This plant is intended for the treatment of pellets already formed from solid urban waste (SUW) and biomass waste mainly, that is why in this plant, there is not a sorting or classification plant.
Thanks to the Thermolysis system where the material is heated and not burned and where the gases produced by the thermodecomposition are used by a gasifier without being released to the outside, the plant is located within an urban nucleus coexisting with other factories, industrial buildings even very close (<100m) to private houses.
It is a 1MWh plant, that is to say, it consumes 1 ton of pellets per hour uninterruptedly during 8,000h per year (11 months approximately), after this time the plant stops to carry out an obligatory maintenance.
The machinery is located inside a building that has a footprint of approximately 900m2.
The interior of the plant has the following distribution:
This is the design of the Thermolysis plant in Filakovo
Place where the already formed pellets are deposited, which come in large sacks and are poured into the hopper in such a way that they are introduced in a staggered way through a toothed belt that transports them inside the building.
Dryer:
Pellets from biomass pass through this dryer, whose function is to dry and extract the moisture contained in the material until it is left at levels between 7 and 20%.
This function is very important because in this way the productivity of the plant is much higher.
The pellets, free of dust, impurities and a large part of the humidity they contained, leave the dryer and pass through different deposits where they are stored and are left waiting until they are transported by toothed belts and fall into the hopper of the Thermolysis oven, (blue box).
Once the pellets have been decomposed, the excess material is ejected into the “blue box” on a conveyor belt which evacuates them from the building and deposits them in a container located outside the building in the form of coal smoke if what has been treated is MSW or in the form of biochar if pellets from biomass have been treated.
Inside the blue box, the pellets are deposited, which fall by gravity into the interior through a system of blades that do not allow the passage of oxygen.
The interior is made up of two cylinders that are heated with part of the gas produced in the same process and that rotate and move the pellets from one end to the other while they decompose due to the high temperatures inside the retort (between 600 and 1200ºC).
The gases released are passed on to a gasifier and the surplus, biochar, if biomass waste has been treated, is sold as a soil improver for farmers.
When MSW has been treated, part of this surplus is sold to a local cement factory that uses it as fuel for its production process.
In the gas cooling process, about 10% of a water rich in heavy metals is condensed, filtered and sold.
The gas, once treated as well as the water used for cleaning in the process, is deposited in separate tanks located outside the enclosure and which in this case are buried.
The gas tank incorporates a ventilation system that homogenizes the different gases so that they are not arranged in layers according to their densities.
In the gas cooling process, about 10% of a water rich in heavy metals is condensed, which is filtered and sold as an ignition enhancer.
The homogenized gases from the tank are used to feed a cogeneration engine that is located in an adjacent room. During its operation, the engine of this plant generates 1MWh of electricity and 1.2MWh of heat.
At Filakovo, the electricity produced is sold and injected into the existing network.
In other plants, the heat generated by this engine could be used to boil the water contained in a series of boilers through a turbine that would produce approximately 0.6MWh more.
In this Filakovo plant in Slovakia, the heat produced by the cogeneration engine is mainly used to inject it into the dryer (explained in point 2) thus dehumidifying the pellets before entering the process.
This process is carried out by means of an insulated pipe (8) connecting the engine to the dryer.
The surplus heat in this case is used as heating in the plant.
Electrical room, transformer, generator, and office area
1
Place where the already formed pellets are deposited, which come in large sacks and are poured into the hopper in such a way that they are introduced in a staggered way through a toothed belt that transports them inside the building.
2
Dryer:
Pellets from biomass pass through this dryer, whose function is to dry and extract the moisture contained in the material until it is left at levels between 7 and 20%.
This function is very important because in this way the productivity of the plant is much higher.
3
The pellets, free of dust, impurities and a large part of the humidity they contained, leave the dryer and pass through different deposits where they are stored and are left waiting until they are transported by toothed belts and fall into the hopper of the Thermolysis oven, (blue box).
4
Once the pellets have been decomposed, the excess material is ejected into the “blue box” on a conveyor belt which evacuates them from the building and deposits them in a container located outside the building in the form of coal smoke if what has been treated is MSW or in the form of biochar if pellets from biomass have been treated.
5
Inside the blue box, the pellets are deposited, which fall by gravity into the interior through a system of blades that do not allow the passage of oxygen.
The interior is made up of two cylinders that are heated with part of the gas produced in the same process and that rotate and move the pellets from one end to the other while they decompose due to the high temperatures inside the retort (between 600 and 1200ºC).
The gases released are passed on to a gasifier and the surplus, biochar, if biomass waste has been treated, is sold as a soil improver for farmers.
When MSW has been treated, part of this surplus is sold to a local cement factory that uses it as fuel for its production process.
6
In the gas cooling process, about 10% of a water rich in heavy metals is condensed, filtered and sold.
The gas, once treated as well as the water used for cleaning in the process, is deposited in separate tanks located outside the enclosure and which in this case are buried.
The gas tank incorporates a ventilation system that homogenizes the different gases so that they are not arranged in layers according to their densities.
In the gas cooling process, about 10% of a water rich in heavy metals is condensed, which is filtered and sold as an ignition enhancer.
7
The homogenized gases from the tank are used to feed a cogeneration engine that is located in an adjacent room. During its operation, the engine of this plant generates 1MWh of electricity and 1.2MWh of heat.
At Filakovo, the electricity produced is sold and injected into the existing network.
In other plants, the heat generated by this engine could be used to boil the water contained in a series of boilers through a turbine that would produce approximately 0.6MWh more.
8
In this Filakovo plant in Slovakia, the heat produced by the cogeneration engine is mainly used to inject it into the dryer (explained in point 2) thus dehumidifying the pellets before entering the process.
This process is carried out by means of an insulated pipe (8) connecting the engine to the dryer.
The surplus heat in this case is used as heating in the plant.
9
Electrical room, transformer, generator, and office area: