Valmet will supply a complete hot water plant for the production of district heat to Göteborg Energi AB in Gothenburg, Sweden.

The new plant is expected to reduce fossil CO2 emissions by 25,000 tonnes per year.

The new boiler plant will replace two old boilers originally designed for oil and coal but converted to run on wood pellets in 2003. The new boiler will be 25 per cent larger than the two old ones combined. It will also have a longer operating season.

Since the number of operating hours on pellets will increase, the use of natural gas will decrease. The ash from the combustion will be returned to the forest.

Valmet will demolish the existing boiler plant and build the new one, including fuel preparation, ash handling and flue gas cleaning systems. The delivery also includes the installation, start-up and predictive maintenance for the boiler plant. The boiler will have a fuel capacity of 130 MW and will be based on Valmet’s technology for large pellet-fired boilers.

Demolition of the existing plant will start in April 2021 and the new plant is scheduled to be started later the same year in December.

“The goal of Göteborg Energi is that our production of district heat will emit zero CO2 by 2025,” said Anna Svernlöv, Head of Production at Göteborg Energi.

“We have already taken many steps toward that goal, and I am very happy we are now also upgrading our Rya district heating plant. We will get a plant with modern technology that will serve us well for many years to come.

“Going forward, we will continue with our other planned steps toward a more sustainable city,” .

“This is an important continuation of Valmet’s deliveries of pellet-fired plants, and the scope of the project is unique. The flue gas cleaning system will represent the best currently available technology, and the plant will be equipped with Valmet Industrial Internet solutions, too. This advanced technology will provide information on where maintenance is needed, enabling higher reliability and performance. This is an exciting project for Valmet, and we are looking forward to completing it together with Göteborg Energi,” says Mikael Barkar, Senior Sales Manager, Energy Sales and Services Operations, EMEA, Valmet.

Göteborg Energi AB is fully owned by the city of Gothenburg in Sweden. Besides developing and supplying new solutions within energy production and broadband connections, the company is also working toward a bigger goal – a sustainable Gothenburg. Göteborg Energi has almost 1,000 employees that work to make the city more sustainable going forward.