Co-firing biomass for power generation

Experience at Drax
Friday 24th May 2013
 Drax Overview

Drax Power Station is owned by Drax Group plc, a FTSE 250 company
 It is the newest, cleanest, most efficient coal fired station in the UK
 4,000MW capacity, 6 units, 7-8% of total UK power production

Drax’s transition is essential if the UK is to meet the UK’s tight 2020 renewable
energy targets
 At current output levels, Drax’s coal and alternative fuel burn approaches some 10
million tonnes per annum
 Largest CO2 emitter in UK, >22Mt CO2
 The company has a clear strategic goal of reducing its carbon footprint
 Biomass provides a valuable source of economic, flexible, reliable power with a
significant reduction in overall carbon emissions compared to coal.

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 Drax’s Transition -1
Biomass has a unique position in the renewable
energy mix because it is dispatchable, reliable,
flexible and relatively low cost

Full conversion of units

 Transformation of co-firing to full conversion
 Three of Drax’s six units will be fully converted
in or before 2016,
 First unit was successfully converted in April
2013,
 Now going through a phased commissioning
process - early results are encouraging
 Drax is making a £650m – 700m investment in
renewable energy from a mixture of equity and
debt including the UK Green Investment Bank,
and a loan under written by an HMT
Infrastructure UK Guarantee
 Proving that the generation process is reliable,
safe and can deliver good value renewable
electricity to consumers

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Reliable and Safe Conversion

Phased Commissioning
• First unit converted in April, results so far have been encouraging, have
flexed the output from 200MW to 590MW
• First unit operating in trial mode.
• Work taking place breaks down into three broad areas:

Rail Unloading and Storage Fuel Distribution Combustion

Boiler
Flame
Monitor

Burners Furnace
Camera

Mill

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Challenges of Conversion
There are several key differences between coal and biomass which present different
challenges, for example:
Dust
Dust management is crucial due to the risk of fire, explosion and inhalation
 No open biomass conveyors. Instead from the time the biomass is loaded on the train, to
the storage domes right through to injection into the boilers the biomass will be enclosed
and isolated from sources of ignition
Volume
We need to handle a larger volume of biomass to generate a similar amount of electricity
• New wagons and rail infrastructure mean that the trains we use will have 50 per cent
more capacity than any existing wagon available and can be unloaded quickly - reducing
the carbon footprint and minimising the need for increased rail movements
 New biomass distribution systems include closed conveyors and pneumatic pipework
systems have a proven capacity are dual redundant
Storage
Biomass must be kept dry and the potential for self heating minimised and monitored;
 Part of Drax’s coal stockyard is being transformed to store biomass in new storage
domes which are a UK first
 The domes will have an inert atmosphere (nitrogen) to minimise self heating and together
with a CO2 injection facility this provides a robust fire prevention system
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Construction of Biomass store at Drax site

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Performance

• Early plant performance encouraging and as expected

• Unit stable, flexible and responsive

• Combustion characteristics different to coal

• Change in heat transfer
• Corrosion/slagging being measured

• Trial mode on restricted fuel diet

• Increase range of fuels over time

• NOx emissions reduced compared to coal

• Improvements once new air/fuel system in place

• SO2 emissions low

• FGD taken out of service

• Ash production considerably reduced

• Examining potential of sale as fertiliser

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What is biomass and is there enough?
 Biomass is a variety of different materials:
 Agricultural residues
 Forestry products and residues
 Energy crops
 Recovered materials, such as wastes
 None of the above types need affect food production as they are either the by-products of other
processes, such as farming or construction, and they can be grown on marginal land
 According to International Energy Agency, biomass is the fourth largest energy resource in the
world, after coal, oil and gas
 By 2050 sustainable sources of biomass alone could provide 10 - 20% of the world’s
primary energy requirements
 UK is not a robust source of large volumes of biomass due to lack of forests and lack of
infrastructure
 Drax recognises that it will need to import biomass and will do so provided robust sustainability
criteria are adhered to
 Drax will need 8mt of pellets by 2016, primarily from USA/Canada

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The Sustainability Challenge

Biomass provides a valuable source of economic,

flexible, reliable power.
 But can we ensure that it also provides:-
 A significant reduction in overall carbon
emissions compared to coal.
 No negative impact on biodiversity
 Maintenance of forest productivity
 No reduction in forest cover
 No use of ‘illegal logs’
• No negative impact on indigenous
populations

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 Sustainable Supply Chain

 The Drax procurement programme incorporates

 Rejection of all non-sustainable biomass
 All supply chain stages are investigated - cultivation and
harvesting, transforming, processing and transportation.
 Minimum standards on life cycle GHG savings
 Compliance with policy written in to contracts
 Extensive data gathering and assessment through a
programme of information exchange and an improvement
programme
 Independent 3rd party audit

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Sustainability

Biomass sustainability is recognised as the

pre-requisite for the growth of biomass for
energy - high up European and UK
Government agenda
The perceptions that biomass (production
and use) is environmentally negative will
only be effectively mitigated by the
introduction of strict sustainability standards
which are
•Comprehensive
•legally binding
•independently verified and
•well implemented
•UK at the forefront of new sustainability
legislation
•High probability of common Europe-wide
standards over the next few years

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CCS

Location: Drax Power Station, Power Station, North Yorkshire, UK

Project Promoters
CO2 Transportation
Oxy Power Plant
& Storage

ALSTOM DRAX BOC NATIONAL GRID

Drax Group plc Preliminary Results – Year Ended 31 December 2012

 Project Snapshot

• A new modern ultra-supercritical 426MWe Gross Oxy Power Plant

• Clean power generation with the entire flue gas treated to capture 2 Million
t/y CO2
• CO2 specifications suitable for both saline formation storage and EOR
• Biomass co-firing leading to zero (or negative!) CO2 emissions
• Located at the Drax Power Station Site, Selby, North Yorkshire
• An anchor project for National Grid’s (NG) regional CO2 transport &
offshore storage network
• Project development activities on-going
• FEED contract being negotiated with DECC

Drax Group plc Preliminary Results – Year Ended 31 December 2012

Drax’s Transition -2
Biomass CCS - Long term objective with several key intermediate steps

2013-2020. Use of sustainable biomass at Drax will help facilitate a low-cost

transition to a low-carbon economy, whilst retaining security of supply,

- Establish regulatory regime enabling biomass use

- Demonstrate capability to burn biomass at large scale
- Demonstrate availability of large quantities of biomass suitable for energy
- Demonstrate sustainability of large quantities of biomass

2020 onwards. Use of sustainable biomass at Drax will help facilitate a

transition to a zero or negative carbon economy

- Demonstrate technology for CCS on coal

- Extend technology to biomass
- Establish regulatory regime

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Questions

Drax Power Limited