Turning waste into energy
Modular AC and DC power supplies help to keep the Lower Rhine region’s Community Waste Incineration Plant (GMVA) stable and reliable
A circular economy that includes the entire value chain appears to be essential for achieving various sustainability and climate protection goals. In an ideal future, there will be no waste at all, because all products and materials will be recycled. Reuse and recycling are increasingly coming into focus.
For now, however, the situation is different. Many of the sorting residues generated in plastic sorting plants, for example, are considered sources of pollutants due to their specific properties. Even on the way to a circular economy, these objects must be permanently removed from the value chain so that they are not unintentionally reused in later products.
Since these waste materials often contain energy sources, the combination of pollutant reduction and energy recovery provides an interesting solution.
An important building block of the energy revolution
Modern waste incineration plants guarantee controlled handling of pollutants and are an important part of the energy revolution. They generate thermal and electrical energy, which can be used, for example, as district heating. They also help to stabilise the power grids with flexible control via load balancing. An outstanding example is the Lower Rhine region’s Community Waste Incineration Plant (GMVA) in Oberhausen (North Rhine Westphalia, Germany). With their motto “We have a burning passion for the future”, GMVA demonstrates its role in modern waste and energy management.*¹
According to their own statements, thermal waste treatment plants such as GMVA are among the safest and cleanest industrial plants in Germany. Throughout their over 50-year history, the GMVA has impressively demonstrated this through continuous investment and modernisation.
One example of these is the plant’s economical and reliable SNCR denitrification system (selective non-catalytic reduction). To increase availability and reduce maintenance and repair costs, all boilers were converted to lower steam parameters. Modern digital technology continuously evaluates the system's data streams and ensures continuous, clean operation from combustion through the turbine to the complex exhaust gas purification system.
Power supply is performance-critical
In this context it becomes apparent that for waste incineration plants, the power supply of the IT, data, measurement, control and monitoring systems is crucial. If a failure were to occur here, no measured values would be available and the operation of plant components using the process control technology would no longer be possible, which would ultimately lead to a loss of production.
Therefore, GMVA GmbH decided to launch a modernisation program in 2017 to bring the voltage supply of the 230 VAC and 24 VDC network up to the latest technical standard and, in this context, to replace the old inverters and DC converters.
As part of the tender process, BENNING was asked to propose a solution. The detailed conceptual and technical planning began in November 2017 in close coordination with the GMVA team. Challenges, requirements and individual solutions were discussed. The result was a tailor-made, modular power supply solution that was adopted as a standard in April 2018 and awarded to BENNING. In addition to the technical expertise, the GMVA team was also convinced by the “made in Germany” factor, the professional, fast BENNING service and the long-term availability of spare parts.
The rectifiers of the TEBECHOP SE series operate highly efficiently even in the load range from 25 % to 90 %. For systems with a high output, the use of this rectifier series results in correspondingly high savings in electrical energy
Modular, redundant and reliable
The modernisation plan called for replacing two inverter and two DC converter systems each year from 2018 to 2024 inclusive.
The first installation of the systems adopted as standard took place in September 2018. Specifically, these were two system cabinets with modular single-phase inverters of the INVERTRONIC compact series (20 kVA) which feed the measuring systems in the production area and two further system cabinets equipped with modular DC converters of the type TEBECHOP 3000 SE.
The latter guarantee the secure power supply in the 24 VDC network, which supplies the control system, among other things.
With these product ranges, BENNING offers a modular component concept for the construction of safe, dependable and economical power supplies that reliably supply critical loads with high quality electrical energy. These n+1 redundant systems are tailored to the high demands of industry. They are performance-scalable, robust and economical, and have proven themselves many times over in the petrochemical industry, in power generation and distribution, as well as in automation and traffic engineering. In addition, these systems have a high power density and require little space at the installation site. An advantage that pays off especially when integrated into an existing building infrastructure.
Low MTTR and maintenance costs
INVERTRONIC compact inverters and TEBECHOP SE rectifiers combine the best reliability and the shortest repair times to create a system that meets the highest requirements for availability and quality of a secure power supply. Thanks to their hot swap capability, each module can be replaced in less than 10 minutes. If replacement modules are available on site, such emergency, maintenance and repair work can easily be carried out by trained, on-site staff. This minimises time to repair (MTTR) while maximizing system availability.
Intuitive and reliable operation
Continuous and cost-efficient operation of power supply systems requires analysing and maintaining them with the help of powerful control and monitoring systems. For operation and remote monitoring, BENNING uses the Monitoring and Control Unit 3000 (MCU 3000). This unit features a 10” touch display integrated into the front doors of the system cabinets. The controller offers extensive reporting and monitoring functions, e.g. via Ethernet, Web, SNMP, Modbus, Profibus or IEC 61850.
Technical data
- Number of combustion lines: 4
- Energy input: 270 MW
- Annual capacity: approx. 700.000 t
- Firing technology: Roller grate with direct current firing
- Firing temperature: 850 – 1,100 °C (1,562 – 2,012 °F)
- Flue gas cleaning capacity: 4 x 133,000 m³/h; i. N; f
- Flue gas cleaning: SNCR denitrification, electrostatic precipitator, HCl scrubber, SO² scrubber, entrained flow reactor with downstream fabric filter
- Electrical grid feed: 335,000 – 355,000 MWh
- District heating supply: 60,000 – 150,000 MWh
Cooperative partnership
From the very beginning, the cooperation between GMVA and BENNING was characterised by a spirit of partnership, competent advice and fast service. Since the first installation in 2018, the power supply systems have been continuously replaced, and will be completed as planned in 2024. This ensures that energy is efficiently generated from waste that cannot be recycled, and that the pollutants released during thermal conversion are reliably filtered out of the exhaust air.
With its flexible electrical grid feed-in of up to 355,000 MWh/year and district heating feed-in of up to 150,000 MWh/year, GMVA will continue to make a reliable contribution to grid stabilization and energy security as part of the energy transition.
Further Information
author/contact: Achim Pickardt
telephone: +49 2871 93 513
e-mail: a.pickardt@benning.de
POWER news, edition Q4/2024, customer magazine (english) 
