Peat power plant
A peat power plant is a power plant in which peat is used as fuel for generating electricity or heating.
Moors from which the peat is extracted have been regarded as valuable nature reserves since the 1980s, so peat is no longer used as fuel on a large scale in Central Europe. Many countries have given up their peat power plants. In the European Union , Ireland , Finland and Sweden still operate peat power plants of significant size and number.
technology
In a peat power station, the peat is burned in a furnace . In the past, this was usually done in sod / ball form on a grate , and the power plants had an output of a few megawatts . Modern large peat power plants have a combustion output of several hundred megawatts. Nowadays, almost only the fluidized bed is used as a furnace , which is suitable due to the high ash content and the low ash softening temperature of the peat.
The resulting heat heats the water in the downstream boiler , so that steam is generated. The steam then drives a turbine . The principle corresponds to the standard steam power plant .
Problems
In addition to the destruction of the cultural landscape of the moor through the large consumption of fuel peat, criteria such as CO 2 are also an issue when burning fossil fuels. Due to the high water and ash content, the calorific value of peat is very low and the peat has to be dried in a complex manner. This means very low efficiency and high fuel consumption. In the German Rühle power plant, up to 100,000 tons of peat were burned annually in order to obtain “only” 6.6 MW of electrical output. Modern fluidized bed peat power plants with 150 MW of electrical output, despite their higher efficiency, still consume well over 1 million tons of peat per year.
Peat power plants in Germany
Two peat power plants were operated in Germany, both with grate firing: the Wiesmoor peat power plant from 1909 to 1965 and the Rühler Moor peat power plant from 1926 to 1974. Large deposits of peat in the immediate vicinity of the power plant are imperative for a peat power plant. This is how the Wiesmoor power plant was built in close proximity to the moor. The Rühlermoor power plant was also located on the edge of the Bourtanger Moor , a huge moor area on the German-Dutch border. No other planned power plants, such as a peat utilization power plant for the Lower Saxony power plants near Osnabrück , were built. Instead, the Nike power station Ibbenbüren was built on a coal basis. Gas turbine power plants then replaced both power plants. But these have also been shut down in the meantime.
Peat power plants in Finland
In Finland, peat accounts for 6–7 percent of primary energy but 20 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. For political reasons - peat is one of the indigenous raw materials - the state promotes peat extraction and processing despite its proven environmental damage. The country has a total of 60 peat power plants that employ around 7,000 people (as of 2012). The annual turnover of the peat market is around 200 million euros. 51 percent of the world's energy peat is produced here, but mostly consumed in the country itself.
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ The role of peat power plants in Finland on finn-land.net; Retrieved July 9, 2014