Man Diesel to supply steam turbine generator for waste-to-energy plant in the UK

MAN Diesel & Turbo will soon supply a steam-turbine generator set for a waste-to-energy plant in the UK. CNIM’S Environment Division, based in Vélizy in south-western Paris, is general contractor (EPC) for the Wilton 11 project. The contract also includes the supply of generator, condenser, lube-oil system and the complete instrumentation-and-control technology.

All the necessary preparations for building up the turbogenerator, such as ordering materials, have already been made by MAN Diesel & Turbo in Oberhausen. The aim is to complete and ship the 185-metric tons steam turbine in the spring of 2015.

The end-customer and operator, SITA Sembcorp UK, will dispose up to 60 metric tons of waste per hour on two incineration lines. The generated heat will produce live steam, which will then expand in the steam turbine to drive the coupled electrical generator and generate electricity. The steam turbine is equipped with one controlled extraction and several bleeds, which will be used to feed the industrial complex’s process-steam network.

Flexible steam turbine

Holger Kube, Head of Sales, Steam Turbines, MAN Diesel & Turbo, Oberhausen, said the company’s French client CNIM contacted them at an early stage. This plant concept requires, operations-wise, a highly flexible steam turbine, said Kube. "This is what we accordingly have designed so that it can operate over a very wide range of operating-load points and is also suitable for island-mode operation." Island mode occurs when the plant is able to supply the industrial complex with electricity to meet its own requirements in the event of a power outage from the local grid.

CNIM has valuable experience from previous projects involving MAN Diesel & Turbo steam turbines. Olivier Serres, Steam Turbine & Condenser Purchaser at CNIM said MAN Diesel & Turbo “has brought a comprehensive, technical competence to our project and is a partner that we know we can rely on."

Mark Renner, MAN’s Project Manager for this order, said: "Because of the time-critical construction process, it is necessary to install the steam-turbine generator set in the machine house at an early stage. We highly appreciate that CNIM, in recognition of our qualities, has entrusted us with the critical task of managing the delivery and commissioning of the MAN-supplied equipment on-site."

With this latest contract from CNIM, MAN Diesel & Turbo is setting a benchmark in the industrial and decentralized power-generation sector, said Holger Kube. "Our orders over the past few months show how flexibly our steam turbines can be employed, even for the most diverse of applications – ranging from the 125MW Shams 1 solar thermal-power plant in Abu Dhabi, to the waste-heat generator bound for a Finnfjord AS smelting works in Norway, and all the way to the Wilton 11 project currently underway in the UK."

He concluded saying the Wilton 11 order “is the logical extension of our steam-turbine references to waste-to-energy plants since all recent European projects involving large steam turbines have been awarded to us." These include new-builds in Bremen (50 MW), Turin (66 MW) and London Belvedere (80 MW).