A contract with the consortium STRABAG for the construction of a cutting-edge flue gas denitrification installation for the four power units 225/230 MW was signed on January 24, 2011 in Łaziska Power Plant. The contract was signed by: Stanisław Tokarski – Chairman of the Management Board, Managing Director of PKE SA, Henryk Tymowski – Vice-chairman of the Management Board, PKE SA R&D Director and Andrzej Kaczmarczyk – Environment Protection Director in Krakow – STRABAG Polska.

The subject of the contract if the execution of turn-key state-of-the-art flue gas denitrification installations for the boilers type OP – 650k which are part of power units no 9, 10, 11 and 12 which will reduce the average hourly NOx emission to the level ≤ 190 mg/m3u (taken as the sum of the nitrogen oxides per NO2 with 6 percent of O2 content in the flue gas). The starting level of the NO2 emission is 450 mg/m3u. The contract deadline is 59 months.

The following persons participated in the contract signing: representatives of STRABAG AG – Klaus Weigl and Walter Bors, consulting company: EM&CA S.A., Energopomiar Gliwice and on the power plant part members of the team in charge of the contract tendering procedure. Joachim Adamczyk – Managing Director of Łaziska Power Plant greeted the guests emphasizing that NOx emission reduction is one of the most crucial tasks with regard to environment protection in Tauron Group and at the same time it is one of the biggest investment projects in Łaziska Power Plant.

The investment project connected with nitrogen oxides emission reduction in Łaziska Power Plant concerns 225/230 Megawatt power units and insists in the construction of catalytic flue gas denitrification installation. Retrofitting of the power units’ equipment and joined installations will be carried out simultaneously. One should emphasize that these are tasks resulting from the strategic goal included in the Strategic Action Plan for the years 2009 - 2012 with a perspective to 2020 which is a part of the Tauron Polska Energia SA Generation Area Strategy, said Marek Bujny, PKE SA Łaziska Power Plant Deputy Director for Technology. Execution of this task will also meet the requirements of 2001/80/EC Directive with respect of pollutant emission reduction and will enable the power units operation after 2018 without any limitations.

Currently in Łaziska Power Plant, nitrogen oxides are reduced with the application of the so-called primary methods enabling keeping the emission level below 450 mg/m2. Nonetheless it is not enough in relation to the European Union requirements which will become obligatory in the course of several years. These very requirements bring about the necessity to reduce nitrogen oxides emission in the flue gas below 190 mg/m2.

The NOx emission reduction technology selection process in Łaziska Power plant as well as the contractor selection was commenced in 2008. A tender committee was set up at that time accompanied by the teams of advisors. In the first tender stage 14 international companies submitted the bids. The number was then reduced to 9 indicative offers. After the negotiation stage six binding offers were submitted concerning the execution of the investment task.

The tender was won by STRABAG consortium offering a cutting-edge catalytic NOx emission reduction technology. It is a field-proven technology which guarantees the achievement of the set goals. To summarize the technology one should list the following features: it does not interfere with the combustion process itself as the flue gas reaches the catalyst which enables the chemical reaction of nitrogen oxides reduction.

STRABAG offer is a unique approach to nitrogen oxides emission reduction mainly due to the fact that the proposed technical and construction solution and in particular the location of the catalyst made this very installation highly competitive when compared to other offers. Catalytic technology, which usually is more costly than other methods, turned out to be economically competitive due to the unique solution.

The catalytic method is field-proven and safe as far as operation is concerned. It is also relatively inexpensive as the cost of the investment project in Łaziska Power Plant amounts to circa PLN 93 million gross. The contract signed with STARBAG consortium stipulated the project execution within 4 years i.e.: 2011 – power unit no 12, 2012 – power unit no 11, 2013 – power unit no 10 and 2014 – power unit no 9.

Modernization of the power units will be carried out simultaneously to the denitrification installation construction so as to enable their safe operation with high availability until 2027.

Andrzej Cygielski