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Fluidized bed boilersA Finnish world success

Folke Engström

REVIEW 331/2016

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Tekes – the Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation

Tekes is the most important publicly funded expert organisation for financing research, development and innovation in Finland. We boost wide-ranging innovation activities in research communities, industry and service sectors.

Tekes works with the top innovative companies and research units in Finland. Every year, Tekes finances some 1,500 business research and development projects, and almost 600 public research projects at universities, research institutes and universities of applied sciences.

Copyright Tekes 2017. All rights reserved.

This publication includes materials protected under copyright law, the copyright for which is held by Tekes or a third party. The materials appearing in publications may not be used for commercial purposes. The contents of publications are the opinion of the writers and do not represent the official position of Tekes. Tekes bears no responsibility for any possible damages arising from their use. The original source must be mentioned when quoting from the materials.

Tekes review 331/2016

ISSN 1797-7347ISBN 978-952-457-560-7

Cover image: FW Energia Oy’s 4x550 MWe CFB Boilers – Samcheok Green Power Project in South Korea

Original sources of images, figures, tables and other content are based on the archives of the author, exceptions to originalities are mentioned in the original or text if known.

Layout: Tekes

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Foreword

Tekes prepares a number of reviews that describe the devel-opment path to the commercial stage of a specific compe-tence or scientific observation. In most cases, the competi-tive factors that bring international success are the result of a lengthy innovation process and long development path. Achieving a strong competitive position usually takes from a few years to several decades. It requires persistence and strong faith that the targets set will be fulfilled. Chance has also sometimes played a role in a commercial breakthrough, but networks have always been a major driving force of suc-cess.

The first development path reports were published in 2009. Projects currently under review have already resulted in busi-ness operations and have significant potential in the inter-national markets. From the business ecosystem perspective, these reviews are materially different from the historical re-views of individual companies. Tekes has played an import-ant developmental role in the selected fields.

The author of the description of the development path is the inventor of the CFB boiler technology and has led develop-ment work in this field for over 30 years. The description of the development path is based on the hands-on personal

experiences of the persons involved within the industry. The most relevant observations and milestones are included in the descriptions.

Innovations have boosted the growth of Finland’s exports. Agility and reinvention have been the driving force in our programme selection, with the objective being the max-imisation of global market potential. Certain factors have boosted the competitiveness of power station boiler man-ufacture, thereby reshaping the business ecosystem. The business ecosystem supports SMEs that have chosen to network with big companies. On a more general level, the programmes reflect Tekes’ role as an active game builder in the selected fields.

This description of the development path for the fluidized bed boiler ecosystem and key competitive factors is based on the views of Folke Engström.

Tekes extends its warmest thanks to the author.

February 2017 Tekes

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Success requires competence, courage and cooperation

Fluidized bed combustion and its two basic technologies – bubbling fluidised bed (BFB) and circulating fluidised bed (CFB) technology – are success stories that aptly depict Finn-ish competence. These technologies are rooted in the sludge incineration solutions developed in the 1970s and the peat and biomass incineration solutions of the following decade. In particular, the CFB technology proved suitable for coal in-cineration, winning a large share of the market.

Fluidized bed combustion (FBC) has been and continues to be the backbone of Finnish power plant boiler technolo-gy. In the last 10 years, CFB boiler technology developed in Finland has accounted for more than half of the global mar-ket. FBC provides a solution that is inexpensive and flexible in terms of fuel choice. This solution has improved the profit-ability of heat and electricity cogeneration, making it a more viable option in application areas such as district heating. This, in turn, has increased the use of biomass, had a positive impact on the climate, and created jobs in the wood fuel har-vesting chain.The CFB boilers used in the Nordic countries are multi-fuel boilers. From the outset, all CFB boilers were also built to enable 80-100% coal combustion. In practice, however, coal

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was only used in CFB boilers as an additional fuel to stabilise the supply and price fluctuation of peat and wood fuels. In all except the Nordic countries, CFB boilers delivered to the wood processing industry after 1982 were mainly coal fired boilers.

Outside the Nordic countries, the pulverised combustion (PC) solution is a strong competitor for CFB boilers. Gaining competitive advantage requires determined development work, particularly to boost power generation efficiency based on a sufficient unit size and higher steam generation values. The main competitive factors of CFB technology over PC boilers are the ability to combust different types of coal and tackle environmental challenges without an external desulphurization plant and separate catalyst for NOx remov-al.

Considering the decades of dominance of major multina-tional corporations on the power plant boiler markets, partic-ularly the markets for large-scale units, the breakthrough by Finnish technology is quite an achievement.

This publication explains why Finland was the birthplace of circulating fluidised bed boiler technology. Naturally, there was a need for a new technology for complex fuels, but an

out-of-the-box approach and willingness to explore new solutions and combine them with existing know-how were also required. Other issues, besides fuel complexity, that were a challenge but turned out to be the key to success included the cost pressures caused by the oil crisis, ecological pressure to incinerate waste, quality management issues related to biofuel and peat incineration without auxiliary fuel, and sul-phur and nitrogen emissions management in coal combus-tion. The multi-fuel combustion capacity of fluidised bed boil-ers was always a major competitive factor, which has become increasingly emphasised in both process industry and power plant solutions.

A competitive edge was built through multiple experi-ments, some of which were successful while others failed. However, each and every experiment did provide a learning experience. In addition to persistence, chance played a fairly important role in the development work. Cooperation and in-teraction between boiler manufacturers and the paper and pulp industry opened doors to the global markets. Global growth also required business and marketing skills, and ef-forts to continuously improve these. A number of skilled in-dividuals and leaders contributed materially to this success.

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Opportunities were available for sufficiently extensive, high quality education required in the field. Long-term strategic research and development was called for and development work was accelerated by the modelling of processes and combustion.

Development work relied heavily on the business sec-tor, pilot projects, demos and experiments. Higher educa-tion institutions such as Helsinki University of Technology, Tampere University of Technology, Åbo Akademi University and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland produced the necessary information on critical development areas such as materials, combustion and emissions. Public funding enabled cooperation between the public and the private sectors, thereby supporting the joint efforts of companies and research facilities. In addition to individual projects, two Liekki programmes, each with a term of six years, and numerous demo projects played a crucial role in the devel-opment work. Prior to 1995, the key R&D funding partner in the public sector was the Ministry of Trade and Industry, and Tekes, after the MTI’s energy research operations were transferred to Tekes.

The turnover generated by the design engineering of flu-idised bed boilers, project engineering and maintenance to-tals approximately EUR 500 million in Finland, and the sector employs about 2,000 people.

Martti Äijälä

Tekes

AMEC FOSTER WHEELER CFB TECHNOLOGY EVOLUTION — 455 UNITS (35 GWe) LOGGING OVER 30 MILLION HOURS OF OPERATION. DATA SOURCE: GRDS 19MAY 15 CFB SEVERED MARKET/ AMEC FOSTER WHEELER

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Abbreviations and terminology

LaMont boiler

PC boiler

SOx

NOx

1 bar

MWt

MWe

Forced circulation

Once-through boiler

Critical temperature

FBC

BFB CFB PYROFLOW

CYMIC

PowerFluid

Andritz AG

Ahlström Boiler Works

Tampella Boiler Works

Fluidized Bed Combustion is a combustion technology distinguished by its two industrial applications, i.e.

Bubbling Fluidized Bed, operating in the superficial velocity range 1-3 m/s and

Circulating Fluidized Bed, operating in the superficial velocity ranges 3-6 m/s.

Commercial trademark of Ahlström’s Circulating Fluidized Bed boiler.

The Circulating Fluidized Bed (CFB) boiler developed by Tampella Power Oy.

Trademark of Andritz Energy and Environment’s CFB boiler.

Ahlström Oy started in 1940’s its production of industrial and recovery boilers in Varkaus based on a licence of Maskinverken/CE. In 1995 Foster Wheeler acquires Ahlstrom Pyropower Division. Foster Wheeler Energia Oy and ANDRITZ Oy established Warkaus Works Oy in year 2000 and 13 years later ANDRITZ Oy acquires the full ownership of Warkaus Works Oy.

started its production of industrial and recovery boilers in 1940’s based on foreign licences. In the 1960’s the kraft recovery boiler became a major product of Tampella Oy. From the 1970’s onwards the changes of the Tampella Boiler Works are described in Chapter 13 in this report. and its Finnish subdivision Andritz Oy are described in Chapter 18.

is a forced circulation water-tube boiler invented by Mark Benson in mid 1850’s. Later, Walter Douglas Lamont brought the idea from papers to existence.

is an industrial or utility boiler that generates thermal energy by burning pulverized coal. This type of boiler has dominated the electric power industry, providing steam to drive large turbines until recent days, when the once-through supercritical CFB boiler has challenged PC boiler’s position as the dominate power generation boiler technology as described in this report.

A forced circulation boiler is a boiler, where a pump is used to circulate water circulation inside the boiler tubes.

is a steam generating unit operated above the critical pressure with no re-circulation of the water in any part of the boiler.

The critical temperature of a water vapour is the temperature at and above which the vapour cannot be liquefied, no matter how high pressure is applied. This point pressure on the steam pressure-enthalpy diagram depicts the critical point. Steam conditions above this critical point are called supercritical.

refers to various sulfur and oxygen containing compounds such as SO, SO2, SO3, etc..

is the generic term for the noxious mono-nitrogen oxides NO and NO2.

is a pressure unit equal 100 kPa in SI units and approximately equal to 0,987 atm.

is the thermal energy that is converted to useful energy in megawatts (MW) from the total energy input to the boiler.

is the portion of the thermal energy that in the steam turbines is converted to electricity in the power plant.

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Contents

Foreword 3

Success requires competence, courage and cooperation 4

Abbreviations and terminology 7

1. Preface 9

2. Introduction – The Finnish Engineering Works

after the war to the 1970’s 10

3. The Heat Engineering group of

Product Development Laboratory 12

4. A BFB incinerator failure innovated a success, the CFB boiler 14

5. Development of the invention “Ahlström’s

Circulating Fluidized Bed” 18

6. Demonstration of Ahlström’s CFB Boiler “PYROFLOW” 20

7. PYROFLOW enters global markets and meets

BFB boiler competition 26

8. COLORADO-UTE Utility Boiler

– A breakthrough into the utility business 31

9. Restructuring of Ahlström’s

Engineering Works in the late 1980’s 33

10. Tampella’s BFB development and market penetration 37

11. Ahlström’s BFB development and market penetration 42

12. Finnish Boiler Works

– clash in the market and lost opportunity 44

13. Consolidation of boiler companies and

Tampella merger with Kvaerner 45

14. Kvaerner’s and Metso Power’s CFB boiler technology 50

15. Globalization of Ahlstrom

Pyropower and the successes in early 1990’s 52

16. Merger of Ahlstrom Pyropower with Foster Wheeler 59

17. Foster Wheeler Energy International Inc.

– first 10-year of operation 61

18. Andritz Energy & Environment FBC Boilers 69

19. Finnish boiler companies’

achievements in the last decade 2005-2015. 76

20. Future Prospect for the Finnish boiler companies 81

21. Supporting organizations, Institutions, Universities and Tekes 86

22. Key success factors behind the Finnish BFB and

CFB boiler successes 89

23. Author background - Folke Engström 96

Appendix: Tekes reviews 97

CHAPTER CHAPTERPAGE PAGE

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1. Preface

The author of this paper is grateful to Tekes for the opportunity to share his views and experiences on the Finnish FBC boiler successes, hoping the story will be a challenging learning experience for young Finnish engineers in their professional life and that the country will prosper on future Finnish inventions and superior products in the global market.

Although the FBC information partly has become “rusty” and gone up in smoke, the author has tried to do his utmost to be as accurate as possible. It has been a little unpleasant to tell about my personal contributions, but the truth has to come to light and that has been the guideline in telling the story.

The author is also grateful to all interviewed people at the “Finnish” boiler companies Andritz Oy, Foster Wheeler Energia Oy and Valmet. No one mentioned, no one forgotten.

The PYROFLOW success would have never come to light without the understanding, love, and support my wife Solveig showed me during the over 30 years of R&D assignment at A. Ahlström Oy and later at Foster Wheeler Energy International Inc.. Many times during the long working days it was felt that the inventor was more married to Mr. PYROFLOW than to Mrs. Solveig. Nevertheless, we have two wonderful daughters and the best three grandchildren in the world. – Many thanks to my Dear Ones.

The author is also grateful to all employees at Hans Ahlström Laboratory and to others who have supported the development of the Circulating Fluidized Bed Boiler spanning over 30 years of employment.

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After the war, the metalworking industries in Finland pro-duced timely and high quality products as war reparations to the Soviet Union in the form of electrical engines, loco-motives, icebreakers, ships, and forestry machinery repre-senting roughly three-fourths of the total war reparations. The goods had to be produced regardless of whether the workshops had the design and technology or not; either by imitating similar products of others or relying on their own expertise built up in the interwar period and during the war through deliveries to the army. The tremendous war effort created an entrepreneurship and leadership within the Finn-ish industries that continued beyond the postwar period and was an important contributor to the successes encountered in the country by the end of the 20th century.

Gradually the productive capacity in the metalworking factories in Finland was modernized and the whole industry was reformed. When the war reparations payment were ful-filled in 1952, the industries were ready to deliver products to the Western countries besides continuing to be a reliable and highly qualified supplier to the Soviet Union through the bilateral trade agreement between the countries.

At the same time the forest based industries in Finland started to pick up its export to the Western countries in the early 1950’s after the Korean War and the economic boom in the West. For Finland the forests have been and still are an important natural resource for its economic develop-ment, which affected the major companies based on forest and engineering works products. Although the major com-panies in Finland had been diversified already earlier, the process continued after the mid 1950’s by signing license and cooperation agreements with foreign companies or de-veloping new technology of their own. The investment rate climbed to new levels in Finland. The export and growth in the country were dependable upon highly diversified com-panies, such as Nokia, Enso-Gutzeit, Rauma-Repola, Valmet, Wärtsilä, Ahlström and Tampella that competed domestical-ly and worldwide in the same markets.

Finland was open for export through the Western Europe-an trade-liberalization by joining the International Momen-tary Fund (IMF) and the European Free Trade Area (EFTA). At the same time the competition in the Western countries in-creased and it was no longer so easy to sell good products in competition with multi-national companies worldwide.

2. Introduction–The Finnish Engineering Works after the war to the 1970’s

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The products had to be cheaper, better and give the custom-er more value for the price.

In the end of 1960’s, the Board of Ahlström Oy made a stra-tegic decision in concentrating the product development of the Engineering Works Division under one roof in Karhula, the Product Development Laboratory (PDL). Bertel Hakulin was appointed R&D director of the PDL. The Product Devel-opment Laboratory later Hans Ahlström Laboratory (HAL) was established in 1968 in the shutdown wood grindery fac-tory mechanical pulp mill in Karhula. Open-minded and en-thusiastic Bertel Hakulin built up the R&D team of the Prod-uct Development Laboratory. The following departments were created and headed by an R&D manager:

• Paper machines, pumps and sawmill machinery• Pulp and Paper and waste paper recovery• Process machinery and steam boilers (R&D Heat Engi-

neering group)• Construction and planning department of Ahlström

Engineering Works Division

The personnel to the R&D departments were young en-gineers recruited from the Technical Universities in Finland among them the author of this paper. The major task of the new R&D organization was to improve the performance and reliability of the existing products of the Engineering Works and to develop new products for the same division. The main R&D activity in the PDL was based on laboratory, bench and

pilot plant scale trials, in which the processes were simulat-ed and studied under actual process conditions. The under-lying thought was that you can’t develop new; cost-effec-tive processes and machinery without understanding how those processes really work. The PDL provided a unique place where subtleties of science could be explored, and where ideas could be born and developed. It served all the subgroups within the Engineering Works Division and oper-ated in close cooperation with clients and Universities from all over the world.

Tampella Oy as the other domestic boiler manufacturer took another approach in the development of new process-es and products in relying on their own expertise in the de-sign and engineering departments. A few engineers within the technical department were responsible for improving existing products and developing new products utilizing demonstration capabilities within Tampella’s own factories and mills. It is evident that with this approach new and rev-olutionary inventions and ideas could not be explored and developed because the bench and pilot plant resources were not available within the company. Also the new ideas were scrutinized and evaluated against the demonstration capabilities at the demonstration site.

As a sequence of the strategic decision within the Engi-neering Works of Ahlström and Tampella the development and improvement of fluidized bed boilers resulted in differ-ent paths and products as will be seen in the following story.

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The R&D Heat Engineering group in the Karhula PDL was small in the beginning and consisted of an R&D manager, which in august 1970 recruited the author as the first R&D engineer. In 1971 one additional engineer and a third tech-nician were recruited to the PDL group. The labor workmen were hired from a common pool within the PDL for erection and modification of test units as needed and were also uti-lized in the test runs for the recording of process parameters. As shown by Fig. 1, the instrumentation, control, and data logging systems were self-made and primitive compared to today’s instrumentation and control systems.

Significant developments and improvements had been carried out in the 1970’s by the R&D Heat Engineering group in Karhula to develop and improve Flash and Rotary Dryers, a Fluid Bed Calciner, Venturi Scrubbers, waste heat boilers, etc. that served the Process Machinery Department and Boil-er Works in Varkaus. The main R&D resources were however focused on the development of a Bubbling Fluid Bed (BFB)

3. The Heat Engineering group of Product Development Laboratory

Incinerator for combustion of various industrial and sewage sludges to fulfill the need in the marketplace. In 1969 a 0,20 MWt Bubbling Fluid Bed incinerator pilot plant was built in the newly established Product Development Laboratory in Karhula.

In the early 1970’s many trials were carried out in the BFB incinerator pilot plant in Karhula with potential customers’ industrial sludges, mainly from Scandinavian countries to solve their disposal problems. The sludges that were incin-erated in the pilot plant consisted of various paper mill and bleaching sludges, oily sludge from oil refinery in Sweden, chloride containing industrial sludge from Norway, etc.. Heavy fuel oil was used as the supporting energy source to maintain the required combustion temperature above 850 °C for complete incineration. The trials were conducted by Folke Engström as R&D engineer and gave him a solid in-sight in the behavior and characteristics of the BFB technol-ogy, its benefits as well as its limitations.

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FIG. 1. INSTRUMENT AND CONTROL PANEL OF BFB PILOT PLANT IN THE MID 1970’S

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In 1969 an industrial 2.3 MWt BFB incinerator for the de-struction of oily sludge was built in Kerava by the Process Machinery Department in Varkaus in cooperation with the small company Vaho Oy. During the summer of 1970, ex-tensive sewage sludge incineration testing was carried out in Kerava BFB incinerator (Ø 2 x 5 m) for the town of Skel-lefteå in Sweden to solve the disposal problem of sludge from their wastewater treatment plant. After witnessing the incineration tests in Kerava, the Skellefteå customer was pleased and bought in 1971 a BFB incinerator (Ø 5,5 x 8,0 m) for destruction of 5,5 ton/h of sewage sludge with a dry matter content of 20 %. The incinerator was designed and delivered by the Process Machinery Department in Varkaus in 1972. See Fig. 2.

When the Skellefteå BFB incinerator in the autumn 1972 was ready for acceptance testing, Folke Engström was called to participate in the testing together with the responsible project engineer from Varkaus Process Machinery Depart-ment. The guarantee tests turned out to be a complete fail-ure. Although the BFB incinerator was pushed above its pro-cess limitations, the maximum of only 65 % of the

4. A BFB incinerator failure innovated a success, the CFB boiler

FIG. 2. SKELLEFTEÅ BFB INCINERATION SEWAGE PLANT

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guaranteed capacity was reached. It was evident that the BFB incinerator was a fiasco and considerable modifications and development were required to meet guaranteed values.

The first attempt to obtain the guaranteed values in Skel-lefteå was to concentrate on improving the distribution of the sludge over the bed surface in the incinerator. A new sludge spreader was developed in the Karhula PDL in 1973. Later a similar, larger sludge spreader was built and tested at the Skellefteå incineration plant. Although the burning capacity of the Skellefteå BFB incinerator increased, the improvement was not sufficient to fully solve the capacity problem.

The oil crises that arose in 1973 also put the Skellefteå BFB incinerator under scrutiny and pressure as a considerable amount of heavy fuel oil was required to maintain the re-quired destruction temperature of 850 °C in the furnace. An-other reason besides the profitability that cooled down the interest of the customer in Skellefteå was “the green political impact” that proclaimed that the sewage sludge should be brought back to the nature instead of being incinerated. This new trend, especially in Scandinavia virtually killed the mar-ket for the BFB incinerators.

Although the R&D Thermal Engineering group in Karhu-la was not responsible for the failure in Skellefteå, it was a

hard blow to its R&D activity and especially for its newly ap-pointed R&D manager Folke Engström. Dismantling of the Skellefteå BFB incinerator was imminent, unless a reliable solution to overcome the capacity problem soon could be presented to the customer in Skellefteå.

Many ideas were considered. One concept, that the au-thor presented consisted of circulating hot bed material 850 °C for drying of the wet sewage sludge before it was fed together with the circulated bed material into the bed as shown in Fig. 3.

The concept was successfully tested in a small pilot plant (Ø 0,2 x 4 m) in Karhula in 1974. Process and design calcula-tions showed that the concept worked and could solve the capacity problem in Skellefteå. The concept was present-ed to Skellefteå management, which had already made up their mind to dismantle the BFB incinerator for the reasons described earlier.

After the failure at Skellefteå, the lesson was learnt and the Process Machinery Department in Varkaus in cooper-ation with R&D in Karhula engineered and delivered five industrial BFB incinerators, which performed well and met their guarantees.

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FIG.3. PRE DRYING OF WET SLUDGE BY CIRCULATING HOT BED MATERIAL

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The bubbling fluid bed technology has several technical drawbacks and its applicability in combustion processes is limited to a few niche markets, such as the burning of low-grade high volatile biomass fuels and sludges. The major lim-itations are the poor mixing and distribution of the solid feed materials in the fluid bed, and incomplete burnout of com-bustible gases in the freeboard zone. In addition, the tech-nology has limited capacity as the BFB unit has to operate between the minimum fluidization velocity and the entrain-ment velocity of the solid particles from the bubbling bed.

The invention to ultimately solve the capacity problem in Skellefteå and to overcome the limitations of the BFB tech-nique became evident for the author of this paper in early 1975:

• Why not overcome the capacity problem in the bub-bling fluidized bed incinerator by increasing the flu-idization velocity using fine particles as bed material that could be recovered in a hot cyclone?

• Why not improve the mixing of solid and gaseous components by increasing the velocity that in com-bination with fine particles will result in a leaner bed density compared to the denser one in the bubbling bed with poor lateral mixing?

• Why not use the whole combustor volume for com-bustion reactions and heat transfer instead of having an inefficient freeboard volume due to poor mixing and a short reaction time in the dense bed of the BFB combustor.

• Why not use the hot cyclone as an efficient afterburn-ing chamber of the unburnt combustible gaseous products and char particles leaving the combustor?

“Ahlström’s Circulating

Fluidized Bed” was

invented. Later with the

trade name “PYROFLOW”

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The invention was first tested in the spring of 1975 in the small pilot plant (Ø 0,3 x 4 m) after the test unit had been equipped with a hot refractory lined cyclone and recirculation loop with a mechanical valve controlling the back flow of the hot recirculated fine particles from the hot cyclone to the lower part of the combustor. The screening tests were carried out in the fluidized bed regime of 3-4 m/s. Although the combustion of the fuel oil was extremely good and complete compared to the combustion in a BFB combustor a major problem remained, i.e. the control of the flow of hot, recycled particles from the hot cyclone to the lower combustor was troublesome. From the combustion tests it was also concluded that the mechanical, metallic valve never would withstand the high erosion of the 850 °C hot recirculated particles.

In the summer of 1975 the development of recirculation loops in Plexiglas was carried out under cold conditions with various models to control the fine particle flow and its sta-bility. Another requirement was that the recirculation loop should act as a gas seal between the hot cyclone and the combustor. Finally after extensive testing and modifications of various loop seals an advantageous, non-mechanical con-struction was found that also became the core knowledge in

the design of Ahlström’s Circulation Fluidized bed Systems.The next step in the development of the invention was

to employ the design of the non-mechanical loop seal to the small Circulating Fluidized Bed combustor (Ø 0,2 x 4 m). The test rig was at the same time equipped with two cool-ing tubes to enable measurement of the heat transfer in the combustor. After the rebuilding was accomplished, the ba-sic concept of the CFB invention was successfully carried out in the spring 1976.

With the knowledge and design parameters on hand, the larger BFB pilot plant combustor (Ø 0,8 x 4 m) was converted to a CFB combustor during the autumn of 1976 by exten-sive modifications consisting of increasing the height of the combustor to 6,0 m: decreasing the internal diameter from 0.8 m to 0,5 m; equipping the combustor with a hot refracto-ry lined cyclone; recirculation loop seal and six cooling tubes for heat recovery; inventing a new solid feed system into the recycling loop seal; dividing the combustion air into three levels as primary, secondary and tertiary air; and construct-ing a new innovative air distributor and bed drain system.

By early 1977 the refurbishment of the larger pilot plant was completed as shown in Fig. 4.

5. Development of the invention “Ahlström’s Circulating Fluidized Bed”

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In the spring of 1977, comprehensive testing of various fuels such as heavy fuel oil, peat, wood wastes, bark, polish bituminous coal and polyethylene granulates was done to establish the performance of the CFB combustor and to get design values for scaling up the CFB unit to larger CFB boiler. After some adjustment to the loop seal the new CFB combustor performed extremely well. The combustion of the solid fuels was close to complete. Unburned gaseous components in the flue gases were well below the values measured in the BFB combustor. Also the NOx emission was low and could be changed by varying the ratios between primary, secondary and tertiary air. – At the conclusion of the extensive test runs, the inventor was convinced that the CFB tech-nique was superior to BFB technology and would become a winner in the marketplace.

Although the driving force for the CFB development had been to satisfy the domes-tic market in Nordic countries with a competitive and reliable boiler burning low-grade fuels, such as various wood wastes and peat, a screening test with bituminous was also carried out with limestone addition for SO2 control. These tests were also successful and showed, that 90 % SO2 retention could easily be achieved with much lower Ca/S ratios than in a BFB combustor.

The world-wide development of BFB boilers with in-bed heat transfer tubes revealed in 1970’s that erosion of tube bundles was a major material problem that could not be ignored. The same material issue would most likely pertain also to the high velocity fine particulate systems in the CFB boilers. In 1979 Termorak Oy and Höganäs AB were contacted to assist in tackling the potential material problem by testing various high erosion resistant refractory castable and brick specimens in the pilot plant under actu-al conditions both in the lower combustion chamber as well as in the inlet to the hot cyclone. In addition to the hot testing of refractory specimens the two aforementioned subcontractors were also asked to deliver high erosion resistant refractory materials for sandblasting tests in the Engineering Works’ foundry in Karhula. Based upon these testing appropriate refractory materials were selected for the demonstration units.

FIG. 4. PYROFLOW PILOT PLANT AT HANS AHLSTRÖM LABORATORY

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The oil crisis 1973 had generated an intense search for new methods to replace the heavy oil dependence in the Finnish industries. Varkaus Boiler Works believed that the solution to utilization of domestic low-grade biofuels, wood wastes and peat was a grate-fired boiler. They built a grate-fired pilot plant in the backyard of the Boiler Works in Varkaus. Outo-kumpu Oy converted, in 1977, two old fluid bed roasters in Kokkola to a peat-fired boiler simply by rebuilding the feed system that introduced the peat with conveying air above the bubbling bed. Outokumpu, which was a close coopera-tion partner with Varkaus Boiler Works for the flame melting process and its waste heat boilers, offered its bubbling fluid bed technology to Varkaus boiler works.

A schism aroused within the Engineering Works Division over which boiler concept Ahlström should select for its future? The feasibility study made by Varkaus Boiler Works showed that the Varkaus grate fired boiler was the cheap-est, Outokumpu’s BFB boiler came next and Karhula R&D’s CFB was clearly the most expensive concept. Varkaus boiler works opposed a large-scale demonstration of the new CFB boiler concept and argued that due to the abrasive prop-erties of the high velocity particles the membrane walls in

the combustion chamber would fail within 8 months and the hot cyclone within 6 months. The door was closed for a CFB demonstration and no progress was possible, until Ahl-ström’s power boiler managers had a meeting in Karhula in June 1977. Seppo Lahtinen from Pihlava Board Mill and Jör-gen Javèn from Kauttua Paper and Converting mills visited the Hans Ahlström Laboratory after the meeting.

Both power managers were impressed and enthusiastic after they had heard the presentation of the new CFB boil-er concept PYROFLOW and promised to return later to the matter.

In August 1978, the author was called to Pihlava to evalu-ate a demonstration of the new CFB boiler (trade name PY-ROFLOW). One ton/h heavy fuel oil was burnt in the LaMont boiler to cover the steam demand from the Board Mill, in ad-dition to the steam generated from bark and wood wastes fired on the grate at its maximum capacity. The replacement of one ton/h of heavy oil burning became the design criteria for the PYROFLOW boiler demonstration burning peat and wood wastes as the main fuels. PYROFLOW thus became a retrofit to the existing LaMont boiler as shown in Fig. 5.

6. Demonstration of Ahlström’s CFB Boiler “PYROFLOW”

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FIG. 5. FLOW SHEET OF 15 MWt PIHLAVA PYROFLOW BOILER

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The inventor was assigned to design the PYROFLOW demonstration unit, which was 16 times larger than the test unit in Karhula. It was a formidable task for a young engineer. No design manuals were available for the design of the new CFB process. Neither could the theoretical fluid bed books offer any help. With all of the engineering knowledge, best judgment and extrapolation of the empirical data from the pilot plant test runs, the design was made based on the de-sign criteria: bark, wood wastes and peat as fuels; steam gen-eration capacity 15 MWt; pressure 82 bar; and superheating to 520 °C in the adjacent LaMont-boiler.

The CFB boiler was drawn, built, delivered and erected by Varkaus Boiler Works by the end of 1978. The managing director of Varkaus Boiler Works released himself from any damages, fines, guarantees or other liabilities of malfunc-tioning in the PYROFLOW boiler in Pihlava.

The hot commissioning of the PYROFLOW demonstration started on December 15th, 1978. The inventor, together with three technicians from HAL was responsible for the commis-sioning of the boiler and the training of Pihlava’s operator team. Varkaus Boiler Works participated with only one start-up technician responsible for the steam side of the boiler.

After minor adjustment of the bed lances, the start-up and testing continued in 1979 after the New Year, with bark, wood wastes and peat as fuels. The boiler was operated un-der various process conditions with peat, bark and wood wastes. The boiler worked extremely well and by the end of March the commissioning and guarantee tests were com-pleted and a happy customer at Pihlava took over the PYRO-FLOW boiler.

Pihlava PYROFLOW became the first CFB boiler in the world

The rumor of the PYROFLOW success spread fast on the mar-ket place and Pihlava became a visiting “Mecca” for power and heat engineers, users and consultants in the Nordic countries. Also inquiries started to drop in and Varkaus Boiler Works became busy in responding to the customers’ inqui-ries. During the year 1979 Suonenjoki Lämpö Oy and Skel-lefteå Town ordered a 7 MWt PYROFLOW boiler for district heating with peat and wood waste as fuels and Hyvinkää Town ordered a 20 MWt PYROFLOW boiler for district heat-ing with capability to also burn Polish coal in addition to peat and wood waste.

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Kauttua 65 MWt PYROFLOW boiler – The Final Break-through

Kauttua’s boiler manager Jörgen Javèn followed closely the progress at Pihlava. When the demonstration turned out to be a success in March 1979, he received the authority of the Ahlström’s technical director to negotiate a binding offer with Varkaus Boiler Works, well aware that its managing di-rector opposed any offering of the PYROFLOW boiler as be-ing unproven technology.

In April 1979 Jörgen Javèn, Seppo Lahtinen and Folke Engström travelled to Varkaus to discuss the PYROFLOW technology and the delivery terms with the management team of the Boiler Works. Prior to the meeting Folke Eng-ström had received the design criteria, fuels specification, steam data, etc. for designing of a 65 MWt PYROFLOW boil-er for Kauttua. – After the welcome coffee at Varkaus Boiler Works Jörgen Javèn asked the Boiler Works technical man-ager to present the design of a 65 MWt PYROFLOW boiler to Kauttua. Varkaus Boiler Works’ managing director responded that they had not received any written design specification and evidently had nothing to discuss. Jörgen Javèn took a

napkin on the table and wrote down the design specifica-tion, signed it and handled it over to Boiler Works managing director and asked Folke Engström to present the design of the boiler. This napkin became the only boiler specification ever written for the Kauttua CFB boiler and was later framed and hung up on the wall in the conference room of Varkaus Boiler Works.

The design of the 65 MWt PYROFLOW boiler was based on previous engineering data and especially the new infor-mation from the Pihlava PYROFLOW boiler. In addition to the new boiler concept the balance of the plant equipments for the Kauttua demonstration were ultramodern starting from the feeding systems to the instrument and control system based on the first of its kind microprocessor control system from Altim Control. The backpressure steam turbine was delivered by Siemens Turbines and the inverter control fans (also the first in its kind) by OY Strömberg AB. See Fig. 6.

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FIG. 6. KAUTTUA 65 MWt PYROFLOW BOILER(note the size of a man on a street level)

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In the summer of 1981 the PYROFLOW boiler was de-livered and erected by Varkaus Boiler Works and ready for commissioning. The attitude at Varkaus Boiler Works hadn’t changed. Again it was the Karhula R&D team that trained the operators in Kauttua and had the process responsibility for the commissioning and testing of the PYROFLOW boil-er, while a start-up technician from Varkaus was responsible only for the steam-side system of the boiler.

As the boiler island, as well as many balance of plant sys-tems were of newest design it took several months before the plant was finally trimmed and optimized. By the end of the year 1981 the plant was extensively tested, optimized and finally handled over to the customer.

Kauttua PYROFLOW boiler became a world success

The success drew the attention of customers, consulting engineers, users etc. in thousands from all over the world. Kauttua PYROFLOW became the second visiting “Mecca” to an extent that it overloaded the people involved.

Krister Ahlström, who in 1981 was appointed the new CEO and President of the A. Ahlström Oy Company saw the potential of PYROFLOW and took an active role in bring-ing the product to the world market. A reorganization of Varkaus Boiler Work’s management was evident. Varkaus Boiler Work’s managing director had to leave his position and was appointed to technical director with the main task to create with the assistance of Folke Engström the design manuals for the new CFB boiler. Varkaus Boiler Work’s tech-nical manager was appointed to the new managing director of Boiler Works and had to change his position overnight from earlier eing a hard PYROFLOW opponent to being its foremost promoter.

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After the successful demonstration of Pihlava PYROFLOW in 1979, Ahlström offered the PYROFLOW technology to Boiler Work’s boiler licensor in USA, Combustion Engineering Inc. (CE). The cooperation discussion continued several months mainly by correspondence. In January 1980 Ahlström was in-vited to CE’s Head Office in Windsor, Connecticut to discuss the terms and conditions of a cross license between CE and Ahlström. After a warm welcome at CE’s head office Bertel Hakulin asked Folke Engström to present PYROFLOW tech-nique and especially its performance data from Pihlava. Then CE’s R&D manager presented their 23 ton/h saturated steam generating BFB boiler that had progressed to the demon-stration stage at Great Lake Naval Station, Illinois.

At the end of the technical discussion CE’s licensing direc-tor informed that CE was not interested in the PYROFLOW technology and was going to proceed with its DOE funded BFB technology at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center. CE’s negative decision was a blow to Ahlström that through a co-operation agreement would have got access to the big USA market. In addition, CE possessed the boiler technology up to big once-through utility boilers with supercritical steam condition that Varkaus boiler Works was lacking at that time.

The BFB technology had since early 1960’s been promot-ed and developed all over the world as the new combustion technology with sulfur capture to meet the stringent emis-sion standards in burning high sulfur bituminous coals for power generation. The worldwide R&D organizations had received huge industrial and Governmental funding for the development of the BFB boiler in countries such as England, Germany, Japan, China and especially in the USA through the Department of Energy. By 1980’s, thousands of millions of US dollars had already been spent on R&D, Pilot Plant Fa-cilities and industrial BFB demonstration projects. In Germa-ny alone, the governmental funding by 1981 amounted to more than 150 million US-dollars of a total 400 million spent on BFB related state supported development projects.

Besides CE’s Great Lakes, a 23 ton/h steam generating BFB unit in Illinois, the DOE sponsored the other American big boiler manufacturer Babcock-Wilcox (B&W) and Foster Wheeler (FW) in their effort to bring BFB boiler to the indus-trial market.

7. PYROFLOW enters global markets and meets BFB boiler competition

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FIG 7. FOSTER WHEELER’S BFB BOILER, GEORGETOWN, WASHINGTON D.C.

FW was considered the world leader in the development of BFB boilers and was the first boiler manufacturer to receive sub-stantial DOE funding for its BFB demonstration unit in George-town, Washington D.C. See Fig. 7.

By august 1981, the Georgetown 45 ton/h BFB steam generat-ing unit had been in operation 1400 h, since its start-up in August 1979, with a capacity factor less than 10 % mainly due to poor combustion, sulfur retention, and severe erosion of the inclined in-bed heat transfer tubes.

In the USA, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) as the biggest electricity generating company took the lead in bringing the at-mospheric BFB system to the utility market.

In 1979 the TVA authorized B&W to construct and operate of a 20 MWe BFB pilot plant at Shawnee, Paducah, Kentucky. The big pilot plant was planned to resolve many of the uncertainties con-cerning full-scale BFB development. Plant commissioning and testing started in late 1981 with the involvement of the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). The heat of the generated steam from the 20 MWe BFB pilot plant was dumped in surface con-densers.

Largely based on the results from the 20 MWe BFB pilot plant at Shawnee, Paducah, Kentucky, a consortium “Atmospheric Flu-idized Bed Development Corporation” consisting of all major US utilities, EPRI, DOE and CE as the boiler manufacturer joined to-gether to fund the design, construction and operation of a 160 MWe BFB demonstration plant at TVA’s Shawnee Steam Plant in Paducah. The 160 MWe BFB demonstration unit was built by Combustion Engineering Inc. and commissioned in 1988. In spite

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of major improvements during 1991-1992, after having first re-solved the most serious start-up problems, the demonstration unit could never live up to expectations resulting in low availabil-ity and capacity factors. See Fig. 8 . – By mid 1990’s, the 160 MWe BFB demonstration plant in Paducah was turned over to TVA to be operated in dispatch mode, which in practice meant that the unit was shutdown.

By the end of the 1980’s, all BFB demonstration projects in the world had more or less completely failed due to poor combustion efficiency, sulfur capture, severe erosion of in-bed heat transfer tubes, and unfavorable scale-up properties. The BFB technology for burning high sulfur bituminous coal with sulfur retention was in limbo and the door stood open for the commercialization of the PYROFLOW boiler worldwide.

After the successful demonstration of the Pihlava PYROFLOW boiler in early 1979, the new combustion technology was for the first time on February 20-23, 1979 presented abroad at the Ener-gy conference in Birmingham, England by Folke Engström and William Highfield. Shortly afterwards General Atomics Inc. in San Diego, California contacted Ahlström through their agent that was present at the conference and wanted to discuss coopera-tion with Ahlström for marketing and sale of PYROFLOW boilers in USA. The discussions with General Atomic continued at the same time as Ahlström negotiated with CE for cooperation. When the cooperation with CE failed, Ahlström established in 1980 a 50/50 % joint venture company “Pyropower Corporation” with General Atomic. Eric Oakes was appointed president for the San Diego based company.

FIG. 8. CE’S 160 MWe BFB DEMONSTRATION PLANT AT TVA’S SHAWNEE IN PADUCAH, KENTUCKY

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In 1982 Pyropower Corporation sold the first PYROFLOW boiler in the USA to Gulf oil Exploration in Bakersfield Cal-ifornia and the following year another 59 MWt PYROFLOW boiler to California Portland Cement in Colton, California in competition with Foster Wheeler in its home market. The CFB boiler technology showed to be superior to the BFB technique especially concerning meeting the stringent Cal-ifornian limits for CO, SO2 and NOx emissions. The door to the US market was open to Pyropower Corporation, which during the following years sold three more cogeneration PY-ROFLOW boilers to Central Soya, B.F. Goodrich and General Motors in competition with US BFB boiler suppliers.

With the successful full-scale demonstration of Kauttua the 65 MWt PYROFLOW cogeneration boiler the custom-ers literally overloaded Varkaus Boiler Works with inquiries. During the next four years, nine PYROFLOW boilers were sold in Finland and Sweden for district heating or cogeneration, mainly in the pulp and paper industries.

After the Kauttua break-through in 1981, boiler manufac-turers started to knock on the door of Varkaus Boiler Works for PYROFLOW licenses. Ahlström did not have the capacity to handle the whole world market and thus PYROFLOW li-

censes were sold in early 1980’s to EVT in Germany, CNIM in France, and Hyundai Heavy Industries in South Korea. In 1982 Ahlstrom established a cooperation agreement with the boiler company Waagner-Biro for delivery of PYROFLOW boilers in Austria. Soon after signing the license agreement, the aforementioned boiler manufacturers sold their first PY-ROFLOW boiler in their respective home country. North and South America were covered by Pyropower Corporation and Japan by Shinko Pyropower, a 50/50 % joint venture com-pany formed with the steel giant Kobe Steel. Varkaus Boiler Works handled the Nordic countries as its home market and the rest of the world not covered by the license agreements. The licensees were supported out of Finland.

The boiler manufacturers that could not get a PYRO-FLOW license started to develop their own CFB boiler by copying the operating PYROFLOW design already on the market place or by utilizing the best available expertise in Universities and R&D organizations. Thus arose in Sweden in the mid 1980’s a couple of competing CFB boiler designs. Götaverken, with governmental subsidies, put on the mar-ket several 20-40 MWt CFB district heating boilers in the

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towns Sundsvall, Nyköping, Boden, Uddevalla, and Karlsk-oga. Studsvik AB developed a U-beam collector based CFB concept, which in 1984 was licensed to B&W in the USA after B&W had the complete failure of their 20 MWe BFB demon-stration boiler at Paducah, Tennessee.

Deutsche Babcock developed a semi-CFB boiler, “Cir-co-fluid boiler” with a cyclone separator between the con-vective passes in the temperature range of 300-500 °C for recycling of entrained solids to the combustion chamber.

In 1986, Foster Wheeler built a CFB pilot plant and started to develop the hot water-cooled hot cyclone as an advanced CFB concept, after it had experienced the same failure as their American colleagues with the Rivesville 125 ton/h BFB boiler and the DOE funded Georgetown BFB boiler demonstration and had lost the Californian Portland Cement project to Py-ropower Corporation. Based upon an exclusive cooperation agreement, Keeler/Dorr-Oliver sold four CFB boilers to Ar-cher Daniels Midland’s Decatur plant in Illinois and three to Cedar Rapids, Iowa food processing plants in 1984. In order to verify the basic design, Keeler/Dorr-Oliver designed, built

and commissioned in 1984 a 3 ft. diameter full-scale inter-nal height CFB pilot plant in its Boiler Works in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The Keeler/Dorr-Oliver CFB boiler resembled Ahlström’s PYROFLOW boiler as the CEO Joseph Yerushalmi, PAMA Ltd. put it in his plenary session paper at the CFB Tech-nology Conference in Halifax in 1985.

It was not only the competing boiler manufacturers that were taken by surprise and consternation, but also Lurgi Metallgesellschaft AG/ Lothar Reh realized the situation during Folke Engström’s presentation “Development and Commercial Operation of A CFB Combustion System at the 6th International Fluidized Bed Conference, April 9-11, 1980 in Atlanta, Georgia. Lurgi with CFB experience from the met-allurgical and process industries soon developed its CFB boiler technology pretty much based on the concept they possessed in the CFB calcining process. Lurgi’s first CFB boil-er went on stream in July 1982 in Lünen, Germany at Verein-gte Aluminium Werke. At that time Ahlström already had six PYROFLOW boilers in operation.

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The market introduction in the early 1980’s was impressive resulting in 19 PYROFLOW boilers in operation by 1985. The largest of the delivered boilers was a 100 MWt PYROFLOW cogeneration unit to Oriental Chemical Industry in South Korea burning petroleum coke and coal. The scale-up of the PYROFLOW boiler to larger units was a necessary challenge to enter the big utility worldwide market. In 1983 Colorado-Ute Electric Association (CUEA) contacted Pyropower Corporation to design and build a PYROFLOW utility boiler to burn Colorado bituminous coal. The CFB boiler would produce 117 kg/s superheated steam at 105 bar and 540 °C for generation of 110 MWe electrical output for CUEA’s Nucla Generating Station in Nucla, Colorado. Pyropower Corporation, backed up by Varkaus Boiler Works had the experience, references and boiler knowledge to offer a 110 MWe utility boiler. However no American utility boiler supplier had adequate CFB knowledge to do so.

To create competition with an American utility supplier, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) as Colorado-Ute’s consult carried out burn tests with Colorado bituminous coal in 1982 at Lurgi’s R&D Center in Frankfurt, Germany. EPRI was also instrumental in arranging a cooperation agreement be-tween Combustion Engineering and Lurgi.

A fierce competition arose between the Finnish based Pyropower Corporation and American Combustion Engi-neering using the Lurgi CFB license and expertise. In the end Ahlstrom Pyropower was victorious. Colorado-Ute 110 MWe PYROFLOW utility boiler was a tremendous achieve-ment and a milestone for Ahlstrom Pyropower Corporation. A schematic cross-section of the boiler is presented in Fig. 9.

8. COLORADO-UTE Utility Boiler – A breakthrough into the utility business

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In 1982 Lurgi accused Ahlström of infringing on their patent US 4111158. Both key persons Lothar Reh of Lurgi and Folke Eng-ström of Ahlström were called to New York for juridical proceed-ings to defend their company’s position in the patent issue. The legal process dragged until 1985. CUEA had made up their mind to award Pyropower Corporation the boiler contract. Although Ahlström’s legal experts and agents in the USA were convinced Ahlström would to win the legal case in the court, Ahlström’s CEO and president Krister Ahlström considered the liability risks for the Colorado-Ute boiler deal to be too great and ordered his sub-ordinates to come to an agreement with Lurgi before signing the CUEA contract.

By signing the license agreement with Lurgi, Ahlström had to pay a reasonable royalty payment for each PYROFLOW boil-er sold. To some extent the license agreement was prejudicial to competitive boiler suppliers in their bidding of CFB boilers. – At least at this stage “the lesson was learnt” by Ahlström on how to handle patent matters. From the establishment of the central-ized R&D activity in Karhula in 1969, the patent matters had been managed by HAL’s administrative head, who was also the R&D manager of Pumps, Paper and Saw Machines. It was evident that the resources and expertise in Karhula were far too limited to ad-equately cover the ideas and inventions generated by R&D and to protect the intellectual properties in the severe competition prevailing worldwide. Many inventions that could have protect-ed the PYROFLOW boiler technique from the competition were lost in the early development stage due to inadequate patent competence and resources in the company.

FIG. 9. A SCHEMATIC CROSS-SECTION OF COLORADO-UTE 110 MWe PYROFLOW UTILITY BOILER

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The capture of the world market by PYROFLOW boilers con-tinued with undiminished power. During the years 1986-89, 30 more PYROFLOW boilers were commissioned in the world: 10 in USA, 9 in Europe, 3 in Finland, 1 in Israel and 1 in Taiwan. One of these boilers was the Colorado-Ute 110 MWe PYRO-FLOW utility boiler that in 1987 started to generate power for the grid. This was a break-through that further confirmed Ahlstrom Pyropower’s position as the leading circulating flu-idized bed supplier in the world with a market share of 70 %. By 1989 Ahlstrom together with its licensees had sold 77 PY-ROFLOW boilers that were spread over the globe as shown by Fig. 10.

FIG. 10. AHLSTROM PYROPOWER’S CFB BOILERS SOLD ONVARIOUS CONTINENTS OF THE WORLD BY 1989

9. Restructuring of Ahlström’s Engineering Works in the late 1980’s

In parallel with the marketing success, development and scale-up of the PYROFLOW boiler was continued in the late 1980’s: a once-through 148 MWt PYROFLOW boiler was sup-plied to KW Wachtberg in Germany; and a large scale-up, the 125 MWe PYROFLOW boiler to the utility company Vaskilu-odon Voima Oy in Seinäjoki. The boiler was designed to fire 100 % peat, 100% coal, or any combination in between and began its commercial operation in 1990. See Fig. 11.

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FIG. 11. THE 300 MWt PYROFLOW BOILER TO THE UTILITY COMPANY VASKILUODON VOIMA OY

(note the size of a human body - left side in middle)

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With the increasing demand for the PYROFLOW boilers, the Board of Ahlström announced in August 1989 to reorganize the Engineering Works Division into two divisions, i.e. the Ahlstrom Pyropower and Ahlstrom Machinery Division. To Ahlstrom Pyropower Division belonged Pyropower Corpora-tion, Varkaus Boiler Works, and Termoflow in Kaarina, Shinko Pyropower and earlier mentioned licensees as well as the new licensees Snamprogetti S.pA. in Italy, Stork Boilers in the Netherlands and Yuen Yu Paper Mfg in Taiwan.

A part of the sales success was due to the fact that Ahl-strom could offer burn testing of potential customers’ fuels at the Karhula pilot plant to prove the design and emission per-formance. In spite of recruiting additional personnel to HAL in Karhula in the early 1980’s, the R&D group could not han-dle all the burn testing requests that came from all over the world and especially the USA. To overcome the dilemma, the Board of Ahlström authorized in 1986 building of a new R&D Center on the American Continent to alleviate the pressure for burn tests in Karhula. By this decision, the core activity at HAL could again be directed towards long-term, strategic development and product improvement of the PYROFLOW technology, while the new R&D Center in San Diego mainly

would serve the sales of PYROFLOW boilers by offering burn test for potential customers. Folke Engström was appointed vice president of R&D with the duty to build the new R&D Center, to recruit its personnel and lead its activity as well as being still in charge of R&D activity at Hans Ahlström Lab-oratory in Karhula. By this appointment his duty changed from earlier being an inventor and developer to a mentor in coaching and leading others to further the CFB technology.

To maintain the leading CFB position in the world, R&D started at HAL in 1989 to develop the second-generation CFB boiler characterized by a water-cooled separator with an integrated heat exchanger for superheating duties. PhD Timo Hyppänen was appointed R&D manager for the new, innovative development as well as the mathematical mod-eling of the PYROFLOW boiler process. For the scale-up of the PYROFLOW boiler to larger utility units with supercritical steam values an in-depth understanding of the combustion process - heat transfer as well as the hydrodynamics - was mandatory as the semi-empirical studies in test rigs, pilot plants and field studies of existing PYROFLOW boilers could provide only partial answers.

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In 1989 the Board of Ahlstrom also approved the construc-tion of a large pressurized CFB pilot plant. This was a strate-gic decision by Ahlström to take a quantum leap over the competition by better overall boiler efficiency and improved emission performance. M.Sc. Juhani Isaksson was appointed R&D manager for the pressurized CFB (PCFB) development in Karhula. Tekes contributed with significant support and funding for this more venturesome investment project both during the construction phase as well as during its operation.

This bold venture by the Ahlstrom Pyropower division resulted in a significant manpower increase that by 1989 amounted to 66 people in addition to the 20 people at the R&D Center in San Diego. Also the Head office of Pyropower Corporation in San Diego grew fast and moved to a larger Head Office. Recruiting did not cause any problem, as abun-dant professional boiler expertise was available to move to San Diego from American Boiler suppliers after the BFB demonstration boiler failures.

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In the mid 1970’s, the process department of Tampella Oy delivered to Svetogorsk pulp and paper mills in Russia a sludge BFB incinerator for destruction of wet sludge that was 75-80 % moisture. The sludge was dried in stage-drier count-er-currently to the flue gases before it dropped into the com-bustion chamber. Tampella acted as the main contractor and supplier for Lurgi, which was responsible for the BFB technol-ogy and drying process. With this project Tampella acquired a license from Lurgi to deliver similar sludge BFB incinerators to Russia.

Tampella acted also as a subcontractor for certain parts of the BFB incinerator delivered to Svetogorsk pulp and paper mills and thus became acquainted with the bubbling fluid-ized bed technology that Tampella later considered could be utilized in other projects. In the late 1970’s, Tampella made improvements to the Lurgi’s BFB technique and applied its knowledge on a small BFB incinerator delivered to Lielahti pulp mill for destruction of wet sludge from the water treat-ment plant.

With the lesson learnt from the BFB prototype in Liela-hti, Tampella delivered their first BFB boiler to Oy Kyro Ab in Kyröskoski in 1980 for the burning of bark and primary sludge with a dry matter content of 38 %. The BFB unit was

refractory lined with a forced circulation heat transfer sur-face in the upper freeboard zone to recover heat from the flue gases before the gases passed through a refractory lined duct to the adjacent grate fired boiler.

The next step in Tampella’s BFB development was the delivery in 1982 of an 11 MWt BFB boiler to Tampella’s own paper mill in Anjalankoski for burning sludge, bark and coal. The BFB boiler was a retrofit to an existing boiler delivering saturated steam to the main boiler. The BFB unit became in a way an internal R&D demonstration unit for testing of various fuels and process development especially to study of the effect of air distribution on different levels above the grid. Dedicated engineers from Tampella’s boiler depart-ment conducted the testing and modifications of the BFB prototype.

The first large, industrial BFB boiler that Tampella deliv-ered in 1985 was a 107 MWt combined BFB and PC boiler to their own Fluting mill in Heinola. The boiler was designed to produce half of the steam generation from the BFB boiler and the other half of the steam capacity from burning pul-verized coal (PC) in the upper furnace of the boiler. See Fig. 12 .

10. Tampella’s BFB development and market penetration

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FIG. 12. THE 107 MWt BFB AND PC BOILER TO TAMPELLA’S FLUTING MILL IN HEINOLA, FINLAND

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The Heinola 107 MWt combined BFB and PC boiler be-came an important reference for Tampella. At the same time Tampella sold their first BFB boilers abroad: one 23 MWt unit to Shotton Paper Company in the U.K., and another a 49 MWt unit to Chapelle Darblay in France. Both boilers gener-ated steam from the burning of bark and sludge in the bub-bling bed.

With help of the Heinola BFB reference, Tampella was suc-cessful in convincing customers in the pulp and paper indus-tries of the merits of converting existing, outdated boilers to BFB boilers. In the timeframe of 1985-1996 Tampella Power sold 21 BFB conversions, of which 14 boilers were in Finland, 2 in Sweden, 1 in Russia, 2 in Spain, 1 in USA and 1 in Brazil.

BFB conversions were a niche market, where Tampella dominated the marketplace. During the same time period, 1985-1996, Ahlström Pyropower delivered 9 BFB conver-sions, of which 5 boilers in Finland and 4 in Sweden.

A major improvement that Tampella Power made in 1995 was the Hydro Beam grate that enables efficient and reliable removal of impurities and coarse material from the bottom of the furnace. The first BFB boiler to be equipped with the new Hydro Beam design was the conversion of the BFB boil-er in Tampella’s own pulp and paper mill in Anjalankoski, Finland. After the demonstration of the Hydro Beam grate at Anjalankoski, all of Tampella’s BFB boilers both built and converted, used the Hydro Beam grate, which contributed largely to Tampella’s BFB success in the market. See Fig.13.

FIG. 13. TAMPELLA HYBEX BFB BOILER IN ANJALANKOSKI

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Tampella Power was also the market leader in the size of the BFB boilers. The largest BFB boiler built by Tampella Pow-er was Rauhalahti 267 MWt BFB conversion of a peat burn-ing power boiler in Jyväskylä, Finland. In the original power boiler that was built in 1986 the pulverized peat was burnt in a flame in the furnace. The flame combustion of peat pow-der was however instable and required continuous heavy oil support to stabilize the combustion process. Furthermore the emissions from the boiler were high, as were the mainte-nance costs. As a part of the boiler modifications, the boiler output was raised by 10% to justify governmental subsidies for the refurbishment of the Rauhalahti power boiler to a BFB boiler, see Fig.14 .

Tampella Oy promoted and developed the Bubbling Fluidized Bed technique for biomass fuels since late 1970’s. Tampella Oy targeted the Pulp and Paper industries, where Tampella’s BFB prototype could be tested, demonstrated and further developed in their own mills. In 1985, Tampella tested also bituminous coal burning in a 37 MWt BFB boiler in Kirkniemi Paper Mills in Lohja with the same failed results as all the other BFB suppliers in the world that tried to burn coal in BFB boilers as described earlier in Chapter 7.

FIG. 14. RAUHALAHTI POWER PLANT, A 267 MWt BFB CONVERSION BY TAMPELLA POWER IN 1993

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To be able to provide boilers for combustion of various coals with sulfur capture and better emissions, Tampella Power needed to establish itself as a credible CFB boiler sup-plier. To do this, Tampella Power bought the Keeler/Dorr-Ol-iver boiler company in Williamsport, Pennsylvania in 1988. The problem that Tampella Power encountered was that in the marketplace, Keeler/Dorr-Oliver was considered only as a CFB supplier for low-grade coal such as anthracite culm

and coal wastes. The only CFB boiler that Tampella delivered before being bought by Kvaerner A/S in 1996 was a 32 MWt CYMIC CFB boiler with internal cyclone, sold to Vapo Oy in Lieksa, Finland. The internal cyclone was later removed and the boiler was converted to a BFB boiler.

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Although Ahlström Oy earlier had their own BFB knowledge and design from the delivery of seven BFB incinerators in the 1970’s in addition to a small 4,7 MWt BFB boiler built in 1977 for Kainuun Prikaati, Kajaani in cooperation with prof. A. Jah-kola at the Technical University of Helsinki, Ahlström bought Oy Witermo Ab in Kaarina in 1987 to strengthen its capa-bilities for marketing and delivery of smaller biofuels BFB boilers. The name of Witermo was changed to Termoflow. Termoflow’s product portfolio consisted of BFB boilers, oil boilers, and Heat Recovery Steam Generators (HRSG). Larg-er BFB boilers and conversions were however handled and marketed by Ahlstrom Boiler in Varkaus to which Termoflow belonged.

As mentioned in Chapter 6, Outokumpu Oy had convert-ed two pyrite BFB roasters in Kokkola to peat burning boilers in 1977 by simply installing peat handling equipments and overbed peat feed chutes in the lower freeboard area of the boiler. As the cooperation negotiations with Ahlstrom did not proceed in the late 1970’s, Outokumpu Oy established a small boiler engineering company of their own, Outokum-pu EcoEnergy Oy and started to sell their BFB boilers main-ly in the “home market”, Finland and Sweden, as well as to

Outokumpu Oy’s metallurgical customers in other parts of the world. In 1993, Outokumpu EcoEnergy in Finland was bought by Ahlstrom and incorporated with Ahlstrom Boilers in Varkaus.

The technical differences between the BFB boilers offered by Tampella and Ahlström/Termoflow were insignificant as shown by Fig. 15, which represents a typical BFB boiler of-fered by Termoflow for district heating and electricity gen-eration. Especially in the product range 15-60 MWt heat or steam generation the BFB biofuel fired boilers were profit-able, proven technology with good availability compared to grate fired boilers. Small BFB boilers, typically 3-20 MWe electricity and 6-40 MWt heat were offered to the municipal-ities and industries and supplied by Termoflow with short delivery time.

In the end of the 1980’s and early 1990’s Termoflow was the market leader for the smaller BFB heat and power plants and sold 21 BFB units, while Tampella dominated the larg-er BFB boilers and conversion market, especially in the pulp and paper industry, selling 26 large BFB boilers and retro-fit units. Termoflow was a small unit within Ahlstrom Boil-ers that could operate fast and with a leaner overhead than

11. Ahlström’s BFB development and market penetration

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Tampella, which met the competition from Ahlstrom Boilers in the larger BFB product range. As the technical differences and the guarantees offered by the two competing BFB boil-er companies were small, the commercial terms and price in the end decided the winning deal.

The year 2000 Foster Wheeler decided to transfer the business unit Termoflow from Kaarina to FW Energia Oy in Varkaus, which resulted in most of the employees leaving the company and moving to competing boiler companies or establishing engineering offices of their own.

FIG. 15. A TYPICAL TERMOFLOW BFB BOILER

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Ahlström and Tampella were similar, diversified multi-branch Finnish companies with roots in the forest industries and well known as pulp and paper machinery and Kraft recovery boiler suppliers to the worldwide pulp and paper industries. It is therefore not surprising that a fierce and often unhealthy competition arose between the two companies in the same marketplace especially during recession times.

The competition between the two companies was espe-cially fierce in the late 1980’s during the collapse of the Sovi-et trade and in the early 1990’s during the Western European recession, which led the Finnish economy into a depression that was worse than that of the 1930’s. The banking crisis trig-gered a profound structural change in the Finnish financial sector that affected especially Tampella and its bank owner SKOP that went bankrupt. Suomen Pankki (Bank of Finland) took over SKOP on September 19th, 1991 and became own-er of Tampella Oy.

Tampella Oy was split up and its divisions were sold one by one to larger Finnish companies except Tampella’s Boiler Works. Ahlström was offered the opportunity to take over Tampella’s Boiler Works, but Solidium and Ahlström could

never agree upon the price. Finally Krister Ahlström publicly informed that he would sell the Ahlstrom Pyropower divi-sion abroad, if not Solidium would not agree to a reasonable price.

So it happened, Ahlström Oy sold Ahlstrom Pyropower a couple of years later to Foster Wheeler and Solidium (The Finnish State) had to “donate” Tampella Boiler Works in 1996 to Kvaerner A/S for a small down payment of approximately 26 million U.S. dollars. – At the time of merger negotiations, Ahlström Oy and Tampella Oy were the world’s leading re-covery boiler suppliers with roughly 50 % market share. Ahl-strom was the world leader of CFB boilers and the same per-tains for the combined supply of BFB boilers from Ahlström and Tampella. Furthermore the market demand for recovery boilers and power boilers complemented each other in the ups and downs of the business cycles. This evened out the swings in boiler sale and factory loads. Today we know that the core business of the two companies are still in Finland, but the ownership Ahlstrom Pyropower is in foreign hands. – A golden opportunity was lost to establish a strong Finnish global boiler company by the act of the State of Finland.

12. Finnish Boiler Works – clash in the market and lost opportunity

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From the 1930’s to the 1980’s the world boiler market was to a great extent dominated by the US boiler companies Com-bustion Engineering Inc. (CE) and Babcock-Wilcox (BW). To-gether the two US boiler companies had roughly 70 % of the US market, while Foster Wheeler had a substantial part of the remaining market. Furthermore CE and BW sold their licens-es to boiler companies all over the world. In Finland Ahlström was a CE’s licensee and Tampella had obtained a BW’s license. In Sweden Götaverken had BW’s and Maskinverken CE’s li-cense and in the same way the domestic boiler companies in most of the other industrialized countries had obtained a CE or B&W license. Every country had thus their domestic boiler suppliers and formed in a way a protected area from outside competition due to the license agreements with CE and BW.

As described in Chapter 7, the worldwide BFB boiler de-velopment and demonstration of power production from bituminous coal with sulfur failed in the 1970-80’s and the boiler companies started their own development of CFB technology with governmental subsidies and support from public R&D Centers and Technical Universities. The in-depth knowledge and capabilities were often not adequate and

many CFB developments and prototypes resulted in unsuc-cessful demonstrations and unprofitable installations.

The worldwide recession, growing technological compe-tition and tighter financial markets In 1980-90’s led to con-siderable consolidation of boiler companies in the world as shown by Fig. 16. The most remarkable acquisition was ABB’s purchase of Combustion Engineering Inc. in Connecti-cut, USA in early 1990. By mid 1995 half of the boiler compa-nies had disappeared, gone bankrupt, or merged with other boiler companies. Twenty years later only 15 major boiler companies were left in the world.

In China, the Government protected the indigenous boiler industry by restrictions on the import of boilers and ownership of Chinese boiler companies. The large Power equipment companies were State owned and remained in-dependent. A similar regional protected situation prevailed also in Japan on the utility market sector until recently, when Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems, Ltd. (MHPS), a thermal power generation systems company jointly established by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. and Hitachi, Ltd. launched their business operations effective February 1, 2014.

13. Consolidation of boiler companies and Tampella merger with Kvaerner

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FIG.16. CONSOLIDATION OF BOILER COMPANIES IN THE WORLD IN TIME PERIOD 1986-2015

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The new venture, MHPS combines the global fossil busi-ness of both companies.

Still independent boiler companies with foreign licenses are IHI in Japan, BHEL in India, B&W in the USA and Ansaldo in Italy.

In 1996, Tampella Power Company encountered the same fate as Götaverken/Generator Boiler Company in Sweden in 1994, i.e. the Norwegian multi-branch company Kvaerner A/S purchased Tampella’s boiler division. See Fig. 17.

Both Götaverken and Tampella were roughly the same size with similar boiler products serving the worldwide pow-er, pulp and paper industries. A restructuring of the boiler business in Kvaerner took place based on an independent, economical-technical analysis that resulted in the BFB and CFB boilers staying in Tampere and the center of Kraft recov-ery boilers, services and boiler modifications was concentrat-ed to Götaverken’s boiler Works in Gothenburg.

The acquisition of Götaverken and Tampella brought new technology, expertise, references and customers to the new-ly established company Kvaerner Pulping. With Tampere as the center for power boilers the BFB boilers and conversions continued to be the milk cow for Kvaerner Pulping’s boiler business.

FIG 17. TAMPELLA POWER OY MERGER WITH KVAERNER A/S AND REBIRTH AS VALMET ON JAN. 1, 2014 (SOURCE: TAMPELLA/VALMET)

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The use of biofuels was encouraged in the early 1990’s by subsidies or taxation as a measure to counteract the threat-ening Greenhouse effect and to promote renewable energy sources in many EU countries as well in Sweden and Finland. Although Tampella earlier had been one of the foremost BFB boiler suppliers for biofuels, the new Kvaerner boiler com-pany was even more successful with more resources and a larger customer palette on the global market place. During the time frame 1996-2006 Kvaerner sold roughly 6000 MWt thermal capacity worldwide in BFB boilers and conversions. One of the more important deliveries was the HYBEX 246 MWt BFB boiler delivered to Stora Enso in Oulu in 1997. See Fig.18.

By the end of 2006 Kvaerner A/S made a decision to de-merger a part of their businesses and sold its Pulping and Power businesses to Metso Corporation. With this acquisi-tion, the power and recovery boilers returned to Finland. The new company, Metso Power, with roots in Tampella Power continued to sell BFB boilers and conversions at the same pace as the Kvaerner Pulping boiler company did ear-lier and was recognized worldwide as the market leader in BFB applications. This is especially true after the beginning

FIG. 18. HYBEX 246 MWt BFB BOILER DELIVERED TO STORA ENSO IN OULU. (SOURCE: TAMPELLA/VALMET)

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of the new millennium, when Foster Wheeler concentrated its business activity more on large CFB utility boilers and left more or less its BFB market share to the newcomer Andritz.

The large 292 MWt BFB boiler delivered to Nacogdoches Power in Texas, USA as presented in Fig. 19, is an example of Metso Power’s capabilities.

Based upon the success in Texas, Metso Power delivered one year later in 2013 the same size boiler a 292 MWt unit to Gainesville Renewable Energy Center in Gainesville, Florida, USA.

FIG. 19. NACOGDOCHES POWER’S 292 MWt BOILER – THE LARGEST BFB BUILT BY METSO POWER. (SOURCE: TAMPELLA/VALMET)

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Although Kvaerner Power had acquired CFB knowhow and design from Götaverken and also from Keeler/Dorr-Oliver through Tampella’s purchase in 1988, the company was not considered as a strong competitor in the market to Foster Wheeler’s CFB technology for burning of bituminous coal with sulfur removal. With a multi-fuel mix of bark, wood chips, other bi-products from the wood refining process and peat as main fuels and coal as a supplementary fuel, the situation was different. In 2001 Kvaerner gathered all of its in-house CFB expertise and focused its efforts to win the Al-holmens Kraft boiler, the largest bio-fuelled power plant in the world. See Fig. 20. It faced hard competition with Foster Wheeler, but Kvaerner Power prevailed.

The Alholmens Kraft CFB boiler became a breakthrough for Kvaerner into the CFB businesses. With Alholmens CFB boiler in commercial operation, Kvaerner was successful in selling four additional multi-fuelled CFB boilers before Met-so Corporation purchased Kvaerner’s boiler division in 2007.

After Metso Power took over the CFB business activity continued at roughly the same pace of approximately 240 MWt thermal capacity per year. Of the 20 CFB boilers sold in the time period 2007-2016, all but 4 were CFB boilers

14. Kvaerner’s and Metso Power’s CFB boiler technology

FIG. 20. ALHOLMENS KRAFT’S 550 MWt CFB BIO-FUELED BOILER IN PIETARSAARI. (SOURCE: VALMET)

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burning mixtures of coal wastes and biomass such as re-cycled wood, bark, peat, wastes, fiber rejects, sludges, and RDF.

Metso Power’s market segment was the industrial CFB boiler in the medium steam capacity class below 500 MWt for challenging fuels and fuel mixtures largely affecting the design of boiler and the whole power plant from the fuel handling to the flue gas treatment. The chemical and phys-ical properties of these fuels pose a variety of challenges to the design of the heat transfer surfaces in the furnace and convection section and on the superheaters due to agglom-eration, corrosion, erosion, fouling, and ash debris in the bot-tom of the furnace.

In early 2014 Valmet Corporation was reborn after the de-merger of the Power and Recovery boilers from Metso Cor-poration. For the company Valmet Corporation, the 390 MWt CFB multi-fuelled boiler sold to the town of Turku will be a showcase, when the CFB boiler is commissioned in 2017. The fuel mixture of the CFB boiler consists of coal, milled peat and processed wood wastes mixed with minor shares of agri-cultural biomass and SRF (Specified Recovered Fuel). See Fig. 21.

FIG. 21. TURKU 390 MWt CFB MULTI-FUELED BOILER THAT WILL BE COMMISSIONED IN 2017.(SOURCE: VALMET)

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In the early 1990’s Ahlstrom Pyropower Inc. (API) developed into a global, well organized and top-level modern enter-prise with a new Head Office in San Diego with business cen-ters in many countries around the world. Especially in the Far East new business offices were established in Singapore and Bangkok with “Country Business Managers” for China, India, Indonesia and Australia. Also the manufacturing process was restructured into a “Global Production and Procurement De-partment” with Varkaus Boiler Works still being the leading workshop for the manufacture of the key boiler components, while other boiler components were out-sourced to the own Boiler Workshop Fakop in Polen, Hyundai Heavy Industries in South-Korea and other Boiler Works around the world with cheap labor forces.

The standardization of boiler components and the CAD design of the boiler were carried out in all Engineering de-partments of the Ahlstrom Pyropower division. The same concerned the internal Information Technology systems and dimensioning of the PYROFLOW boiler that in a short time could be designed and CAD-drawn based upon the custom-er’s specifications. Also the demonstration and commercial-ization of new products developed by R&D or purchased

from others were organized in a new department, “Global New Products”, with a Vice President responsible for its ac-tivity.

By the end of 1992 the development of the second gen-eration PYROFLOW had proceeded to the demonstration stage. The new CFB technology with the trade name “PYRO-FLOW Compact” was demonstrated in 1992 in an 18 MWt unit sold to Kuhmo Lämpö Oy with peat and wood wastes as the main fuels. The main features of the new design are presented in Fig. 22.

After some adjustments and start-up problems the PY-ROFLOW Compact unit in Kuhmo operated successfully as designed. Ahlstrom Boilers in Varkaus was pleased with the new development that had eliminated the heavy refractory lined hot cyclone and took the lead in the commercializing of the PYROFLOW Compact technique to the market place by selling the second unit in 1993 to IVO International Oy in Kokkola. Kokkola PYROFLOW Compact was a 6 times scale-up of the Kuhmo unit producing 97,5 MWt at 61 bar and 510 °C superheating with coal and peat as the main fuels. See fig. 23 on page 54.

15. Globalization of Ahlstrom Pyropower and the successes in early 1990’s

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FIG. 22. THE MAIN FEATURES OF PYROFLOW COMPACT DESIGN

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FIG. 23. THE 100 MWt PYROFLOW COMPACT IN KOKKOLA COMMISSIONED IN 1994(note the size of a human body – on the street level in the middle)

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After the demonstration of PYROFLOW Compact in Kuhmo, R&D at Hans Ahlstrom Laboratory started together with Varkaus boiler works the development of the INTREX heat exchanger, which was the ultimate step into large once-through utility boilers with super-critical steam values. The main features of the INTREX heat exchanger are shortly de-scribed in Fig. 24.

Due to the high heat transfer coefficient in the INTREX heat exchanger, the heat transfer surfaces are considerably smaller than the superheaters or reheaters in conventional PC boilers. The heat transfer surfaces are also located away from the highly, corrosive high-temperature flue gases, as fresh air is used as the fluidizing medium in the INTREX heat exchanger

The INTREX heat exchanger was first demonstrated in a 86 MWt PYROFLOW Compact unit commissioned at Hor-nitex Werke Beeskow GmbH in Germany in 1996. The unit burned wood wastes resulting in a corrosive environment in the combustion chamber and as such became an ideal testing unit for studying the corrosion and erosion resistivity of superheater alloys in the INTREX heat exchanger adjacent to the lower combustion chamber.

FIG. 24. THE MAIN FEATURES OF THE INTREX HEAT EXCHANGER

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By the mid 1990’s fourteen PYROFLOW Compact boilers were sold worldwide. PYROFLOW Compact became the standard design offered by Ahlstrom Pyropower for units up to 100 MWe.

The next milestone in the scale-up of the PYROFLOW Compact was taken in 1994 by selling two 370 MWt boil-ers to National Power Supply Co. (NPS) in ThaToom, Thailand firing biofuels, bituminous and anthracite coals as the main fuels. One of the boilers was equipped to use biomass con-sisting of bark and rice husk up to 50 % by energy content. The two PYROFLOW Compacts boilers were commissioned in 1998. Fig. 25 shows the cross-section of the two 370 MWt boilers to National Power Supply Co, in Thailand.

FIG. 25. THE 370 MWt BOILER TO NATIONAL POWER SUPPLY CO. IN THATOOM, THAILAND. (SOURCE: AHLSTROM PYROPOWER / FOSTER WHEELER)(note the size of a human body – on the street level in the middle and the size of a truck on the left)

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The PYROFLOW Compact was gradually replacing the first Generation PYROFLOW boiler with the refractory lined hot cyclone as the experience of the larger PYROFLOW Com-pact boilers with INTREX heat exchanger rapidly grew.

The major milestones of the well-managed commercial-ization and development process are shown in Fig 26. The scale-up of PYROFLOW boilers was based on a thorough understanding of the underlying circulating fluidized bed combustion process, experience from smaller CFB boilers in operation, and advanced mathematical modeling of the total CFB process.

Ahlstrom Pyropower continued to take the major market share of CFB boilers in hard competition with ABB, Lurgi/Lentjes, Foster Wheeler, Riley Stoker and Deutsche Babcock.

FIG. 26. MAJOR STEPS IN THE SCALE-UP AND COMMERCIALIZATION OF I- AND II-GENERATION PYROFLOW(SOURCE: AHLSTROM PYROPOWER / FOSTER WHEELER)

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By the mid 1990’s Ahlstrom Pyropower had together with its licensees sold over 170 PYROFLOW boilers with a 47 % share of the world market as shown by the independent market analysis made by McCoy in 1995. See Fig. 27.

The scale-up effort of the PYROFLOW boiler continued with the 410 MWt PYROFLOW utility boiler delivered to Nova Scotia Power in Canada. The boiler was designed to fire local high sulfur bituminous coal with high chlorine content. In March 1994, the plant successfully completed the 120 hours capacity test.

The Chinese market was opened in the mid 1990’s by the delivery of eleven PYROFLOW boilers, of which the largest was the 285 MWt utility-scale boiler to Neijiang Power Sta-tion, Neijang, China. An important feature of the Neijiang Boiler was the ability to follow the grid’s power demand, and to operate at a much lower load than had been achievable with the traditional pulverized coal-fired boilers.

FIG. 27. CFB MARKET SHARES IN 1979-1994 ACCORDING TO THE ORDERS FROM THE BOILER SUPPLIERS ON THE MWE BASIS (MCCOY) (AHLSTROM PYROPOWER = FOSTER WHEELER BY THE PURCHASE IN 1995) (SOURCE: AHLSTROM PYROPOWER / FOSTER WHEELER)

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On June 21, 1995 a “news bomb” exploded at all of Ahlstrom Pyropower’s offices worldwide.

“FOSTER WHEELER

ACQUIRES AHLSTROM’S

POWER BOILER

BUSINESS”The “news bomb” created huge frustration and depression among the employees at Ahlstrom Pyropower’s office in San Diego. They had put their hearts and souls in addition to their knowledge and effort to create an ultra-modern and prosperous division. It was especially bitter for the inventor and developer that had offered his uttermost ability in the development of the PYROFLOW technology, to have the company be sold to a foreign company. As an employee wrote in an e-mail to him. “It hurts when you are loyal to a company. It is like a soldier, who fights very hard and wins

battles for the General but the General decided to surrender to the enemy for money”.

That is exactly in the way the author felt on that day. A telephone call to Krister Ahlström, the CEO and President of the Ahlstrom Company, did not relieve his frustration. According to the CEO the merger was good for the PYRO-FLOW and its inventor. Krister Ahlström was reminded by the arguments that not a single PYROFLOW boiler had failed to meet its guarantees and Varkaus Boiler Works had at all times been profitable for its owners. Furthermore, Ahlstrom Pyropower was a high level and growing company with a very dedicated, innovative staff who put all its strength into promoting the company. Recently Ahlstrom Pyropower had opened the last big market, China. In addition, it had also been victorious in winning the biggest CFB sale project in the world the 6x245 MWe CFB utility boilers to Turow Power Company.

From Foster Wheeler’s point of view the situation was un-ambiguous – “if you cannot beat them you have to buy them”. Foster Wheeler had delivered only 9 CFB boilers before the merger. This can be compared to the 114 PYROFLOW boilers delivered and commissioned by Ahlstrom Pyropower. FW’s own CFB development with water-cooled cyclone was not

16. Merger of Ahlstrom Pyropower with Foster Wheeler

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a winner in the marketplace as other CFB boiler constructors had also applied the same concept.

Power Magazine described the alliance between Foster Wheeler (FWC) and Ahlstrom Pyropower (API) as a “Super-power” with all technical knowhow and financial resources to be the world-leading player on the energy markets. Wall Street Journal commented on the alliance between FWC and API that Foster Wheeler Energy International Inc. (FWEI) could have a brilliant future, if FW understood to properly accumulate and incorporate all of the knowhow, expertise and successes of API. If the merger was not done properly the alliance could be disastrous for FWC. In retrospect we know that the latter prediction became true. In November 2014, the mother company FWC was taken over by AMEC, a British multinational consultancy, engineering and project management company headquartered in London, United Kingdom.

The new division within FWC was registered as Foster Wheeler Energy International Inc. with Robert A. Whittaker

as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer and Eric Oakes, the former president of Ahlstrom Pyropower as the Chief Operating Officer. The nomination indicated how FW was going to nominate the top chief positions, i.e. a FW employ-ee stayed in charge with his AP’s counterpart as second in command, but easily removable after his knowledge had been transferred.

In addition to the restructuring, consolidation and orga-nizational changes that took place in the new division under the two following years, the top-modern Head Office and R&D Center in San Diego were shutdown. More than 300 dedicated AP employees left the company and stayed in San Diego. The upper management employees and techni-cal specialists that moved to FW’s Head Office and R&D Cen-ter in New Jersey encountered an old fashion conservative American company with methods and operations roughly 5 years behind Ahlstrom Pyropower’s. AP’s boiler works, business centers and organizations outside USA, however, remained intact under conservative and severe American control and leadership.

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As mentioned above, in 1994 Ahlstrom Pyropower won in an intense competition with ABB for the largest CFB project in the world; the rehabilitation of Turow Power Station’s ten ageing PC power boilers in Bogatynia, Poland with six PYRO-FLOW boilers producing together 1490 MWe. The first three units producing 235 MWe each were built in 1995-2000 us-ing the first generation PYROFLOW boiler design with exter-nal hot cyclone separator; while the next three units were built in 1999-2004 with the second generation PYROFLOW Compact design with upgraded subcritical steam parame-ters to produce 262 MWe each.

Foster Wheeler Energy Corporation North America (FWEC-NA), the FWEI’s largest business unit within FWEI started to squeak in the organization after having received only a few boiler contracts during the first 3 years of operation, while Foster Wheeler Energia Oy (FWEOY) sold more than the busi-ness unit could deliver. Hank Bartoli, who had been appoint-ed to CEO for FWEI after Robert A. Whittaker’s tragic death decided that the first two Turow 235 MWe utility CFB boilers should be supplied by FWECNA instead of FWEOY, which had carried the major workload in winning the order. The Turow project became, however, an additional burden on FWECNA

that could not profitably deliver the boilers from USA ac-cording to the specification and terms agreed upon in the sales contact. The third 235 MWe CFB unit was also delivered by FWECNA to the Turow Power Plant in Bogatynia, Poland.

In the end of 1990’s a considerable lay-off took place with-in FWEI and FWECNA. The big Boiler Works in Dansville, NY was shutdown and the machinery moved to the 50 % owned joint venture Boiler Works in Xinhui, China. – On September 16th, 1998 the local newspaper Star-Ledger wrote – “Foster Wheeler stock plagued by difficulties. Trio of problems led to 71 % decline in FW stock price. Turbulence in Asia, an un-even financial performance and one very expensive mistake have pounded Foster Wheeler’s stock price to a 10-year low”.

In Europe on the other hand FWEOY was successful in winning an increasing numbers of CFB boiler contracts. It was especially the newly developed PYROFLOW Compact, equipped with INTREX, that together with FW Energia Oy’s enthusiasm, knowledge, and courage created a power-ful business drive in Europe, especially in the biofuel mar-ket places in Finland, Sweden and Germany. FWEOY had acquired turnkey capability during Ahlstrom Pyropower’s time. It became, especially in Poland with 75 % market share,

17. Foster Wheeler Energy International Inc. – first 10-year of operation

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a preferred CFB supplier for EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) turnkey deliveries such as the 352 MWt CFB boiler to EC Katowice and the two 274 MWt CFB boilers at Elcho CHP plants in Poland.

The big challenge for FWEOY at the turn of the century was however the delivery of the three 262 MWe PYROFLOW Compact boilers to Turow Power Plant with superheating to 565 °C in INTREX heat exchanger. See Fig. 28.

Operating experiences firing brown coal in the units 1, 2 and 3 proved the technology to be a mature and an ad-vanced solution at the utility scale within the requirements of high reliability, performance and economy. Further im-provements were achieved in units 4, 5, and 6 by advanced new features, such as the integrated cooled panel structures for the furnace, solid separators, and INTREX heat exchang-er. A particular concern with the boiler design was that the large furnaces had to fit into the limited space of the existing plant.

Rehabilitation and repowering using the environmentally acceptable CFB technology made an attractive combination for Turow Power Station. On an economic basis, it offered 25 additional years of operation, at a cost per kilowatt that was only 40 to 60 % of the cost of a new plant.

FIG. 28. TUROW CFB BOILERS 4-6, 3X262 MWe(SOURCE: AHLSTROM PYROPOWER / FOSTER WHEELER)(note the size of a human body – on the street level in the middle and the size of a truck on the left)

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FIG. 29. HALFWAY IN THE REHABILITATION AND REPOWERING PROCESS OF TUROW POWER STATION(SOURCE: AHLSTROM PYROPOWER / FOSTER WHEELER)

After completion of the Repowering of Turow Power Sta-tion the emissions represented a 92 % reduction in SO2, a 19 % reduction in NOx, and a 91 % reduction in particulates relative to the emission from the 10 old PC-boilers burning Polish lignite.

In 1995, after Foster Wheeler’s acquisition of Ahlstrom Pyropower, FW Energia Oy asked about technical assistance from FWEI’s Engineering Department in Perryville for the design of a supercritical once-through (SCOT) CFB boiler to Midkraft in Denmark. (FW was a licensee of Siemens’s Ben-son boiler technology). A SCOT design concept was made for the CFB boiler. The SCOT CFB demo however disappeared as the Midkraft sales project was cancelled.

FW Energia’s next opportunity to demonstrate the SCOT technique emerged as a 250 MWe boiler offered to Alhol-mens Kraft in Pietarsaari in 1998-99. In this sales project FW Energia asked Siemens in Erlangen to provide the ther-mo-hydraulic design of the furnace based upon the outside tube heat transfer provided by FW Energia. Also this SCOT demonstration opportunity failed as the boiler concept during the bidding phase was changed to a drum type CFB boiler.

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During 2001-2004 FW Energia Oy continued its effort to refine the design and knowhow of the SCOT CFB process by participating in the EU funded HIPE project – High Perfor-mance Multifuel CFB with Advanced Steam Cycle. The other consortium members in the R&D project were Siemens AG and EnergoProjekt Katowice (EPK) in Poland with the Tech-nical Research Center of Finland as participant and coordi-nator. FW Energia worked closely with Siemens in the area of simulation and practical trials for testing of different design and tube alternatives at the water/steam cycle test rig in Er-langen, Germany. When the Lagisza opportunity appeared in 2002 FW Energia Oy had together with Siemens resolved the key design issues.

The offering process for Lagisza in 2002 consisted of both PC and CFB alternatives with Benson vertical tube technolo-gy and low mass flux. In December 2002 the utility company PKE in Poland contracted FW Energia to engineer and build the world’s first supercritical CFB boiler, a 460 MWe boiler island for its Lagisza site in southern Poland. The main pro-cess parameters and the fuel specification are presented in Table 1.

TABLE 1. MAIN PROCESS PARAMETERS AND FUEL SPECIFICATION(SOURCE: AHLSTROM PYROPOWER / FOSTER WHEELER)

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Lagisza, the world’s first once-through CFB with supercrit-ical steam parameters marked a major new milestone in the scale-up and development of CFB boiler technology. Its de-sign was based on a thorough understanding of the under-lying CFB combustion process, measurements from existing CFB boilers, and the development of a three-dimensional model to simulate the overall CFB combustion process. A prerequisite for the advancement of FW’s CFB boiler in the SCOT utility boiler range was the successful development and demonstration of INTREX integrated heat exchanger, which acts as the final superheater and/or reheater in large-scale utility boilers. The high heat transfer in the INTREX translates into smaller superheaters and reheaters than the same surfaces used in conventional PC boilers. Furthermore, the final superheater and reheater surfaces are located away from the flow of highly corrosive, high-temperature flue gas-es, as fresh air is used for fluidization in the INTREX heat ex-changer.

The Lagisza 460 MWe CFB boiler incorporated the BEN-SON Vertical Low Mass Flux Once-through Technology de-veloped by Siemens Power Generation of Erlangen, Germa-ny. This technology allows the boiler to operate with reduced pressure drop, thus minimizing auxiliary power demand and increasing plant efficiency. In addition, tube flow characteris-tics are typical of drum-type units, where an increase in heat flux translates automatically into an increase in tube side flow rate. The calculated net plant efficiency for Lagisza is 43,3 % and the net electrical power output is 439 MWe. See Fig. 30.

FIG. 30. THE CROSS-SECTIONAL OF LAGISZA ONCE-THROUGH SUPERCRITICAL CFB BOILER (SOURCE: AHLSTROM PYROPOWER / FOSTER WHEELER)

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Ten years after signing the Lagisza contract Foster Wheel-er achieved the latest milestone, i.e. notice to proceed was given in 2011 by Hyundai Engineering and Construction for the design and supply of four 550 MWe CFB supercritical steam generators for the Samcheok Green Power Project in South Korea. The Boiler plant EPC contractor is a consortium with Hyundai as the consortium leader. The decision to pro-ceed with the CFB technology over the conventional Pulver-ized Coal technology was made by the state owned power company Korean Southern Power Company (KOSPO) after one year of careful study and evaluation. The result of the evaluation process was that KOSPO reached the same con-clusion that the utility company PKE in Poland had made 10 years earlier, they chose the once-through supercritical CFB technology for the Lagisza power plant.

The Samcheok boiler design is based on the same once-through supercritical design and basic features used for the 460 MWe Lagisza power plant. The CFB steam generators will burn cheap, imported sub-bituminous coal mainly from In-donesia mixed with biomass to meet at the same time strict environmental requirements. The two train power blocks of 1100 MWe each will be commissioned in 2016 and 2017. See Fig. 31 the 4x550 MWe CFB at the construction site in South Korea.

FIG. 31. THE SAMCHEOK 4X550 MWe CFB BOILERS UNDER ERECTION IN OCTOBER 2015. (SOURCE: AMEC FOSTER WHEELER / FW ENERGIA OY)

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At the time of the publishing of this review the first two blocks to the left of fig. 31 are in operation and the next two boilers to the right are in the commissioning stage. AII CFB boilers have the ability to burn cheap opportunity fuels such as Indonesian coal as well as biomasses. The state-owned power company (KOSPO), owing the Samcheok Green Power Project is committed to bring to the country clean, economic green energy. In addition to utilizing advanced ultrasupercritical Circulating Fluidized Bed technology de-veloped in Finland, the plant will generate wind, solar and hydro power to conform with its name Green Power Station to be a world class show case. It is the most unfortunate that this power station was not built on the West Coast of Finland as Kauttuan PYROFLOW boiler once in 1981 demonstrated and brought the CFB boiler technology to the world market. Figure 32 shows the completed Samcheok Green Power Sta-tion after the phase 2 expansion to the right in Fig. 32 with four additional, ultra-modern 550 MWe CFB boilers.

FIG. 32. FW ENERGIA OY’S 4X550 MWe CFB BOILERS – SAMCHEOK GREEN POWER PROJECT IN SOUTH KOREA

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The scale-up of the CFB boiler has during the 40-years of development been impressive as shown by the major mile-stones illustrated in Fig. 32 below. The Turow project was the turning point for switching from the first generation CFB boilers with refractory lined hot cyclones (Turow boilers 1-3) to the second generation CFB boiler with water/steam cooled separator and INTREX heat exchanger (Turow 4-6).

In summary from the 0,5 m CFB pilot plant at Hans Ahl-strom Laboratory in Karhula in 1976, the CFB boiler had been scaled-up 2200 times to the Samcheok 550 MWe CFB in 2011. Not a single CFB boiler of the over 460 sold units had failed to meet their performance and emission guaran-tees – an incredible success story.

FIG. 33. SCALE-UP OF THE CFB BOILER AND MAJOR KEY REFERENCES DURING THE 30-YEAR SUCCESS STORY

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The Andritz AG’s boiler business started in the year 1900, when the company bought Brücken- und Kesselwerke Graz – a division that later was renamed to Waagner-Biro. In con-trast to many Finnish companies, Andritz AG has especially during the last 30 years strengthened its market position and growth through organic expansion and numerous, fortunate acquisitions, such as Kone Wood in 1994 and Ahlstrom Ma-chinery in 2000/2001 as shown in Fig. 34.

In 1999 the Waagner-Biro boiler company was taken over by the German Babcock Group that consisted of for-mer boiler companies Stork, Riley, Lurgi and Lentjes to form Babcock Borsig Power–Austrian Energy. In 2005, this new company, in its turn, was taken over by A-Tec Industries and relaunched as Austrian Energy & Environment. The CFB boiler technology used by Andritz originates from a coop-eration agreement for the commercialization of PYROFLOW boilers in Austria and neighboring Eastern block coun-tries between Ahlstrom and Waagner-Biro, signed in 1982.

18. Andritz Energy & Environment FBC Boilers

FIG. 34. LARGE STRUCTURAL CHANGES AND ACQUISITION WITHIN ANDRITZ AND ITS BOILER BUSINESS SECTOR (SOURCE: ANDRITZ )

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Shortly after the agreement was signed Waagner-Biro sold three PYROFLOW boilers to the pulp and paper companies in Austria – Frantschach Zellstoff- und Papierfabrik AG, Leykam Mürztalen AG and Lenzing AG. In the beginning of the 1990’s, the agreement was dissolved and Waagner–Biro got the rights to continue using the PYROFLOW CFB technology acquired to that date. AE&E continued from that base with its own CFB development and in the turn of the century Andritz AG acquired several German CFB boiler companies with CFB knowhow and expertise as shown in Fig. 34.

The acquisition of Ahlstrom Machinery brought a large portfolio of knowhow and expertise to Andritz AG that wise-ly was nursed and incorporated into the mother company under the name of Andritz Oy. Although a turnkey supplier with financial strength and global experience to deliver fully integrated systems to the worldwide pulp and paper indus-tries Andritz AG was lacking BFB boiler technology, know-how and experience. In the early 2000’s Andritz Oy covered

the gap by acquiring former Foster Wheeler Energia Oy em-ployees. Today Andritz AG is one of the leading suppliers of BFB boilers to the pulp and paper industry. The CFB boiler business is managed from Graz and the BFB boilers predom-inantly from Varkaus.

Andritz with past extensive experience in municipal re-fuse combustion has developed their BFB boiler design into an interesting concept depending upon the characteristics of the fuel mixture. The design of the furnace as well the con-vective back pass varies considerably, when the fuel mixture changes from clean biomass fuels to alkaline agricultural wastes, RDF rejects and sludges. Andritz differentiates be-tween a conventional, hybrid, and residue fuel concept as illustrated in Fig. 35.

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FIG. 35. BFB APPLICATIONS FOR VARIOUS FUEL MIXTURES IN THE CAPACITY RANGE 20 TO 380 MW T

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In 2006 Andritz entered the pulp and paper biomass busi-ness power business market as a BFB boiler supplier. Since then, Andritz has sold 31 BFB boilers worldwide, of which 17 units have been delivered by Andritz Oy in Varkaus. The larg-est unit is a 210 MWt BFB boiler burning wood and sludge supplied to a customer in Virginia, USA. See Fig. 36.

FIG. 36. THE 210 MWfuel ECOFLUID IS THE LARGEST BFB BOILER SOLD BY ANDRITZ

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For CFB boilers Andritz/AE&E has driven the design of the “Residue concept” one step further with the tail end hori-zontal superheater and evaporator bundles and the final super-heating of the steam in an external heat exchanger based on the experiences from the proven design of waste incineration plants as shown in Fig. 37. Between the “Con-ventional” and the “Residue Concept” Andritz/AE&E has de-veloped the “Hybrid Concept” for waste biomass and agri-cultural residues with a chorine content of max. 0,3 % in dry substance.

FIG. 37. CFB APPLICATIONS FOR VARIOUS FUEL MIXTURES IN THE CAPACITY RANGE 30 TO 450 MWt

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Between 1980 and 2005, Andritz or more correctly its boiler predecessors Waagner-Biro, Austrian Energy & Envi-ronment, Babcock Borsig Power – Austrian Energy sold 20 CFB boilers, of which at least the first six CFB boilers were de-signed, manufactured and delivered based on the coopera-tion agreement that Waagner-Biro obtained from Ahlström in 1982 with a design as shown in Fig. 38.

FIG. 38. ANDRITZ POWERFLUID BOILER CONCEPT FOR COAL, LIGNITE AND CLEAN BIOMASS FUELS

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During the last 10 years AE&E and Andritz have been suc-cessful in a selling further 31 CFB boilers mainly to the mu-nicipal, industrial and utility customers. The fuels mixtures for these PowerFluid boilers consist of wood wastes, paper mill sludges, agro fuels and RDF. Two of the aforementioned boilers are pure RDF burning units – one ordered by Posco Engineering & Construction Co. in South Korea in 2010 and the second by Riikinvoima Oy in Varkaus in 2014

All CFB boilers are sold, designed, manufactured, and de-livered by Andritz AG in Graz, Austria. As an example of An-dritz’s “Hybrid Concept” a cross-sectional process flow sheet of the PowerFluid boiler delivered in 2010 to Stora Enso’s plant in Maxau, Karlsruhe is presented in Fig. 39.

Andritz with past experience from German municipal waste incinerator boiler manufacturers has driven their of-fering to the market further than Valmet and Foster Wheeler towards lower cost opportunity fuels such as refuse derived fuels, sludges, RDF, TDF, demolition rejects, poultry litter, and agricultural wastes as illustrated by their tailor designed CFB product portfolio in Fig. 37. These fuels are associated with constituents that cause considerable difficulties and chal-lenges in the combustion systems in the form of lower plant availability due to high corrosion, erosion, agglomeration, plugging, and slagging in addition to emissions of heavy metals and chlorinated gaseous constituents.

FIG. 39. FLOW SHEET OF STORA ENSO’S 170 MWfuel POWERFLUID BOILER IN MAXAU, KARLSRUHE

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Of the so called “Finnish” FBC boiler companies, Valmet is today the only truly Finnish owned company, while the other two Andritz and Foster Wheeler are foreign owned with Finnish roots, knowhow, and office in Finland as described in the earlier chapters.

19. Finnish boiler companies’ achievements in the last decade 2005-2015.

BFB-boiler supplier 1970-1980

1981-1985

1986-1990

1991-1995

1996-2000

2001-2005

2006-2010

2011-2015

TotalMWt

% of Total

Ahlstrom Termoflow 49 400 671 1854 1073 2398 236 30 6711 23,6

Foster WheelerUSA

203 354 438 377 355 35 1762 6,2

Total MWt

252 754 1109 2231 1428 2398 271 30 8473 29,8

Tampella, 1KvaernerMetso, Valmet

270

310

2093

2295

3395

2625

2862

2542

16392

57,6

Generator Götaverken 5 228 233 0,8

Keeler/Dorr-Oliver

61 61 0,2

Total MWt 275 599 2093 2295 3395 2625 2862 2542 16686 58,6

Andritz OyFinland

641 996 1637 5,8

Waagner-Biro, Babcock Borsig, AE&E, Andritz E&E

52 84 106 104 42 393 500 389 1670 5,9

Total MWfuel 52 84 106 104 42 393 1141 1385 3307 11,71. Kvaerner’s FBC operation center was located in Tampere.

TABLE 2. BFB BOILER MARKET SHARES OF THE ALLIANCES “AHLSTROM/FOSTER WHEELER”, “TAMPELLA/KVAERNER/METSO/VALMET”, AND “WAAGNER-BIRO/BABCOCK BORSIG/AE&E/ANDRITZ AG”

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To get an understanding of the Finnish boiler companies’ role as a worldwide BFB suppliers, the BFB boilers delivered by former Finnish boiler companies Ahlström, Termoflow/Ahlstrom Pyropower, Tampella, and Metso have together with FBC boilers supplied by Andritz Oy, Foster Wheeler En-ergia Oy, and Valmet been broken out from the mother boil-er company’s reference lists. See Table 2 above.

In the time period 1970-2015 altogether 28466 MWt ther-mal capacity has been installed by the “BFB boiler alliances”. The “Finnish” shares (Ahlstrom/Termoflow+Tampella/Metso/Valmet-+Andritz Oy) show that 87 % of the BFB boilers have been delivered by the Finnish companies, while the mother companies Foster Wheeler and Andritz AG have together de-livered 13 % of the total installed thermal capacity.

The alliance “Tampella/Metso/Valmet” has been and is still the dominating BFB player with a 58 % market share, while the alliance Ahlstrom/Termoflow/Foster Wheeler and An-dritz Oy represents 24 % resp. 6 % of the total installed BFB thermal capacity.

A third conclusion can also be drawn from Table 2, Foster Wheeler has concentrated its resources on the CFB market and at least partially left its BFB market position to Andritz AG that in 2006 became a major BFB supplier especially to the pulp and paper industries.

Foster Wheeler’s “strategic decision” is understandable as the BFB technology offered today by the three “Finnish” boiler companies has become very similar as knowledge has floated from one company to another as a result of consol-idations and reorganizations. As distinct technological dif-ferences don’t exist between the BFB suppliers the winning offering becomes often a price competition. Andritz has however an advantage as the biofuel boiler often represents an integral part of the overall machinery supply in the turn-key deliveries to the pulp and paper market place.

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CFB-boiler supplier

1970-1980

1981-1985

1986-1990

1991-1995

1996-2000

2001-2005

2006-2010

2011-2015

TotalMWt

% of Total

Ahlstrom PyropowerFW Energia Oy

22 714 5988 6318 7145 5979 8860 17384 52410 51,9

Foster WheelerUSA, Asia

134 873 2151 8332 14936 6710 33136 32,8

Total MWt 22 714 6122 7191 9296 14311 23796 24094 85546 84,7

Tampella, Keeler/D-O 1KvaernerMetso, Valmet

1322

1620

1465

1690

2951

1242

10290

10,2

Generator Götaverken 8 246 522 55 831 0,8

Total MWt 8 246 1844 1675 1465 1690 2951 1242 11121 11

Waagner-Biro, Babcock Borsig AE&E, Andritz

296 109 299 493 478 1457 1101 4233 4,2

Total MWt – All 30 1256 8075 9165 11254 16479 28204 26437 100900 1. FBC operation center was located in Tampere

TABLE 3. CFB BOILER MARKET SHARES OF THE ALLIANCES “AHLSTROM/FOSTER WHEELER”, “TAMPELLA/KVAERNER/METSO/VALMET”, AND “WAAGNER-BIRO/BABCOCK BORSIG/AE&E/ANDRITZ AG”

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The CFB market share situation is different as shown in the Table 3 page 78. In the time period 1970-2015 altogeth-er 100900 MWt thermal capacity has been installed by the “CFB boiler alliances. The alliance “Ahlstrom-Foster Wheeler” has during the years 1980-2015 completely dominated the marketplace with 85 % of the CFB share compared to the al-liances “Tampella/Metso/-Valmet” with 11 % and Andritz 4,2 %. Of all CFB boilers supplied by the alliances, 52 % was been supplied from Varkaus either as a direct sale or delivered by its licensees or cooperation partners.

At 100900 MWt, the CFB market is more than 3,5 times the BFB market. The BFB market seems to have stagnated at a level of roughly 4000-5000 MWt installed thermal capaci-ty during consecutive five-year periods or even slightly de-creasing since the millennium shift as illustrated by Fig. 40.

FIG. 40. INSTALLED CFB AND BFB THERMAL CAPACITY BY THE FINNISH FBC BOILER “ALLIANCES” IN THE TIME PERIOD 1975-2015

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After the millennium shift Foster Wheeler’s breakthrough on the once-through supercritical utility market has creat-ed a tremendous increase in the installed thermal capacity through the deliveries of the 3x262 MWe Turow CFB utility boilers, the Lagisza 460 MWe supercritical once-through (SCOT) CFB boiler and the 4x550 MWe SCOT CFB boilers to Korean Southern Power Company’s Green Power project in Samcheok, South Korea.

It is questionable, if this trend continue for Foster Wheeler as the market for coal burning in large utility CFB boilers has shifted to the Far East and especially to China with its huge resources of high ash sulfurous coals as will be described in the following chapter 20.

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Today Foster Wheeler is the indisputable market leader of the CFB utility market as shown by the world market share in Fig. 40. The 47 % market share is exactly the same share that Foster Wheeler had in the time period 1979-1994 according to McCoy’s study shown by Fig. 27 in chapter 15.

An interesting matter with this recent market study is that also Chinese boiler manufactures are included as CFB suppli-ers. Fig. 41 reveals also that Andritz and Valmet respectively have a 3 and 5 % share of the total Global Power CFB market.

The big question is – can AMEC Foster Wheeler hold its market position in the future, since the CFB market has shift-ed from Europe and the USA to the Far East as illustrated by Fig. 42. To strengthen its market position in the Far East, AMEC FW has established a Boiler Company in Shanghai and a large Boiler Works in the Guangdong Province to serve the Asian market.

By year the 2015, 57 % of AMEC Foster Wheeler’s 458 CFB boilers had been sold in the Far East, while the correspond-ing number in 1989 was 17 %. During the same time period AMEC FW’s market share of sold CFB boilers had dropped from 35 to 17 % in the Americas as shown in Table 4 on page 83.

20. Future Prospect for the Finnish boiler companies

FIG. 41. CFB BOILER COMPANY’S WORLD MARKET SHARES DURING THE DECADE 2005-2014(SOURCE: AMEC FOSTER WHEELER)

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As mentioned in chapter 15, Ahlstrom Pyropower opened the China CFB market in 1992 with the sale of the Neijiang 100 MWe PYROFLOW power plant. The Chinese Government tried to force Ahlström to provide the CFB technology with the Neijiang project. As it would have been difficult to assure the protection of the intellectual property, Ahlström decided not to sell a CFB license to China. At Foster Wheeler’s take-over of Ahlstrom Pyropower (AP) in 1995, AP had as the only foreign CFB supplier sold 11 CFB units to China. A Joint Ven-ture (JV) with a Chinese power equipment group for sale of industrial CFB boilers was also signed. The JV was however abandoned after Foster Wheeler’s takeover of AP.

The Chinese boiler manufacturers have a protected home market and are buying the latest CFB technology from the “West” and are then copying and building the rest of the boilers on their own as had happened in the late 1990’s with the French company Alstom selling their CFB utility license to the three largest boiler works in China. The licensors were the State owned Shanghai, Harbin and Dongfang Boiler Works. After this, the State Planning Commission forbade im-port of CFB boilers to China. The only exception was special CFB boilers for petroleum coke firing.

FIG. 42. DISTRIBUTION OF THE CFB BOILERS SOLD BY AMEC FOSTER WHEELER WORLDWIDE BY 2015

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From then on, Foster Wheeler, USA was able to only sell petroleum coke CFB boilers to China, altogether 26 units to-day.

Today the Chinese boiler companies are using CFB tech-nologies developed based on the Alstom license and boil-ers following the Ahlstrom PYROFLOW design principles. The first 300 MWe class CFB utility boiler was built at Baima power plants by Dongfang Boiler Works and commissioned in April 2006. A demonstration project for a 600 MWe CFB at Baima is under testing and commissioning. To date, there are around 100 GWe of CFB boilers installed in China and it is expected that the Chinese CFB market share in the world will further escalate due to the extensive air pollution in the Chi-

nese Cities and the political pressure generated to combat the Greenhouse effect in the world.

For steam and power generation in the process, pulp and paper industries as well as for heat and power generation in larger communities and cities, the CFB technology is likely to take a greater share of the FBC market as the environmen-tal and efficiency demands continues to tighten. CFB tech-nology has also other significant advantage over the BFB technique, i.e. the true multi-fuel capabilities by accepting up to 100% of any coal or coal waste with efficient in-situ sulfur capture.

Contingents Ahlstrom Pyropower sold CFB boilers by 1989 (%) FW sold CFB units by 2015 (%)

Nordic Countries 26 9

Europe 22 16

Americas 35 17

Middle East 1 1

Far East 17 57

TABLE 4. DISTRIBUTION OF THE CFB BOILERS SOLD BY AMEC FOSTER WHEELER WORLDWIDE BY 2015.

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For these medium size industrial CFB boilers up to 500 MWt, Andritz and Valmet will be severe competitors to Fos-ter Wheeler Energy Oy as the CFB technology has become a commodity product with few decisive technical differences between the CFB suppliers. As the technology and the guar-antees are the same, the winner of a CFB boiler deal will in the most cases be determined by the price. In the near future the main market for the CFB in Europe will be the replace-ment of existing old coal-fired boilers utilizing biomass, vari-ous wastes and other opportunity fuels.

In the utility market sector Foster Wheeler’s position as the market leader is undisputable with superior once-through supercritical technology that has been successfully demonstrated at the Lagisza Power plant. In addition FW has the most extensive CFB experiences with various solid fuels utilized in the 460 CFB boilers sold during the last 35 years as illustrated in Fig. 43.

More than 300 of all units are designed for bituminous coal and coal wastes representing 68 % of the cumulative steam capacity generated in the time period 1980-2014.

FIG. 43. SOLID FUELS UTILIZED IN FW’S CFB BOILERS(SOURCE: AMEC FOSTER WHEELER)

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Power generation based on the combustion of solid fuels is expected to remain as the mainstream technology for the foreseeable future. However new and replacement capaci-ty in West Europe and North America will not, with very few exceptions, be coal power due to the strong environmen-tal drive to reduce CO2 emissions. The shift of the CFB coal market will be to Eastern Europe and Far East countries. In countries where the CO2 reduction is not prioritized, the CFB technology offers the best solution for using coal.

Solid fuel resources are abundant and widely distributed, which tends to provide price stability and supply security. The CFB boiler has proven to be a true multi-fuel combus-tor accepting in addition to fossil fuels all kind of biomass wastes and residues producing heat and power in an envi-ronmentally acceptable manner with low emissions and high efficiency. Fuel flexibility and the possibility of fuel switching to use the most cost effective fuel at any time are the most significant advantage behind the success of the CFB technol-ogy considering that 70-90 % of the total operating cost of

large power plants is fuel costs. It is expected that the differ-ence in fuel costs of the high-quality bituminous coal and low-quality sub-bituminous coal will increase in the future and further push power operators towards the CFB technol-ogy.

Efficiency and environmental performance are other key issues when considering either repowering existing power plants or constructing new power plants. High efficiency means a lower fuel requirement, and results in lower ash discharge and gas emissions, including CO2. After success-fully demonstrated the 460 MWe once-through supercritical CFB utility boiler at Lagisza power station in Poland, Foster Wheeler has continued the scaling-up of CFB super-critical once-through technology to 800 MWe with net efficiency of 45-50 % needed to meet the future requirement of utility operators and is today ready to offer a 800 MWe CFB boiler with full guarantees.

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Subcontractors

A boiler project is an outcome of cooperation between many partners starting with the bidding process followed by en-gineering, procurement, construction and commissioning of the boiler and its auxiliary equipments. Especially in today’s competitive environment, the boiler suppliers operate with a lean organization and are outsourcing a substantial part of the boiler plant design and engineering works. In this context the boiler manufacturers as the main contractors are look-ing for the most competitive subcontractors and advanced auxiliary equipment supplier and hereby are creating a lot of opportunities for employment and subcontracting for the nearby industry and the country as whole.

A long and profitable cooperation has existed between the Finnish boiler suppliers and the subcontractors of fuel and ash handling companies, such as Raumaster Oy and BMH Technology Oy in Rauma. Raumaster and BMH Tech-nology have developed their own technology and solutions and are challenged by the boiler manufactures to continu-ously improve upon their products. Both subcontractors are turnkey suppliers of material handling systems not only to the energy business industry, but also to the wood process-ing and pulp and paper industries. When the Finnish boiler

companies and pulp and paper companies have globally expanded their business activity, the Finnish subcontractors Raumaster and BMH Technology have followed and been the cooperation partner also in many projects abroad.

A similar relation and business approach exists also be-tween the Finnish boiler manufacturers and fly ash and limestone handling system supplier Koper Oy in Parkano.

In chapter 6 it was mentioned that Altim control in Varkaus developed in the early 1980’s its microprocessor control and automation systems for the Kauttua 65 MWt PYROFLOW demo project. Thanks to the demonstration at Kauttua, Altim Control became a considerable contender to Valmet’s Damatic Automation system for power plant projects in 1980’s, until Honeywell International bought Al-tim Control in Varkaus in 1992. Suomen Puhallintehdas Oy developed and delivered its inverter controlled fan applica-tions for the Kauttua PYROFLOW boiler on the request of the Kauttua power plant manager. With the reference, experi-ence and knowhow from Kauttua, Suomen Puhallintehdas Oy could later sell its inverter controlled fan applications to other sales projects.

21. Supporting organizations, Institutions, Universities and Tekes

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Also as mentioned earlier Termorak developed its refrac-tory knowhow, experience and expertise in the PYROFLOW pilot plant in Karhula in 1976. It demonstrated the selected castable and refractory linings for CFB applications in the PYROFLOW boilers in Pihlava and Kauttua and became the foremost refractory supplier for many FBC projects in Finland and neighboring countries.

Institutions and Universities

Both the Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT) and Keskuslaboratorio (KCL) have provided valuable knowledge, expertise, and chemical analysis services for the develop-ment of new products at the R&D Center in Karhula and as such being together with other Finnish institutions import-ant support organizations.

The Technical Universities in Finland contributed with the most valuable resources, i.e. talented R&D engineers. The co-operation with the Technical Universities and Ahlström/Fos-ter Wheeler were maintained on an annual basis mostly in form of “diploma work” with R&D funding a couple works per year to solve key technical issues of the CFB process such as

NOx formation, ash agglomeration, corrosion and slagging behavior, heat transfer, modeling, etc.. The cooperation was beneficial for all involved partners the Technical Universities, the boiler companies and also for the diploma workers as a gateway for later employment.

Tekes

The research activity of the universities and public research institutes in the field of combustion technology in Finland was modest, until the beginning of the 1980’s. The first R&D activity on the FBC technique was undertaken by prof. A. Jahkola at the Helsinki University of Technology in the late 1970’s. The Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT) start-ed in the early 1980’s several R&D projects on peat and wood combustion in their R&D Centers in Jyväskylä and Espoo.

As has been presented in the previous chapters the PYRO-FLOW boiler was invented, developed, demonstrated, and commercialized before Tekes was established in 1983. The funding that Ahlström had received earlier from the Finnish Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) for the development of PYROFLOW boiler was 120000 FIM = 20000 €. According to

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the interviewed person of Valmet, the governmental fund-ing was insignificant for Tampella’s development of the BFB boiler in the early 1980’s.

The R&D of combustion technology moved considerably forward by the establishment of the LIEKKI research program in 1988-1992 initiated by MTI in 1987. The main target of the Liekki research program was to raise the level of knowledge in the basics of combustion and combustion technology to enable the Finnish equipment manufacturers to develop their own products.

For the already developed product PYROFLOW, Ahlström received in 1989 and 1991 Tekes funding to study, control and minimize the N2O-emission in CFB boilers. In 1989 Te-kes contributed with considerable funding for the building of the 10 MWt pressurized PCFB Test Facility in Karhula. Tekes also supported during the three years following the commis-sioning and testing activities in the PCFB pilot plant.

During the same time period 1988-1992 Tekes funded Tampella’s project to investigate experimentally the degree of NOx formation from the combustion of Low Heating Value gas containing 300-2000 ppm ammonia in atmospheric pres-sure and to find out the best commercially available burners to minimize the NOx formation. Tampella had in the end of the 1980’s selected Pressurized BFB gasification for their de-velopment of advanced Power generation technology. Tekes contributed with substantial funding of Tampella’s efforts to

remove sulfur constituents from reducing combustible gas-es in the 10 MWt PBFB gasification pilot plant in Tampere.

The six-year Combustion and Gasification Research Pro-gram LIEKKI 2 (1993-1998) had as the main target to develop new, more efficient and environmentally friendly technology and to maintain and develop the competence and cooper-ation between the research organizations, universities, and the industry. The two Finnish boiler companies participate half of the time in LIEKKI 2 as truly Finnish companies and the second part as subsidies to Foster Wheeler and Kvaerner.

FW Energia Oy received Tekes funding for testing and studying the applicability of Biomass Recycled Waste Fuels in CFB boilers and the prediction of corrosion and ash foul-ing characteristics in the CFB furnace. For the pressurized development of PCFB combustion of bituminous coal and PCFBG gasification of biomass Ahlström/FW Energia Oy ob-tained substantial funding from Tekes. The same pertained for Tampella/Kvaerner Pulping Oy for their development of air staging, sludge burning and control of combustion and emissions in their BFB and CYMIC boilers. On the pressur-ized side the former Tampella was represented by Carbona that was funded significantly by Tekes for the NOx reduction by air staging, study of air toxics emissions, stabilization of CaS-containing solid wastes, pyrometric temperature mea-surement, and multifuel gasification tests in their IGCC pilot plant in Tampere.

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Which are then the key factors and competitive edges that gave the “Finnish” boiler companies the dominance as BFB and CFB suppliers on the world market?

Key success factor 1

Tampella was first on the BFB market

Let’s first consider Tampella, the early BFB market leader in the 1980’s. Market driven by the pulp and paper industry with large biomass sources and the need for cheap energy Tampella filled the “vacuum” in the market with BFB boilers that the company had started to develop in the end of 1970’s as a counter measure to Ahlström’s CFB technology. First on the market in Finland with BFB references, Tampella was suc-cessful in selling its BFB technology also abroad.

Key success factor 2

Easy demonstration of new technology

Being a part of the mother company Tampella with pulp and paper plants the Boiler Division could in Tampella’s own plants develop and demonstrate its BFB technology as Ahl-ström did with its CFB technology.

Key success factor 3

Finnish boiler company’s “alliance” with Finnish pulp and paper industries

Tampella had a good relationship to the pulp and paper industry and was the “court” supplier of boilers to many Finnish pulp and paper mills. This relation to pulp and pa-per industries opened the market for BFB conversions and refurbishments of old boilers and also later on the export market abroad. This became even more important when the big Finnish pulp and paper companies in the 1990’s started to expand on the world market and built new plants abroad with the need for boilers.

Key success factor 4

Product improvement a prerequisite for maintaining market leadership

In 1995 Tampella Power developed and demonstrated its Hydro Beam grate. A product improvement that helped Tampella Power to hold onto the BFB market leadership in spite of hardening competition from Ahlstrom Pyropower and other BFB competitors.

22. Key success factors behind the Finnish BFB and CFB boiler successes

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Key success factor 5

Key people are company’s most valuable resources

At restructuring and sales of companies the human resourc-es are often lost to competing companies. People and espe-cially the key persons are the most valuable resources in the company. Andritz Oy, the BFB boiler division in Finland was established as a result of the restructuring of the upper man-agement of FW Energia Oy.

Key factor 6

Leadership

Let’s continue with Ahlström/Foster Wheeler and try to un-derstand why its developed CFB boiler has been and still is the dominant CFB technology in the world.

It was with post war spirit, entrepreneurship, and lead-ership that R&D director Bertel Hakulin enthusiastically su-pervised and fostered the young R&D engineers at Hans Ahlström Laboratory in Karhula. The whole R&D team was devoted and gave back the best of its ability.

Key success factor 7

Long-term strategic investment on R&D

Through the strategic decision to establish a R&D center and concentrate the Engineering Work’s product development under one roof in the late 1960’s, Ahlström created an envi-ronment that generated not only PYROFLOW but also other products, such as FIBERFLOW, FORMFLOW, etc. for the Engi-neering Works and pulp and paper industry.

Key success factor 8

Excellent education and top-graded Technical Universities

The education and science taught at the Technical Univer-sities and Chemical–Technical Faculty of Åbo Academy in 1970’s were excellent, but far from adequate for young en-gineers to tackle all problems encountered in the industry. However the advice given by the legendary prof. Jarl Salin maybe covers up for most of the gap: “It is better to think than to know”.

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Key success factor 9

Big innovations are crazy ideas that require human persistency, a company’s own R&D, good luck, rapid development, superior product, market needs, top management support, etc.

From the innovation to the final product the development process is long, problematic and consumes resources, profits and relations in the company. PYROFLOW development pro-cess was unique as described below.

Unless the inventor had not been brave, persistent, and believed in the innovation it would never have been devel-oped. The idea had in an early stage been killed as a NIH (Not Invented Here) phenomenon. In the beginning the inventor stood alone with his crazy invention and had to fight against the senior boiler management in Varkaus. Without support from the business unit in Varkaus, the R&D director would have had to put the newly developed product on the shelf. He did not do it and had also the wisdom and freedom to do so. The everlasting question is – should the R&D organization be controlled and administered by the business unit or be an

independent department in the company under the CEO’s strategic upper management.

The FW R&D Center in Karhula was in 2003 subordinat-ed under the FW Energia Oy in Varkaus. In 2004 FW Energia Oy made its first year of loss and shutdown the R&D Cen-ter in Karhula in 2005 with the guidance and blessing from FW headquarter in Clinton. No unequalled success, as PY-ROFLOW became, will ever be developed in a tight business controlled environment – especially not under foreign con-trolled leadership.

The final stage in PYROFLOW development, the demon-stration was a lucky circumstance as Ahlström had within its own plants the need of refurbishment and replacement of boilers. In addition, the demonstration sites at Pihlava and Kauttua had two extraordinary power plant managers with the vision and experience far beyond that of Varkaus Boiler Work’s management and also had the courage to take the risks of the PYROFLOW demonstration.

The development process from the innovation to full-scale demonstration and commercialization is long and re-quires – cold modeling, bench-scale testing, pilot plant trials and finally a full-scale demonstration.

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The PYROFLOW’s development process was rapid and took only 5 years as all decision were taken internally and all investments were done with Ahlström’s own money.

Key success factor 10

Patent protection of innovations and product improvements

Adequate patent resources and capabilities are required and crucial to protect innovations and intellectual properties in a company.

Key success factor 11

Ahlström first on the CFB market

Ahlström developed and demonstrated in 1979 the first 15 MWt CFB boiler in the world in Pihlava followed by the 65 MWt PYROFLOW Kauttua boiler in 1981. A lead that Ahl-strom’s boiler successors have maintained today.

Key success factor 12

Good top management, marketing and selling capabilities and resources are required to compete and penetrate the global markets

The market approach and commercialization of PYROFLOW boilers as well as the building up of recourses and capabili-ties in the company was done well during the first ten years by Finnish/American leadership.

Key failure factor for Ahlstrom and key success factor 13 for Andritz

Know when and which product to sell or buy

Ahlström’s difficulties arose in the early 1990’s, when PYRO-FLOW sales increased dramatically. The Board of Ahlström and Top Management did not know how to handle the sit-uation and how to lead the company, resulting in the lost opportunity to acquire Tampella Boiler Works and later to the sale of Ahlstrom Pyropower. Foster Wheeler Corporation did not integrate Ahlstrom Pyropower properly as has been

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described earlier. In contrast, Andritz AG did it through the buying of Kone Wood and Ahlstrom Machinery and became a leading global supplier of plants, equipment, and services to the pulp and paper industry.

Key success factor 14

The product has to be the best and technically superior

The CFB boiler is a superior product with the main advantag-es on the multi-fuel capacity, flexibility and environmental performance that are re-enforced as fuel resources in the fu-ture are becoming more unsecure and expensive and the en-vironmental regulations are increasing. The CFB technique is also scalable to large, supercritical once-through CFB utility size.

Key success factor 15

Strong R&D required to develop new products and to keep the present product as “milk cow” two steps ahead of the competition

The development of the second generation CFB boiler char-acterized by water-cooled separator was started at Hans Ahlström Laboratory in 1989 and three years later the IN-TREX integrated heat exchanger for superheating duties was developed. Both developments were successful in maintain-ing the lead Ahlstrom Pyropower had over the competition. Both product developments were also crucial in scaling up the PYROFLOW to the utility size CFB boilers.

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Key success factor 16

Modeling activities were required to develop tools for understanding of the process and scale-up of the product to larger units

An important part of the R&D activity was the modeling of the CFB combustion process. During the years different models were developed at the Karhula R&D Center and later used by FW Energia for understanding the CFB process and the scale-up of the CFB boiler to larger units.

Key factor 17

Buy key technology to keep you own product competitive and extend its life

Professional Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) by the Boiler Works together with knowhow, network-ing, sub suppliers and competent engineering workmanship is additional cornerstones in the Finnish FBC boiler success-es. The Engineering department has to be on the top of

computer aided design and CAD tools. Procurement and Construction must have good project management, man-ufacturing and erection competences in building turnkey projects for customers all over the world.

Key success factor 18

Good project management and EPC capabilities

Professional Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) by the Boiler Works together with knowhow, network-ing, sub suppliers and competent engineering workman-ship is additional cornerstones in the Finnish FBC boiler suc-cesses. The Engineering department has to be on the top of computer aided design and CAD tools. Procurement and Construction must have good project management, man-ufacturing and erection competences in building turnkey projects for customers all over the world.

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Key success factor 19

Governmental support and top-notchedcompetence on all concerned areas are required for a small country, such as Finland to innovate and produce products for the world market

Globalization during the last two decades has led to an in-crease in acquisitions and takeovers of Finnish Companies in all fields. Unfortunately these changes often result in re-ductions in the Finnish activities and lay-offs. The described history of the Finnish Boiler Companies shows however a different picture. All “Finnish” boiler companies have, in spite of multiple ownership changes, still maintained successful

operations and the leadership of its products within the In-ternational Companies they are part of. The explanation to this is that these Finnish companies operations are based upon strong technologies and well-educated competent technical personnel. Their survival will continue as long as the Finnish boiler companies are producing good profits to the foreign owners.

The FBC boiler technology cluster in Finland is a good example of how a Finnish company sold to foreign inves-tors can keep, grow and develop its operation even under foreign ownership. Tekes, Technical Universities, and other Finnish organizations supporting industrial R&D activities and education have also had an important contribution to this.

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The author of this publication is the inventor and developer of Ahlstrom PYROFLOW Circulating Fluidized Bed (CFB) tech-nology. As the acknowledged father of the PYROFLOW, he had the vision, perseverance, and, some say stubbornness, to push for the development of the CFB technology. In the mid 1970’s with a new, untested technology, he and his small team at Hans Ahlström Laboratory (HAL) in Karhula strug-gled to prove its worth.

In 1970 Folke Engström received his Master of Science in Chemical Engineering from Åbo Academy and was the same year employed by A. Ahlstrom Corporation as a research engineer at the recently established Product Development Laboratory, later Hans Ahlström Laboratory (HAL). In 1973-1986 he acted as research manager at HAL in Karhula for the Boiler and Process Machinery Works in Varkaus. During this period the PYROFLOW technology was developed, demon-strated, and introduced to the World market as the first of its kind. In 1986 he was appointed to Vice president of R&D for the Ahlstrom Pyropower Division and continued in 1995 after Foster Wheeler takeover in the same position as VP of R&D of Foster Wheeler Energy International Inc. until his re-tirement in 2003.

In recognition of is his pioneering work in the develop-ment of World’s First Circulating Fluidized Bed (CFB) boiler, PYROFLOW, Folke Engström was honored with the following awards:

1986 A. Ahlstrom Corporation “Engineer of the Year”1987 The Finnish Academy of Technology “Engineer of the Year”1989 American Society of Mechanical Engineers: “For the fundamental research and broad application of research that have resulted in significant contributions to Fluidized Bed Combustion Technology”.

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Back cover image: The Gainesville Renewable Energy Center

(GREC) is a great example of leading the way to biomass-based energy production in the US, Florida.

It is creating clean and renewable electricity for approximately 70, 000 homes. (Valmet)