Inland Empire Paper Company
45 Dry Tons/Day Fluidized Bed Advanced Staged
Gasification System - Steam Plant
(Primary Paper and Deinking Sludge)
25 MBtu/hr, at 65 psig steam
| Owner Inland Empire Paper Company Project Location Spokane, Washington Project Completion April 1992 Capacity Increase December 1995 / October 2003 - Advanced Staged Gasification |
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Project Description
In response to the government’s newsprint recycling mandate, Inland Empire Paper
Company began construction of a deinking facility to support the community
recycling effort. Recognizing they could not continue land filling primary
sludge from their newsprint production, due to concerns of potential groundwater
contamination, they simultaneously commissioned EPI to address disposal of the
existing sludge plus the deinking sludge expected from the recycling operation.
Environmental awareness was the theme of the project and a variety of disposal
options were considered before the waste-to-energy option was chosen.
EPI secured environmental permits after pilot testing a mixture of two-thirds deinking sludge and one-third primary paper sludge, pressed to 43 percent solids (the expected fuel for the project). Engineered and constructed on a "fast track" schedule, the system was originally designed to burn 69 wet tons/day while producing 600 gal/min of hot water necessary for the deinking process.
Since commissioning the original energy system, changes to the facility’s process requirements resulted in additional sludge that required disposal. The additional sludge, coupled with the increasing steam/energy demands of the plant, prompted Inland Empire Paper to contract again with EPI to examine ways to increase the fluidized bed system capacity. EPI replaced the air preheater and the water heater with a firetube type boiler. Elimination of the air preheater was possible due to improvements in the mill’s sludge processing and resulted in increased sludge capacity for the EPI unit. The addition of the firetube type boiler provided the plant with low pressure steam, reducing the plant’s use of the natural gas boilers. Special considerations, such as sootblowers and multiple ash drops, were made in the design of the firetube boiler to accommodate the high ash content of the sludge. The retrofit was again engineered and constructed on a "fast track" schedule, with overall plant downtime reduced to less than four weeks.
The system, as currently configured, includes fuel metering and pneumatic conveyance to a fluidized bed combustor (FBC). Flue gas is routed to a firetube boiler where energy is recovered. Emission control begins in the fluid bed with dolomite addition for acid gas capture and is completed in a pulse jet baghouse at the end of the process.
Scope of Supply
EPI provided a turnkey facility, including the coordination of environmental permitting,
system equipment design, fabrication, installation and startup for the original and
upgraded systems.