DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS
Lounavoima is a competitive partner in innovative circular economy and energy solutions in the Korvenmäki area. The company actively seeks technical solutions for reducing emissions and improving energy efficiency. The company actively promotes solutions that support its shareholders’ objectives in material recycling and emissions reductions.
The City of Salo has elevated the circular economy hub that centres around the waste-to-energy plant to the status of key project. The circular economy is an opportunity for diversifying the city’s economic structure. By promoting circularity we are also responding to some of the greatest global challenges faced by the world, such as diminishing natural resources and climate change.
Heat for the winter from deep heat storage
Salo has taken a new step towards more emission-free heat production. On the site of the Korvenmäki WtE plant, a heat storage facility has been drilled into the bedrock to store the excess heat generated during summer production. The stored heat is used in the winter when heat demand is at its highest.
The thermal heat storage project has been implemented between 2021 and 2025 and will be completed in the summer of 2025, with the first well at a depth of 1.6 km and the other five wells at a depth of 2 km. The thermal storage of the six deep wells will produce 8-14 GWh of heat per year, which is equivalent to the annual heating demand of 400-700 private houses.
With the completion of the WtE plant, Salo’s carbon dioxide emissions from district heating generation were halved, as waste fuel replaced fossil fuels and peat. The heat storage facility will further improve the plant’s district heating efficiency, as excess heat produced in the summer can be stored and used later when demand is at its highest in winter. The district heating from the storage facility has zero carbon dioxide emissions.
The Finnish Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment gave the Lounavoima heat storage project an investment grant. This financing was intended for renewable energy projects that offer cutting-edge energy solutions that can help in meeting Finland’s and the European Union’s targets for 2030.
WtE plant’s carbon dioxide for use as vehicle fuel
The Korvenmäki waste centre has succeeded in refining landfill gas into biomethane, which can be used for instance as fuel for vehicles. The objective is to use the same technology in the future to utilise carbon dioxide extracted from the plant’s combustion gases. Lounavoima has already carried out studies on carbon dioxide capture.
The results of the trial to refine landfill gas into biomethane exceeded all expectations: besides producing the methane, the microbiological reactor purified the gas of hydrogen sulphides and other impurities, which have until now hampered the use of landfill gases in biogas plants.
Lounapuisto Circular Economy Park 2021-2023 (ERDF)
The project has ended, but the development of the Lounapuisto circular economy park continues. Read more on the Lounapuisto website www.lounapuisto.fi.
---
The aim of the project was to develop the already operating Waste-to-Energy Plant in Salo and the area of Korvenmäki into a core area for circular economy activities and to link it to other circular economy parks in Southwest Finland.
In the project, the circular economy surveys and techno-economic reviews related to the region and the growth sector were brought together. Future markets were also evaluated and a so-called ”phenomenon map” was drawn up from future prospects. Companies already operating in the area were openly invited to participate in the vision work.
After the vision work, systematic cooperation was launched with companies and operators whose waste and side streams could be utilised as a resource for new and existing products and services. The operation of the project was open and interactive from the outset.
The measures of the project were compiled into concrete work packages:
- A common vision and a state of will
- Construction of the circular economy ecosystem of Lounapuisto, activation and facilitation of operations, initiation of the university-enterprise partnership
- Communication
As a result of the project, the area - at this stage known as Lounapuisto - profiled itself as one of the innovative circular economy environments in southern Finland, an attractive location for new cleantech and environmental companies and a testing environment for equipment and application suppliers.
Yrityssalo, which includes Turku University of Applied Sciences, the University of Turku and Lounavoima Oy as co-organisers, managed the project. The project ran from 1.12.2021 to 31.8.2023 and started in January 2022. The project received ERDF funding.
