Howden has supplied two condensing steam turbines of type TWIN AK68 with controlled extraction. The scope of delivery includes the turbines themselves, a generator, condensers and control systems so that the units can be operated automatically with no need for operation staff to be present nearby.

The end customer is the Russian company Sinergia, which is building a new sawmill plant in the town of Verhnyaya Tura, 200 km northern from Ekaterinburg. The customer will be burning sawmill waste (biomass).

The total power output is 20 MWe, with a total heat consumption of up to 35 MW. The extracted steam will be used for heating, technology and their own Combined Heat and Power (CHP) needs.

At the outset of the project, Howden worked with Sinergia to present two distinct options: Howden could deliver either one 20 MW(el) turbine or could deliver the same total using two turbines at 10 MW(el) each. The latter option was preferred as by using two 10 MW(el) Steam Turbines, the solution has more flexibility, i.e. high efficiency at part loads, and thus this has been the option that Sinergia opted for.

The customer also installed two bypass lines: from live steam line to extraction steam collector and to condenser directly. The benefits of this are that even should a turbine need to be stopped during start up and emergency situations, the production of the plant need not be stopped, this results in increased reliability for the whole factory.
EPC is Russian company FITO.