Westfalen power plant

A plant full of energy

RWE Power
RWE Power

RWE Power – All the power

RWE Power is Germany’s biggest power producer and a leading player in
the extraction of energy raw materials. Our core business consists of low-
cost, environmentally sound, safe and reliable generation of electricity
and heat as well as fossil fuel extraction.

In our business, we rely on a diversified primary The bundling of all generating activities at RWE
energy mix of lignite and hard coal, nuclear Power has made us no. 1 in Germany, with a 30
power, gas and renewable sources to produce per cent share in electricity generation, and no. 3
electricity in the base, intermediate and peak in Europe, with a 9 per cent share. We wish to
load ranges. retain this position in future as well. That is what
we are working for – with all our power.
RWE Power operates in a market characterized by
fierce competition. Our aim is to remain a lea-
ding power producer at national and internatio-
nal level, making a crucial contribution toward
shaping future energy supplies.

A strategy with this focus, underpinned by effi-

cient cost management, is essential for our suc-
cess. All the same, we never lose sight of one
important aspect of our corporate philosophy:
environmental protection. At RWE Power, a res-
ponsible use of nature and its resources is more
than mere lip service. Hard coal
Lignite with integrated
Bremen opencast mines
Our healthy financial base, plus the competent Natural gas
and committed support of some 18,000 employ- Nuclear power stations
ees working under the umbrella of RWE Power, Westfalen Other conventional
power plant power plants
enable us to systematically exploit the opportu-
RWE Power operates 13 own
nities offered by a liberalized energy market. In Dortmund
or leased hydropower stations
and 44 stations belonging to
this respect, our business activities are embed- Harpen AG on the rivers
Cologne Moselle, Ruhr, Agger Sieg
ded in a corporate culture that is marked by team Aachen
and Nahe
spirit and by internal and external transparency.
Frankfurt
Mainz

Saarbrücken

Stuttgart

Munich

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 The Hamm location

The Hamm location

Electricity is an energy that can be used for any purpose. It is an indis-
pensable element in our lives. In ensuring a supply of base- and interme-
diate-load electricity, the Westfalen power plant has an important contri-
bution to make.

It was in 1962/63 that the Westfalen power
plant in the Lippe meadows, east of the Uentrop-
Schmehausen district of Hamm, went on stream
with its two 152-MW units A and B. In order to
meet the steadily rising demand for power,
above all by industry, the location was extended
in 1969 to include unit C with 284 MW of electric
power.
Their main fuel, hard coal, is delivered to the
three units via the Datteln-Hamm Canal at whose
eastern end the power plant is situated. The
hard coal comes from the nearby Ruhr area, but
also from the Saarland, Eastern Europe and over-
seas, e.g., from Australia, South Africa and South
America. The coal yard stocks up to 180,000 ton-
nes of hard coal, enough to operate the power
plant at full throttle for more than a month – bet-
ter safe than sorry.
For some years now, the power plant has been
using up to 15 % of its furnace capacity by co-
combusting the hard coal along with sewage
sludge and solid recovered fuels (SRFs). The lat-
ter consists of processed municipal and industrial
waste as well as production residues that are too
good for traditional waste incineration. Also, gas
and coke are used from a pyrolysis plant connec-
ted to unit C that carbonizes at low temperatu-
res, e.g., used plastic and sorting residues with a
high calorific value. This makes the Westfalen
power plant a multi-function system which,
going beyond power generation, adds an envi-
ronmental benefit as well.
 Power generation

Power generation
Effective combustion extracts a maximum in the way of input energy and
ensures high efficiency.

Hard coal contains up to 10 % moisture, so that it
is pre-dried before being combusted in the boi-
ler: when the coal pieces fall into the coal mills,
they are met with hot air which takes most of the
water with it. Next, beater mills grind the coal to
make fine dust. With air heated by the flue gases,
this pulverized coal is blown through the burner
into the boiler’s combustion chamber. The coal
burns completely: out of chemically bound energy
emerges fire and, hence, thermal energy; the
temperature reaches some 1,500 degrees.
The walls of the high-rise-sized boiler consist of
densely laid kilometre-long water pipes. Also,
tube coils are suspended in the furnace. They
circulate chemically cleaned, completely demine-
ralized water. This water is the working medium,
the most important energy transporter in the
power plant process: it takes the thermal energy
from the fire and evaporates. In the upper furna-
ce, the steam – at a pressure of 180 to 215 bar
and a temperature of 545 degrees – morphs into
superheated steam.

Steam generator Steam turbine Generator Cooling tower

Coal yard
Steam

Coal bunker

Coal mill

Feedwater Condenser

Lippe
Condensate Cooling
pumps tower
pumps
HP
Combustion air heater Cold
condensate
Feed- tank
water Cooling
tank water pumps
Transfer pumps
LP
heater

Granules
Feedwater
pumps

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This steam is conducted to the turbine and dri-
ves the blades of the multi-stage turbine, which
is divided into several sections, much the way
the wind sets a pinwheel in motion. So, in the
turbine, the thermal energy is converted into
kinetic energy. This first happens in the relatively
small HP section, then in the structurally bigger
IP section and, finally, in the large-volume LP
part of the turbine. The weaker the steam, the
bigger its volume.
The turbine is attached directly and rigidly to the
actual power producer, the generator. The rota-
tion of the turbine is transferred 1:1 to the gene-
rator rotor. With 3,000 revolutions per minute
(or 50 per second), it moves with its magnetic
field in the stationary generator part, in principle
like a dynamo. In this way, kinetic energy is con-
verted into electrical energy.
Power generation
Using huge transformers, this electricity finds its
way into the Europe-wide supply grid and, ulti-
mately, to the customer. Power is produced for
the moment when it is needed; it cannot be sto-
red in large quantities. In charge of exact-to-the-
second balancing in the western half of Germany
is RWE’s system control centre at Brauweiler near
Cologne. Its crew coordinates online the deploy-
ment of all power plants along with their opera-
tors. The locations of these power plants are not
arbitrary: just as knots are the nodes in a fishing
net, power plants are ideally distributed across
the entire area of an electricity grid so that they
can stabilize it from different points.
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The cooling system
The cooling system
It is the landmark of a major power plant per se: the cooling tower – the
cold end of a hot process.
On the turbine shaft sit numerous rows of bla-
des. The superheated steam coming from the
boiler flows through each of them, losing pressu-
re and heat in the process. At the end of the tur-
bine, the steam falls to a temperature of some 25
degrees and a pressure of about 0.030 bar (by
way of comparison: one bar equals normal
atmospheric air pressure). In the condenser
behind the turbine, the still-warm steam beco-
mes water again by giving off its weak residual
heat to the cooling water via cooling coils. Then,
the cycle of heating, evaporating, superheating
and turbine work starts all over again.
The cooling water itself, however, must be coo-
led off again: this is where the cooling towers
come in. The cooling tower of unit C, standing
122 m high and having a diameter of 92 m, is the
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biggest structure in the Westfalen power plant.
It’s windy at the foot of the hollow concrete
giant, which is open at the bottom. This is becau-
se the natural stack effect produces a brisk
upwind. In the older and much lower cooling
towers of unit A, large ventilators ensure a
draught.
In this draught, the droplets of the warm cooling
water, trickling down from the distributor level at
a height of several metres, cool off. In the pro-
cess, some of the cooling water evaporates and
is yanked upwards with the draught: depending
on weather conditions, this produces the typical
vapour plume. Most of the water is pumped back
to the condenser. Any missing amounts of the
precious liquid are replaced by cleaned water
from the Lippe river.
 New fuels

New fuels
There is energy in waste material – the Westfalen power plant makes use
of it: this lowers power-generation costs and helps not only to underpin
the viability of the location, but also to spare natural coal reserves and
the climate.

In quantity terms, hard coal is the most impor-

tant energy source by far at the Westfalen power
plant. For a few years now, some of the coal has
been replaced with specially selected and proces-
sed by-products and residues from industry and
households. Petroleum coke, say, is a by-product
of crude-oil distillation, which is rich in calorific
value and is very comparable with hard coal both
in its outer appearance and in its combustion
properties. Another example is so-called solid
recovered fuels. These are residues specially sor-
ted and treated for power plants that are too
valuable to dump and too rich in calorific value
for classic incineration. They include, e.g., dry
stabilate from the mechanical, biological treat-
ment of municipal waste as well as household
and industrial refuse with a high calorific value,
like carpet remnants, used plastics and residues
from waste-paper recycling.

Also, the Westfalen power plant uses pyrolysis

gas and pyrolysis coke which are produced in the
ConTherm plant upstream of unit C. The Con-
Therm system chemically converts and, in this
way, homogenizes inhomogeneous SRFs inside a
hermetically sealed rotary drum heated by natu-
ral gas in a one-hour run to produce gas and
coke. In a next step, this gas and coke produce
electricity in the adjacent unit C. Any residues
that cannot be combusted, like sand and metal,
are sorted out automatically in advance for re-
use.

SRFs are a substitute, above all, for imported

hard coal. In this way, the power plant does its
bit in sparing the coal reserves and in reducing
CO2 emissions.

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Environmental protection
Environmental protection
Even if competition on the energy market has become fiercer, RWE Power
does not cut corners in environmental protection.
Keep the home fires burning: this erstwhile
exhortation may be understood in a figurative
sense today. In power plants, at any rate, filthy
smoke belching out of a chimney stack is a thing
of the past. It’s Big Cleanup time: systems only
little smaller than the power plant itself filter
dust, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and other
air-borne pollutants out of the flue gas.
The first step in the flue-gas cleaning is dust col-
lection: even if some of the hard coal ash melts
in the scorching heat of the utility boiler and can
be removed there already as granular material, a
large part of the unburnt input material finds its
way into the flue gases as fine dust. These gases
are conducted downstream of the boiler through
the air heater and there release their heat into
the fresh air that is needed in the boiler. This
increases efficiency.
In an electrostatic precipitator, the dust particles
receive a negative charge. They are magnetically
attracted by positive electrodes, usually desi-
gned as plates. The rapping gear’s periodic ham-
mering knocks off the dust, which falls into a fun-
nel and is collected. It is re-fed into the furnace
in doses. The electrostatic precipitators retain
over 99 % of all dust.
Next stop for the flue gases is desulphurization:
since hard coal naturally contains about 1 % sul-
phur, it produces sulphur dioxide when combus-
ted. This means that the power plant would be
releasing the basic material that acid rain is
made of – if it were not fitted with a flue-gas des-
ulphurization system. In a continuous rain of
milk of lime, over 90 % of the sulphur dioxide is
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scrubbed from the flue gas. A chemical reaction
generates a new material, gypsum, which is used
as construction material. Every year, 60,000 ton-
nes of gypsum is produced. The third stage on
the flue gases’ route is the DeNox process: air
contains 78 % nitrogen; coal, too, contains nitro-
gen. When combusted, especially at high tempe-
ratures, nitrogen and oxygen react to form harm-
ful nitrogen oxide (NOx). Two measures reduce
NOx emissions: first, the burners, air supply and
the flue gas flow at the Westfalen power plant
have been optimized in such a way that the energy
sources burn as fast as possible and at the lowest
temperature possible; still, even that is not enough.
Second, the flue gases are whirled around with
an ammonia-air mixture and passed through a
catalyst. There, nearly 90 % of the nitrogen oxi-
de turns into nitrogen and water, i.e. into harm-
less substances.
The Westfalen power plant, due to the co-com-
bustion of SRFs, is subject to Germany’s 17th
Federal Immission Control Ordinance (BImSchV).
The limit values set by these rules are much toug-
her than those of the 13th BImSchV, which
applies to straight hard coal-fired power plants.
To ensure that the plant reliably adheres in the
long run to the limit values, say for dust, sulphur
dioxide, nitrogen and heavy metals, operations
are monitored by the supervisory authorities
online: they have permanent access to the auto-
matically transmitted measurements for the
power plant. Equally thorough checks are made
of the plant’s noise emissions, so that its opera-
tions have no deleterious impact on the environ-
ment, whether it be air or water, flora or fauna.
Westfalen power plant

Technical data
Units A and B Unit C

Year commissioned 1963 1969

Steam output 530 t/h 900 t/h

Design pressure HD 230 bar 260 bar

Main steam temperature 545 °C 545 °C

Turbine power rating 176 MW 320 MW

Steam upstream of HP turbine 180 bar/545 °C 215 bar/545 °C

Generator active power 176 MW 320 MW

Voltage 10,500 V 21,000 V

Amperage 11,000 A 12,000 A

Frequency 50 Hz 50 Hz

Height of cooling tower 34 m 122 m

Flue-gas cleaning Electrostatic precipitator, > 99 %

Sulphur dioxide in clean gas < 400 mg/m³

Pulverized limestone consumption approx 35.000 t/a = 4 t/h

Nitrogen oxide in flue gas up to 1.200 mg/m³

Nitrogen oxide in clean gas < 200 mg/m³

Chimney heigt 200 m

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 Westfalen power plant

More info?

If you would like to know more about our Company or

wish to tour the Westfalen power plant, please contact:

RWE Power AG
Kraftwerk Westfalen
Siegenbeckstraße 10
59071 Hamm
T +49 (0)2388/7 23 10
F +49 (0)2388/7 22 18
I www.rwe.com

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RWE Power AG
Essen . Cologne
T +49 (0)201/12-01
T +49 (0)221/480-0
I www.rwe.com