Thermal treatment of waste using grate-based systems has gained world-wide acceptance as the preferred method for sustainable management of residual waste. However, in order to maintain this position and respond to new challenges and/or priorities, it is necessary to further develop innovative concepts that use safe process engineering technology in terms of climate and resource protection as well as reduction of environmental impacts. MARTIN, in collaboration with research institutes, successfully developed and optimized a multi-stage combustion process in the 1990s. Various pilot and full-scale studies and tests followed. Based on this knowledge, MARTIN and its cooperation partners COVANTA ENERGY (USA), CNIM (F) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (JP) developed the Very Low NOx (VLN) process as a large-scale primary measure for NOx reduction. MARTIN’s next step was to develop the Very Low NOx gasification mode (VLN-GM) process. This process has been implemented directly in continuous operation at an industrial-scale Energy-from-Waste (EfW) plant in Switzerland. In VLN-GM operation, the excess air rate in the gas above the grate is decreased from λ = 1.2 to about 0.8.
The characteristics of municipal solid waste make it suitable for the generation of heat and power. While boiler concepts implemented in the past often focused on factors such as high availability, reduced downtimes and minimized maintenance costs, measures to increase the efficiency of the overall process are also growing in importance. Energy efficiency can be increased by optimizing boiler efficiency itself on the one hand, and on the other hand by improving peripheral plant devices, in particular by improving energy recovery through changes in the steam parameters.
MARTIN has developed corrosion-protected wall and radiant superheater solutions, located in the upper furnace area, and installed these as prototypes in full-scale plants. As a result, steam can be heated about 35 °C (90 °F) in excess of the current state-of-the-art parameters without adversely affecting plant operation due to superheater corrosion.
This paper documents that innovative concepts using MARTIN technology successfully provide solutions for a grate-based conversion technology (VLN-GM) as well as measures for increasing the energy efficiency of Energy-from-Waste plants.
