Galp Energia currently has three cogeneration plants in operation. This group includes:
Our cogeneration plants comply with environmental standards and best practice guidelines, such as compliance with CO, NOx and particulate emissions and waste management. These mandatory measurements are reviewed annually.
Carriço Cogeneration Plant
The Carriço Cogeneration Plant comprises a 32 MWe natural gas turbine generator and a heat recovery for hot water production with a capacity of 43 MWt.
The Carriço Cogeneration Plant has an individual environmental licence.
Powercer Cogeneration Plant
The Powercer Cogeneration Plant consists of a 7.2 MWe natural gas turbine generator and heat recovery unit, with an additional burner, with a generation capacity of 30 tonnes/h of saturated steam at 13 bar.
Powercer’s individual environmental licence was obtained in 2009.
Sinecogeração Cogeneration Plant
The Sinecogeração Cogeneration Plant consists of two 40 MWe natural gas turbine generators and two heat recovery units, with additional burners, with a generation capacity of 125 tonnes/h of superheated steam at 82 bar and 520 ºC.
This plant is part of the refinery modernisation plan and represented investment of around 77 million euros.
Its licence was integrated into the Environmental Licence of the Sines Refinery.
Projects under development
The project involving the construction of cogeneration plant at the Matosinhos refinery is currently underway. The plant consists of two 40 MWe natural gas turbine generators identical to those installed in Sines and two heat recovery units, with additional burners, with a generation capacity of 130 tonnes/h of superheated steam at 66 bar and 450 ºC.
The aim of the project for the two new cogeneration plants at the Sines and Matosinhos refineries is to supply high-pressure vapour to the refineries. The refineries will benefit from the advantages of combined generation of electrical and thermal energy from the burning of natural gas in gas turbines, a high energy efficiency technology for generating steam in the conditions required by refineries. The steam to be generated in the new cogeneration plants will replace most of that produced in the current fuel oil boilers.
Operating performance of the cogeneration plants in 2010
| Consumption of NG (million m3) |
52,6 |
15,6 |
251,9 |
320,2 |
| Thermal generation (GWh) |
250 |
98 |
1666 |
2.014 |
| Electrical energy generation (GWh) |
206 |
30 |
661 |
897 |
Atmospheric emissions will be significantly reduced in elements such as:
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sulphur oxides, given that the cogeneration unit fuel will be natural gas
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particles
-
nitrogen oxides
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carbon dioxide, particularly in the component associated with thermal energy.
The three cogeneration plants prevented emissions of 730,000 tonnes of CO2 in 2010 in the national electricity generation system, by replacing 900 GWh generated at conventional thermal power plants.
The operation of these cogeneration plants is already an energy efficiency measure, since it promotes the reduction of primary energy use and consequent CO2 emissions, significantly contributing to improvements in the performance of the refinery equipment and at a national level.