;
 if despite all, an explosion does arise, its consequences must be mitigated and the
propagation to adjacent areas must be prevented.

At the Rodenhuize power station, pellets arrive via ships (SUPRAMAX type of a capacity
about 50.000 tons) and are unloaded and stored in a dedicated A-frame storage silo owned by
the Ghent Coal Terminal. From this silo, pellets are supplied to the power station and are
stored in day silos before being milled and pneumatically transported to the burners.

In order to prevent the building up of explosive atmospheres by dust dispersion and later
deposits in the installation, dedusting equipments (dust extractors and filters) have been
installed on the chutes and the silos. This, coupled with an adequate house keeping program
(to prevent secondary explosion) guarantees safe and reliable operating conditions.

12
In addition to those measures, particular attention has been paid to avoid sources of ignition
over the whole pellets handling process, including their transformation into dust. This is
implemented under the form of:

 ferro-non ferro separator which remove the foreign body that could lead to spark
resulting from a metal to metal contact;
 CO and hot spots detection caused by spontaneous combustion, the management
of product in fire requires to foresee emergency evacuation on unloading area
where the burning product can be unloaded;
 further to those equipments additional measures have to fixed during project
development such as the use of anti-static material, the avoidance of hot surfaces,
the implementation of equipotential connections and grounding, the
implementation of EX equipments where required by the ATEX safety risk
assessment, the inertisation with gas to replace the oxidizing agents.

If despite all those measures an explosion would occur, the mitigation of the consequence is
performed at two different levels. The first level being the detection of the explosion initiation
process by means of hot spark, flame and hot spot detectors and overpressure sensor. For
example, hot spot detection along the main pellets flow allows the evacuation from the
process of the burning product. At a second level, the mitigation of the consequence is
implemented by means of explosion panels installed on the silo reducing the blast of the
explosion and eventually redirecting it to a safer area, high level of automation to limit
operator’s interventions nearby the installation.

5.4. Boiler modifications

5.4.1. A tri-fuels boxer firing combustion chamber
One challenge of the Max Green project was the Client’s request to be able to burn three fuels
in the same boiler: natural gas (up to 200MWth), steel gas (BFG mainly, up to 560MWth) and
biomass (milled clean wood pellets, up to 560MWth).

13
 BFG burners level 4

BIO/NG burners level 3

BIO burners level 2

BIO/NG burners level 1

Figure 5: Furnace arrangement.

Even if, most of the time BFG is not burnt, the cooling of the openings (higher than 1.2 meter
diameter) induced by the presence of the BFG burners has to be ensured properly while
limiting the negative impact of the cooling flow on the biomass combustion zone. As shown
in figure 5, some BFG burners are located at the same level as biomass burners. In order to
match these two requirements, it was decided after several CFD studies to use low
temperature re-circulated flue gas (taken after air heater and de-dusting system) as cooling
medium because of its lower oxygen content compared to combustion air. This trended to
limit the disturbance of the biomass flame control by undesired air entrance into the boiler.
Therefore, the re-circulated flue gas circuit has completely been modified in order to ensure
the cooling of the BFG burners.

To create the optimal conditions for the biomass combustion ensuring good flame stability
without support fuel and also good NOx and CO emissions, it is mandatory to control as far as
possible the quantity of each air entrances in function of the fuel flow. As said before any
undesired air entrances go against the objective aforementioned. That is why the NG burners
are combined to biomass burners on levels 1 and 3. In this way no new boilers openings are
needed and intrusive air entrances are avoided.

The air control becomes very complex for the combined NG and biomass burners. Indeed the
balancing of combustion air between primary and secondary air changes in function of the
used fuel (pure NG, pure biomass or NG and biomass co-firing). Moreover the use of biomass
dust induce an important pressure drop inside the primary air section of the burner which
affect the primary air flow distribution on the other burners belonging to the same level. All
these changes are anticipated by a complex air regulation architecture which allows all
combinations of biomass and gas on the burners of level 1 and 3.

14
The position of the burners (for biomass, NG and BFG) has been studied through extensive
CFD models. Among others the heat fluxes, the flue gas temperatures and temperatures of
heat exchangers have been deeply studied in order to avoid any damages or accelerated
ageing of all reused pressure parts. These CFD studies led among others to a relocation of the
BFG burners.

5.4.2. Burners
The selected technology for combustion within the Max Green project is the front fired
pulverized fuel. Considering the chosen type of biomass this technology is certainly the most
effective in terms of CAPEX and OPEX.

In terms of CAPEX this technology allows the reuse of the pressure parts of the boiler except
the modification at the burners and OFA ports.

In terms of OPEX this technology allows high combustion efficiency in comparison to the
fluidized bed technology which operates at lower furnace temperature. This leads to a
measured boiler efficiency (considering the outlet of the air heater) higher than 90%.

The existing coal biomass burners have been deeply modified in order to cope with the new
type and quantity of biomass fuel.

The CFD studies aim to optimize the combustion process from reliability and emissions point
of view. According to CFD studies the following modifications have been carried out: the
section passages of secondary air have been modified to reach the good air velocities; the
swirler angle of secondary air has been also adjusted. On the primary air side, the section
passage has been also modified and a flame stabilizer ring at the burner nose has been
installed. Always according to the CFD results no swirl has been foreseen in the primary air
section.

On another hand adaptations have been carried out in regard with the important erosion
activity generated by the wood dust stream. Indeed the high ash content of silica (which can
be higher than 50% of weight dry ash) induces a very high erosion activity on every impacted
surface. This erosion activity is much higher than for coal.

15
New materials have been used on the most critical parts. The first section of the primary air
pipe has been completely covered by ceramic tiles. The shape of the first section of the
primary air is hexagonal. This particular shape has several advantages. First the kinetic energy
of the wood dust particles is partly absorbed by the edge of the hexagon which is
perpendicular to the wood dust flow at the entrance of the burner. Second the hexagon shape
allows a good distribution of the wood dust all around the primary air tube. Finally because
the hexagon is a symmetric shape the primary air tube can be turned by 180° in order to extent
the lifetime of the primary air tube by presenting another side to the inlet wood dust flow (the
side of the hexagon directly impacted is obviously exposed to the highest erosion rate).

The wood dust is transported in dense phase independently from the primary air and is
injected in a concentric way inside the primary pipe about one meter upstream the inlet of the
burner. From the injection point of the wood dust inside the primary air pipe every parts of
piping subject to erosion have been covered by ceramic tiles.

The inner side of the secondary air pipe (in contact with the wood dust) has been protected
from erosion by using hard-facing by welding.

The figure 6 shows an overview of the NG / biomass burner.

3 1
4
8

2
1. primary air and wood dust
5 2. cooling air for core tube
3. secondary air I
4. secondary air II
5. ceramic protection
6. swirler secondary air
7. flame stabilize
6 8. natural gas

Figure 6: Typical biomass and natural gas burner overview. Source: Babcock Borsig Steinmüller Gmbh

16
5.4.3. Combustion of 100% biomass without support firing
Another challenge was to ensure an efficient combustion of a large amount of biomass
without any support fire different from the fired biomass itself. Indeed before the project, unit
4 of Rodenhuize power plan was already able to fire up to 50% biomass versus coal. But in
this operating condition the coal combustion was well controlled while the biomass
combustion was erratic at the biomass burners’ level. The biomass combustion was completed
thanks to the coal fire which was acting as a support fire ensuring the burn out of the biomass.
At that time the wood particle speed was far too high and the wood particles were hitting the
opposite membrane walls without burning. The slagging problem was a major concern. The
combustion of biomass alone was hence impossible.

During the Max Green project the combustion parameters have been tuned according to
experimental tests in situ in order to obtain a self-sustaining flame located at the outlet of each
burner because no similar experience was existing as reference. The main parameters
influencing the combustion process were tuned during commissioning; among others we can
mention: the primary air temperature and flow, the secondary air flow and the secondary air
swirl.

The boiler start-up is carried out with natural gas. The transition to 100% biomass was also an
important challenge of the Max Green project. The final start-up procedure aims to reduce to
a minimum the necessary time of burning natural gas. A highly complex air regulation during
start-up has been implemented to reduce the start-up period using natural gas.

5.5. Flue gas treatment

5.5.1. Selective Catalytic Reduction of Nitrogen Oxides (SCR-DeNOx)
The combustion process releases NOx, which mainly result from the oxidation of the
molecular nitrogen N2 contained into the combustion air, and chemically bound nitrogen N
contained into the fuel. A third reaction exists, the reaction of molecular nitrogen N2 with
hydrocarbon radical, but its incidence on NOx formation is minimal.

The factors increasing NOx emissions are, on one hand the fuel specification, and on the other
hand, the combustion chamber temperature and the flame temperature, the residence time, the
excess of air, the particle sizes. Those last factors are inherent to the boiler, mills and burner
designs, combustion parameters and boiler load.

17
As primary NOx reduction measure, low NOx burners have been installed in the boiler,
combined with an OFA system allowing low excess air combustion at burners level and
sufficient overall burnout (typically lower than 50 ppm).

However to achieve the NOx emission limits required by the project of 70 mg/Nm³ @ 6% O2
(expressed as NO2 equivalent), which is 20 mg below the maximum legal requirement, a
secondary NOx reduction measure had to be implemented. Tractebel Engineering, in
collaboration with Laborelec, proposed Electrabel the installation of a Selective Catalytic
Reduction system of nitrogen oxides. This system is presently considered as the most efficient
secondary technology available on the market for PF boilers, where Selective Non Catalytic
Reduction systems are not cost effective.

Even if this technology is well known in case of coal combustion, no experience existed for
the 100% wood pellets PF boiler with high-dust SCR system at the beginning of the Max
Green project. The main first challenge was to choose the various parameters of the catalyst
and SCR design, such as catalyst formulation, catalyst geometry, reactor sizing, design
temperature, NH3 slip design and SO2 conversion, in order to make it suitable for the
specificities of the Max Green project. Based on the return of experience of a high-dust SCR
pilot installation of Laborelec on a 100% wood pellets PF boiler, it was possible to choose all
the design parameters to maximize the catalyst lifetime and to get all the typical guarantees
for such a SCR retrofit. The performance results from the Max Green project represent a
significant return of experience for Electrabel, Laborelec and Tractebel Engineering.

Among others, the most relevant flue gas parameters are shortly explained here below.

 Flue gas composition:

o Compared to the combustion of coal, the combustion of wood pellets results in
flue gas with the higher concentrations of some volatile poisonous components
for the catalyst, such as alkali’s, phosphorus, CaO. Those elements can have a
direct impact on the life time of the catalyst and therefore on the catalyst
formulation and SCR design.
o The flue gas from biomass combustion contains less fly ash but more alkaline,
leading to a different catalyst geometry and different NH3 slip design.
o The SO3 content in the flue gas at the level of the SCR is very low with 100%
wood combustion. This has an impact of the SO2 conversion design and SCR
design.

18
  Flue gas temperature:
o The conversion from coal to wood resulted in lower flue gas temperature after
the economizer. In combination of the low SO2 concentration in the flue gas,
the lower working temperature of the DeNOx catalyst allows to adapt the
catalyst formulation in order to increase its activity, without the risk of SO3
related problems in the DeNOx reactor and in the air preheater (fouling and/or
corrosion with ammonium(bi)sulphate and sulphuric acid condensation). To
increase the catalyst activity, the concentration of the active catalyst elements
(vanadium, tungsten, molybdenum) is typically increased.
o A significant CAPEX decrease resulted from the absence of economizer split
to maintain the SCR temperature at part load.
 Flue gas flow:
o The SCR reactor is designed as such to ensure an allowable functioning with
BFG (higher flue gas flow rate and no SCR by-pass).
o This design also ensures an advantageous area velocity for the biomass mode,
not taking into account the flue gas recirculation on the burner levels (cooling
of the BFG burners when biomass firing).

Taking into account these parameters for the Max Green project, a 3+1 catalyst layers SCR
reactor had to be installed in order to ensure an efficient NOx reduction during a sufficient life
time.

At the Rodenhuize power station a NH4OH solution 24,5% weight is evaporated because of
limited available space and directly injected in the flue gases, without mixing with hot air.
This solution reduces the consumption of auxiliary steam or electricity (heating of the air) and
limits the loss of efficiency due to steam extraction on the turbine. In contact with the catalyst,
the NOx (NO and NO2) and NH3 molecules react and form nitrogen gas and water.

A second challenge was linked to the integration of the SCR reactor in the already very dense
flue gas ducts area. The reactor is indeed located above the air pre-heaters, between the
furnace chamber and the ESP. An important steel structure of about 1 000 tons supporting the
400 tons reactor had to be installed and supported by substantial foundations in order to reach
the boiler outlet duct located at an elevation of 70 m.

19
Because of the very tight time schedule and the interactions with other packages, the erection
of the reactor and its supporting structure was a challenge. Indeed the erection phase occurred
during certain steps with the unit still in service or during the crane works on the ESP. In
order to limit the time frame, large pieces were pre-assembled on the ground before being
lifted and fixed in their final position. This approach corresponds to a limited number of lifts,
but to more complex lifting operations. It required a crane of 120 m height able to lift 100
tons at the bow tip and the support from a smaller crane.

Figure 7: Erection of the SCR-DeNOx reactor - interconnecting hopper with the air preheater - between the boiler
(background) and the electrofilter (foreground).

5.5.2. ElectroStatic Precipitator (ESP)

The permit related to the Max Green project imposed dust emission limits of 10 mg/Nm³ dry
at 11% O2, leading to modification works on the existing ESP as well. Since the ESP was
designed for coal combustion (about 6-8 times more fly ash than the combustion of wood
pellets), a retrofit of the ESP was sufficient and it was not necessary to transform it in a bag
filter.

20
This retrofit included the replacement of the discharge electrodes (some of them were
damaged), the replacement of the oldest HV transformers, a system of energy consumption
optimization (depending of the measured dust emissions) and the complete replacement of the
control system into a digital system. Finally, the SO3 injection has been stopped (it was
previously used for improving the efficiency of the ESP) due to the chemical nature of the
wood fly ash.

6. CONCLUSION AND PERSPECTIVES

After six months of operation, the retrofit of the Unit 4 of the Rodenhuize power station is a
success; the unit is producing about 225MWe on a regular base what shows the ability of
Tractebel and Electrabel to manage brownfield retrofit projects.

The biomass handling and the once-trough injection (one blower/one injection line/one
burner) concepts and the flue gas treatment technology implemented on this project follow the
most advanced good practice within the GDF-SUEZ Group and guarantee a safe and reliable
operation of the fuel supply installation.

Whereas the retrofit of the combustion process is highly satisfactory, some areas for further
improvement could be explored e.g the reduction of the global air excess by limiting the
parasitical air entrances and by lowering the air excess at the burner’s level, the adjunction of
a swirl of the wood dust particles in the primary air section and a more accurate control of the
primary air would lead to even better boiler efficiency and NOx emissions.

The Max Green project showed that the combustion of 100% biomass on large scale PF boiler
can be an interesting alternative to reduce CO2 emission especially when sustained by green
certificates; the unit 4 of Rodenhuize represents already 1/10th of 20% of the electricity
produced from renewable energy in Belgium to be achieved by end of 2020. More over, the
Max Green project contributed widely to the DEBCO (Demonstration of Large Scale Biomass
Co-Firing and Supply Chain Integration) program which is concerned with the demonstration
and development of innovative approaches related to the co-utilisation of biomass with coal
for large-scale electricity production at more competitive costs and increased energy
efficiency.

21