ABB helps burn waste

ABB is supplying a complete power and automation solution for a waste-to-energy power plant that will generate clean heat and power for one of the biggest chemical and pharmaceutical parks in Europe.

Scheduled for completion in 2009 the plant, which will be the largest in Germany, will cost more than $400m and will produce 70MW of electric power and 250,000 tons of stream from waste created at the Infraerv Höchst site.

The plant will be one of the largest fluidised bed installations in the world. Carefully screened and sorted waste (also known as refuse-derived fuel) is fed into a circulating fluidised bed of red hot quartz sand to create an intense heat exchange from which power and steam are generated.

The plant will incinerate up to 675,000 tons of pre-sorted waste from the site. According to ABB, it has an efficiency level of 90 per cent. Companies with facilities at the site include BASF, Bayer, Cargill, Merck and Pfizer.