Attarat Energy Plant Unlocks Home Vitality Supply for Jordan

Oil shale doesn’t gasoline numerous energy vegetation all over the world, however in Jordan, it’s an important possibility, providing power safety and independence. The success of the Attarat Energy Plant in capitalizing on this priceless indigenous useful resource led to its choice as a POWER Prime Plant award winner.

Jordan is a rustic whose gasoline and electrical energy industries are largely depending on imported crude oil and pure gasoline. Its solely vital indigenous supply of power is oil shale. But, oil shale is ample in Jordan. In response to a report revealed by the nation’s Ministry of Vitality and Mineral Assets, Jordan possesses greater than 65 billion tons of geological oil shale reserves, rating it eighth on the earth, forward of nations reminiscent of China, which is greater than 100 occasions its measurement.

A Distinctive and Difficult Useful resource

Oil shale is a sedimentary rock wealthy in natural matter generally known as kerogen, which when heated, breaks down and releases hydrocarbon. Oil shale might be considered a precursor to grease and pure gasoline; with extra stress and over longer geological time, the kerogen would warmth to its oil and gasoline window to launch crude oil or pure gasoline.

Oil shale is extracted utilizing typical mining methods. It’s crushed and burned as gasoline to supply electrical energy or heated up utilizing a retorting system to supply artificial shale oil. The liquid shale oil is an artificial crude oil that may be handled and refined into different petroleum merchandise, reminiscent of diesel, gasoline, and jet fuels.

Traditionally, little or no has been finished to take advantage of Jordan’s oil shale reserves, however that has modified lately. One venture that has tapped into the useful resource is the Attarat Energy Plant. It was constructed about 110 kilometers southeast of Amman, Jordan’s capital and the biggest metropolis within the nation. Attarat’s two 235-MW models, which entered business operation in October 2022 and Might 2023, respectively, have been introduced on-line to burn oil shale and produce electrical energy. The 2 models at the moment are able to supplying about 15% of Jordan’s annual electrical energy demand.

Mining and burning oil shale are difficult in comparison with different stable fuels. Jason Pok, CEO of Attarat Energy Firm, defined that the common thickness of the overburden over the useful resource block is about 60 meters (m). In the meantime, the common mineable oil shale layer thickness is simply about 30 m.

Oil shale additionally has a low calorific worth in comparison with different fuels. Particularly, Jordan’s oil shale has a mean decrease heating worth (LHV) of three.8 Megajoules/kilogram (MJ/kg, 1,660 Btu/lb). Its moisture content material is 15% to 22%, and the ash content material just isn’t lower than 60%. In the meantime, there’s additionally vital variation within the LHV and different chemical composition on the mine, which should be managed. Fly ash era generally is a drawback and crushing points are additionally outstanding.

Overcoming Issues

To handle these challenges, Attarat makes use of quite a lot of strategies. On the mine, a plan was developed to handle and broaden the open mouth mine (Determine 1). Remarkably, greater than 40 items of mining gear are used across the clock within the course of. Jason Pok stated a revised mixing schedule and completely different mixing strategies have elevated the gasoline’s LHV to as excessive as 4.1 MJ/kg (1,763 Btu/lb).

Attarat’s Sumitomo SHI FW circulating fluidized mattress (CFB) boilers are designed to cope with the excessive ash ranges present in oil shale. By recirculating the oil shale via a cyclone, CFB know-how achieves a excessive combustion effectivity. Sumitomo SHI FW says CFB boilers are designed to resist the harshest situations and might higher resist tube corrosion, put on, and ash adhesion, making high-temperature, high-pressure steam situations potential for all fuels. The Attarat boilers function at a primary steam stress of 166 bar (about 2,400 psi) and primary steam and reheat steam temperature of 539C (about 1,000F).

To cope with the excessive ash content material within the gasoline, the boilers are put in with 60 high-energy sootblowers, spring hammers, and acoustic cleaners to boost the boiler ash cleansing. The plant has an automated ash dealing with system. In regards to the utilization of excessive quantities of oil shale with excessive ash content material and the resultant large amount of ash to be dealt with, these have compelled the plant to maintain a lot of spare components readily available. Moreover, the upkeep crew is usually required to work across the clock to handle the related challenges.

However, the models have operated reliably since commissioning. “The plant achieved availability of about 80%, as required by the facility buy settlement, for the primary two contract years with gross era of three,888 GWh,” Jason Pok reported.

The Development Contractors and Suppliers

Guangdong Energy Engineering of China Vitality (GPEC) was the primary engineering, procurement, and development (EPC) contractor performing the turnkey venture. On the peak time of development, there have been greater than 4,000 employees onsite together with all contractors, subcontractors, suppliers, and repair suppliers. All employees who wanted to be skilled and authorized have been skilled onsite by the Well being, Security, and Environmental (HSE) and High quality groups previous to their work commencing.

“There have been challenges discovering the suitable folks throughout the commissioning interval on account of varied restrictions on account of COVID-19,” Jason Pok recalled. “We managed to supply certified folks from completely different areas to finish the commissioning work.”

As beforehand talked about, Sumitomo SHI FW equipped the plant’s boilers. Siemens Vitality equipped the steam generators and turbines, in addition to a T3000 distributed management system and programmable logic controllers for the venture. 4 units of oil shale reclaimers and stackers have been equipped by Dalian Huarui Heavy Business Group Co. Ltd. and Flender. Gear for 2 units of semi-mobile crushing stations for the mining space was equipped by Beijing MMD Mining Equipment Co. Ltd. and MMD Asia Pacific Ltd. In the meantime, the 2 air-cooled condensers, which have 30 followers every, have been supplied by Shanghai Electrical-SPX Engineering & Know-how Co. Ltd.

Superior Know-how

A notable answer the Attarat plant has carried out to enhance plant effectivity and availability entails a high-tech synthetic intelligence–based mostly monitoring system for the boilers. Provided by Sumitomo SHI FW, the IZANA Digital Companies platform options a number of progressive digital merchandise: Envelope, Boiler Mattress Administration, Boiler Leakage Detection Program, and Fouling Administration. Sumitomo SHI FW says these instruments “optimize a boiler’s working capability and environmental efficiency, improve usability, and minimize working prices.”

The Envelope answer is designed to extend a plant’s working effectivity. The know-how can be stated to extend gasoline flexibility and manufacturing capability of a boiler, whereas reducing upkeep prices.

Boiler Mattress Administration, in the meantime, helps keep away from boiler downtime attributable to mattress agglomeration and sintering. The product is alleged to extend not solely a boiler’s reliability, but additionally its usability for burning more difficult fuels. It reportedly optimizes sand use in boilers, which suggests much less sand transportation to a landfill, lowering transportation prices.

Boiler Leakage Detection Program helps determine boiler tube leaks rapidly, which permits an early response and helps decrease injury ensuing from leaks. This reduces downtime and restore prices.

Lastly, Fouling Administration is an optimization software for sootblowing. The applying analyzes the cleanliness of warmth surfaces within the boiler and robotically suggests the optimum timing for the subsequent steam-powered sootblowing. The working mannequin maintains peak efficiency and saves power by finishing up sootblowing at the perfect time and solely when really wanted.

Key Security and Environmental Management Programs

The plant design relies on World Financial institution tips, which embody strict environmental monitoring facets. Among the many key objects being monitored by this system are flue gasoline emissions and water consumption.

“Our boilers have been designed with the newest know-how to maintain the gaseous emissions inside customary code limits,” stated Jason Pok. “As well as, the plant makes use of superior Electrostatic-Material Built-in Precipitators (EFIPs). Emission charges will not be solely monitored immediately on the supply/stack, but additionally via an ambient Air High quality Monitoring System (AQMS) established at early levels of the venture.”

Many of the water provide for the power comes from brackish underground wells and is utilized for mud suppression in mining and ash disposal. “We minimized the usage of water by implementing our air-cooled condenser system by which the steam is cooled by air slightly than by water,” Jason Pok famous. “A lot effort can be put into wastewater remedy, the place all sorts of wastewaters are handled and reused additionally in plant operation and onsite irrigation,” he added.

Administration has additionally positioned nice emphasis on working security. Because the commissioning of Unit 2, the station has recorded greater than 5.5 million man-hours of labor with no lost-time damage.

“Attarat goes past producing electrical energy,” stated Bader Al Neif, head of Public Relations with Attarat Energy Firm. “It acts as a breakthrough for Jordan’s power sector, paving the best way for future oil shale tasks in Jordan and the area.”

The editors of POWER couldn’t agree extra, and as such, are honored to acknowledge the Attarat plant with a 2024 POWER Prime Plant Award within the fossil gasoline class. Congratulations to the whole venture crew!

—Aaron Larson is POWER’s govt editor.