Starwood Orman Ürünleri Sanayi AŞ ordered a cogeneration plant from turbogenerator developer and producer Turboden, based in Brescia, Italy. The Turkish chipboard manufacturer is going to integrate an organic Rankine cycle (ORC) system in its factory in Bursa. The medium-density fiberboard (MDF) plant will benefit from extremely low operation and maintenance costs and limited additional costs compared to the heat-only solution, Turboden said in a press release.
The turbine, constructed by Turboden Turkey ORC Turbo Jeneratör Sanayi AŞ, recently established in Ankara, will grant Starwood access to government incentives for local content in renewable energy generation, the document said. The facility will have 5.5 MW of capacity for power and 29.5 MW for heat. A biomass boiler of 50 MW of thermal energy will be fed by bark and chipboard production residues and will supply heat for the rotary dryer and for the ORC system, which will also produce hot water at 90°C for dryer purposes.
Turboden said it had supplied its first ORC unit to an MDF plant in 2005, in Hallein, Austria. The Starwood project is the third biomass plant in Turkey for the Italian company, after an ORC unit of 1 MW installed for Kastamonu Entegre in Gebze and one of 200 kW for Marmarabirlik in Bursa, the press release said. In the last four years Turboden has also delivered two 5.3 MW waste-to-energy ORC units to ITC-KA Enerji Üretim Sanayi ve Ticaret AŞ in Mamak and a 3 MW geothermal unit to Afjet AŞ in Afyonkarahisar.
The Rankine cycle is a thermodynamic cycle which converts heat into work. Heat is supplied externally to a closed loop, which usually uses water as working fluid. The Rankine cycle based on water provides approximately 85% of worldwide electricity production, Turboden noted on its website.
