Basel’s public utilities company, IWB, has been converting additional steam into environmentally-friendly electrical power since the installation of an M+M steam turbine in September 2013. The turbine produces 2.7 MW of electricity and was integrated by Caliqua AG into the existing water-steam cycle at IWB. Caliqua AG specialises in turnkey construction of power plants and pipelines. The system is a trash incinerating power plant, consisting of two trash incinerating boiler lines and a wood-fired boiler. The power plant supplies district heating to the people of Basel and process steam for local industry.

This project once again shows M+M Turbinen-Technik at its best, offering steam turbines made to measure. The compact design with a low pressure gradient allowed the system to be installed twelve metres below the surface because the incoming feed had to come via a narrow, winding shaft. Another plus is the turbine’s ability to provide precise regulation of the process steam network.

M+M Turbinen-Technik back-pressure turbines are increasingly being used by companies to provide process steam. In addition to process steam, the additional electric power created by the turbines can also be used effectively. Characteristic for this type of turbine is the heat-based control mode which uses the amount of steam required in the connected process to control the turbines.