1981 commercial installations
Vereinigte Kesselwerke AG, Düsseldorf, a boiler manufacturer in the group Deutsche Babcock was, since 1980, leading in the world wide commercialization of bubbling fluidised bed combustion. After retrofitting a 40 t/h grate fired boiler at the Düsseldorf Flingern station to fluidised bed combustion, VKW has supplied many commercial units.
VKW had the leading role in the group Deutsche Babcock with regard to the optimisation of the fluidised bed firing systems, To support further development, an in-house test plant was build and operated. The circulating fluidised bed system was also developed In cooperation with LURGI AG.
A typical example for the earlier plants built by VKW are the two steam boilers, which have been supplied in 1982 to the Toledo power station in Cebu / Philippines. The units produce 160 t/h superheated steam each used for electricity generation. The units are designed to burn imported coal and fast growing biomass. The boilers are still in operation today.
Dipl Ing, Michael Kaden was department head "fluidised bed firing" at VKW and was also responsible for the coordination of fluidised bed activities in the Deutsche Babcock group. During his work at VKW the development of the "CircoFluid" combustion system, which combines the advantages of the bubbling and circulating fluidised bed systems was started. Many plants based on this technology have been built world wide. One example is the "Römerbrücke" power station in Saarbrücken / Germany.