Heating plant

Biomass heating plant with the wood chip store in the foreground approx. 1000 kW heating output

Maria Gugging biomass heating plant for district heating with approx. 6000 kW heating capacity

Wood chip heating plant of the Trier University of Applied Sciences

Mödling district heating plant , built in 1960, reserve and peak load heating plant with approx. 30,000 kW heating capacity

Fernwärme Wien operates Austria's largest fossil fuel-fired district heating plant with a thermal output of 358,000 kW.

A heating plant is a facility for the central generation of heat for hot water supply, room heating and industrial processes. It doesn't provide electricity. The heat is usually supplied to the consumers via district heating or local heating networks. Usually water or steam are used as the transmission medium . The heating of the water or the generation of steam take place in boiler systems ( steam boilers , heating boilers ) or by heat exchangers in which the waste heat from other processes is used.

technology

A heating plant generally consists of the following sub-systems:

• Fuel supply and storage
• Heat generation ( boiler system )
• Flue gas cleaning
• Water treatment
• Pressure maintenance (for heating water systems)
• District heating storage
• Network pumps (for heating water systems)

function

Pure fossil-fired heating plants are now only built to cover reserves and peak loads or for small supply networks. Whenever possible, attempts are made to link the generation of heat with the generation of electricity in so-called combined heat and power plants ( combined heat and power ), or to build so-called biomass heating plants that are biogenously fired .

The following fuel is used for heating plants:

• Biomass such as wood chips , straw
• natural gas
• coal
• Heating oil

Heating plants supply larger residential units, administrative buildings or entire districts with heat. Because there is no need for individual firing, they help improve inner-city air quality . In the heating plant, the pollutants generated can be reduced more easily by appropriate exhaust gas cleaning than with small decentralized heating systems. By using different fuels in different heating plants, the dependency on one energy source can be avoided. Usually, the efficiency of large boilers in heating plants is also somewhat higher than with individual firing systems in residential buildings. However, despite good thermal insulation, heat losses occur through the distribution lines , which reduce the overall degree of utilization of the district heating system. In special cases, condensing boilers can be used in heating plants to improve the degree of utilization.

Heating plants were built in the GDR for the central supply of prefabricated housing estates. The consumers were supplied above and below ground through district heating lines .

Web links

Wiktionary: Heizwerk  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

• Working group quality management for wood heating plants for Switzerland, Germany, Austria.
• Quality management for wood heating plants in Austria.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ See Volker Quaschning , Renewable Energies and Climate Protection . Munich 2013, p. 304.