Lynemouth

The Opportunity

As part of the UK’s drive toward a lower-carbon power generation future, the owners of Lynemouth Power Station decided to retrofit the existing coal-firing boilers to burn biomass, largely imported from America and Canada. These retrofit works had two main work zones: firstly, the new fuel intake, storage, and feed to the power station, and secondly, the retrofit of generating assets to operate with the new renewable fuel.

Power System Services were awarded the contract by Sir Robert McAlpine to install mechanical handling and pneumatic conveying equipment from the intermediate silos to the mill infeed locations. This scope included the following key construction items, which were a combination of free-issue and manufactured parts:

• Intermediate Silo Distribution Systems:
  Twelve intermediate silo distribution systems, each comprising support steelwork, two screw conveyors, two hoppers, valves, chutes, and bolt-on safety and control equipment.

• Blower Compressors:
  Twelve blower compressors, complete with pipework feeds to the underside of the dispense system, designed to pick up biomass and blow it into the power station.

• Pneumatic Conveying Pipelines:
  Twelve pneumatic conveying pipelines for transporting the product from the intermediate silos to the mill feeds.

• Pipe Bridge and Trestles:
  Manufacture and installation of a pipe bridge and trestles to support conveying pipework and provide pedestrian access from the new fuel intake and handling site to the power station.

• Pipe Support Bridge:
  Manufacture and installation of a pipe support bridge within the power station’s mill feed building, from which the 12 conveying pipes branch off to the mill feeds for all three units.

• Mill Feed Systems:
  Installation of 12 mill feed systems, each including a steel structure (manufactured by PSS under a separate contract), screw conveyor, two hoppers, valves, filters, and bolt-on safety and control equipment.

  The breadth of in-house knowledge at Power System Services, combined with a strong reference from the equipment OEM and familiarity with both construction sites and power-generating facilities, was a key factor in the client’s award decision. Naturally, the competitiveness of our offer also played an important role.