Root cause performance analysis

Key challenges

This waste-wood firing plant, having been recently acquired by Greencoat Capital, one of Europe’s largest renewables investors, was experiencing a number of operational issues. RJM was tasked by the new owner with determining their root causes. Key issues were around the reliability and robustness of the grate, severe fouling in the economiser and whether or not the waste wood fuel, or the design of the plant were contributory factors.

RJM Solution

RJM carried out a detailed site visit and reviewed all the fuel analyses taken over several months.

Results

RJM’s report confirmed that whilst there was some deviation from the designated fuel specification it was not a significant factor in terms of the grate’s integrity and the fouling. It also confirmed that the design of the plant did not sufficiently take into account the nature of the design fuel. This in turn meant that the plant operators did not have enough scope to adjust the combustion set-up, resulting in the sub-optimal combustion performance.