New technologies

The main task of New Technologies is to identify and initiate work on future technologies to be used in Vattenfall energy production to support our strategic goals.

Transition technologies that we look into include the top spool concept. Waste energy utilisation, algae and bio ethanol combinate and battery managementare just some of the areas of investigation within exploratory research.

The TopCycle process

For five years, Vattenfall and leading European turbine manufacturers have been evaluating Euroturbine AB’s new concept “TopCycle”. The concept is a patented new Swedish solution for power plants fuelled by natural gas, biomass fuel and coal.

The TopCycle makes use of mainly conventional power plant components. The principle is based on a pressure increase in a gas turbine process by means of a supercharger, the TopSpool turbine, which can be compared to turbocharging car engines. There is also a massive injection of steam, generated in a heat recovery boiler, into the combustor of the TopSpool turbine.

The concept has several advantages:

• 2 to 3 times greater capacity from the same gas turbine
• The condensation of water vapour in the exhaust gases produces around 25% greater overall efficiency
• Exhaust heat can be used to separation from the exhaust gases without affecting the level of power generation.

The TopSpool concept is suitable for mid-sized (100 MW) power plants, where the environmental impact and plant costs will be low. Vattenfall believes that we can be in a commissioning and test phase after 2015 if the feasibility and planning studies and the technological development phases turn out to be favourable.