Turboden to Provide a 12 MWe Biomass Power Plant for West Fraser in British Columbia, Canada

West Fraser is a leading wood products company with operations in Western Canada and the Southern United States, producing softwood lumber, MDF, plywood, pulp, newsprint, laminated veneer lumber and wood chips.

Brescia, Italy, May 13th – Turboden, the Italian leading manufacturer of Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) turbogenerators for electricity generation from renewable sources and heat recovery, was awarded an order for a 12 MWe biomass heat recovery power ORC plant for West Fraser in British Columbia, Canada. Turboden is a Pratt & Whitney Power Systems company and Pratt & Whitney is a United Technologies Corp. (NYSE:UTX) company.


West Fraser is a leading wood products company with operations in Western Canada and the Southern United States, producing softwood lumber, MDF, plywood, pulp, newsprint, laminated veneer lumber and wood chips.

The state-of-the-art: the power plant will generate clean, carbon-neutral power at the company's Chetwynd Forest Industries plant utilizing two Turboden 6.5 MWel HRS Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) turbogenerators, This is a valid example of the new larger ORC family that Turboden is developing for high temperature applications (biomass, heat recovery from internal combustion engines and gas turbines, concentrated solar power projects). The installation of the ORC unit at West Fraser's Chetwynd facility is part of a strategy to optimize use of sawmill residuals.

West Fraser was selected by BC Hydro, the Canadian electric utility in the province of British Columbia, under the BC Hydro Bioenergy Phase II Call for Power program for two of their sites totaling 180 GWh/year from wood biomass. Through this program, BC Hydro awarded 20-year electricity purchase agreements to West Fraser.

The two ORC units for Chetwynd Forest Industries facility will maximize the electrical output, while each constantly exporting 5 MW net of renewable electrical power to the grid. Use of the highly automated ORC system is particularly ideal for remote locations such as the Chetwynd plant in rural North Eastern British Columbia.

The Chetwynd plant produces about 660,000 m3 of lumber products annually and the ORC units will use thermal oil from a new biomass system installed to burn the plant's residual hog fuel. Approximately 50-60% of biomass fuel will come from local sawmill operations; while the remainder will be purchased or brought in from logging residues.

Two Turboden 65 HRS systems will be installed by West Fraser in 2014.

Why Use Organic Rankine Cycle Technology?
Organic Rankine Cycle technology utilizes heat from several sources including biomass, geothermal, concentrated solar power, and by recovering heat from industrial processes, engines and gas turbines. The technology is unique in that; it uses an organic fluid instead of steam to drive a turbo-generator, which can range in nominal output from about 1 to 10 MW and up for a single ORC module. The system employs a closed-cycle process that uses relatively low-to-moderate-temperature heat sources to generate electricity. These ORC systems are driven by a simple evaporation process and are entirely enclosed, which means they produce virtually no emissions after receiving thermal energy.

Turboden, a Pratt & Whitney Power Systems company (United Technologies Corp. (NYSE:UTX), is an Italian company and a global leader in the design, manufacture, and servicing of Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) turbogenerators, which harness heat to generate electrical power from renewable sources, including solar energy, biomass, geothermal energy and waste heat from industrial processes, engines or gas turbines. Turboden has about 250 plants in more than 20 countries and offers standard turbogenerators from 600kWel to 6MWel (standard units) and up to 15MWel (customized units). Turboden is a specialist in ORC technology. www.turboden.it

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