Finland Opens World's Largest Biogas Plant

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland) - The world's largest biomass gasification (biogas) plant has been fired up in Vaasa, Finland.

Located at the 565-megawatt (MW) Vaskiluoto 2 coal-fired plant the 140 MW biogas plant has been attached to an existing coal-fired unit and will help reduce the use of coal at the plant by more than 40% by burning wood chips. The plant was officially opened this week by the Finnish Minister of Labour, Lauri Ihalainen.

The project was first announced by Finnish energy companies EPV Energy (Vaasa, Finland) and Pohjolan Voima (Helsinki, Finland) in 2010 and cost an estimated €40 million ($52 million). For additional information, see August 15, 2010, article - Major Biogasifier Project Planned for Finland.

"This project delivers on the government program to increase the use of renewable energy and reduce the use of coal in energy supply in a controlled manner," Ihalainen explained. "Also, our trade balance will improve with the use of domestic wood chips, replacing the need for importing coal."

The plant, which will need 9,000 trucks of wood chips annually, was supplied by Finnish biomass boiler specialist, Metso (PINK:MXCYY) (Helsinki, Finland). This project involved fuel handling, a large-scale dryer and a circulating fluidized bed gasifier, modification work on the existing coal boiler and a Metso DNA automation system. The gas produced will be combusted along with coal in the existing coal boiler.

"The operational experiences so far indicate that the 140 MW bio-gasification plant functions as planned, and the produced gas burns cleanly in the coal boiler and reduces emissions," saids Mauri Blomberg, Managing Director, Vaskiluodon Voima.

"Coal powered plants can be made greener, and Vaskiluoto's plant is leading the way," added Jyrki Holmala, President of Metso's Power business line. "Coal boilers still account for the majority of power production in the world. Bio-gasification technology of this scale offers a new, cost-effective option for increasing the share of biomass and, consequently, for significantly decreasing the use of and emissions from coal."

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