Combined heat and power generation

Cooperation agreement between Valmet and Solar Turbines

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Valmet and Solar Turbines Incorporated (a Caterpillar company)  have been forming a cooperation agreement to further develop their common activities in the integrated cogeneration field applied to the tissue production process. The target of the joint development of the energy optimizing systems is to contribute to the reduction of tissue mills’ production costs and improve the energy efficiency of the production process.

Valmet and Solar Turbines Incorporated have accomplished numerous projects together in the past few years. The new cooperation between the two companies represents a natural evolution of a relationship which had already been informally established. Mutual trust and individual expertise in the different fields have played an important role in laying the foundations for this new agreement.

Solar Turbines Incorporated is the undisputed market leader of gas turbine electrical generators ranging from 1 to 22MW. The company has installed 26 GW of power generation equipment (from single generation packages to full cogeneration plants) and more than 15,000 gas turbines in the world including 1.6 GW in the pulp and paper industry alone.

As a solution provider, Solar Turbines Incorporated offer services for energy project development, from feasibility studies to engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning of the project including financing solutions. Its customers include utility companies and production or processing industries that require efficient energy solutions.

The Valmet cogeneration concept uses part of the gas turbine exhaust fumes in the hood. The fumes unused in the hood are, in turn, mixed with the flow exhausted from the hood and directed into the waste heat steam generator for further recovery process.

Over the years, Valmet and Solar Turbines Incorporated have developed the proficiency in feasibility studies at discovering the best configuration of a cogeneration plant. Integrated gas turbine cogeneration has been successfully applied to both conventional and textured tissue production processes.

Based on the analysis of energy costs on installed or future tissue machines, the best strategies can be defined to benefit from government subsidies or any other form of subventions.

Valmet and Solar Turbines’s strength resides in the experience acquired over time and in the deep knowledge of both processes – tissue production and drying and cogeneration. The advanced control system is essential to minimize interferences between the two processes and guarantee a reliable production of both tissue paper and energy.