ABOUT THE WASTE-TO-ENERGY PLANT

This state-of-the-art, low-emissions plant provides heating for households

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The fuel used in the waste-to-energy plant is mixed waste, which has been sorted at source to remove recyclable and hazardous waste fractions. More than 200,000 kg of unrecyclable, mixed waste arrives at Lounais-Suomen Jätehuolto’s waste collection centres every weekday.

In the waste-to-energy plant, unrecyclable waste is put to use close to its point of origin. This reduces the greenhouse gas emissions of waste transports, as long-distance shipments are no longer needed and the waste itself can be converted into local energy by the plant.

Salon Kaukolämpö Oy is the Salo region’s district heating company, which sells and distributes the district heating generated at its plant to local households and businesses. In accordance with its environmental permit, the plant is dimensioned to handle a maximum of 120,000 tonnes of waste each year, which is equivalent to a heat input of 44 MW. Each year, the plant produces 180–190 GWh of district heating for locals and approximately 62 GWh of electricity for the national power grid.

The waste-to-energy plant

The plant has facilities for receiving waste fuel, a waste bunker, boiler and turbine buildings, a flue gas treatment plant, a water plant, a control room, an intermediate slag storage facility, a visitor center and an office.

1 Waste fuel receiving
2 Waste bunker
3 Boiler building
4 Turbine building
5 Flue gas treatment plant
6 Chimney
7 Control room
8 Water plant
9 Visitor centre and office
10 Intermediate slag storage facility

Waste-to-energy plant in figures

Site area 3.9 ha
Chimney height 70 m
Overall efficiency in district heat production 99 %
Heat input 44 MW
Plant incineration capacity 360 t/day
Volume of waste incinerated each year max. 120,000 t
Incineration temperature 1,200°C
Waste bunker storage capacity 5,000 – 7,000 m³
Waste shipments on weekdays approx. 20 truckloads
Annual operating hours 8,000 – 8,300 h/a

Comparisons

A 2 kg sack of waste can heat a single-family home for approximately 30 minutes and light an 8-watt energy-saver bulb for 158 hours.

The plant can generate enough heat to meet the needs of some 10,000 single-family homes

The waste replaces fossil fuels: 120,000 tonnes of fossil fuels is equivalent to 50,000 tonnes of coal or 33 million cubic metres of natural gas.

Six 2 kg sacks of waste could power an electric sauna oven for one full sauna session

One million LEDs could be run continuously on the electricity produced by the Waste-to-Energy plant