{"id":772,"date":"2013-01-04T18:03:10","date_gmt":"2013-01-04T18:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.catchingphotons.co.uk\/blog\/?p=772"},"modified":"2013-11-20T13:12:13","modified_gmt":"2013-11-20T13:12:13","slug":"westfield-development-centre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/catchingphotons.co.uk\/blog\/power-stations\/westfield-development-centre\/","title":{"rendered":"Westfield Development Centre"},"content":{"rendered":"

Built in 1961, the British Gas Westfield Development Centre was a gasification plant to produce gas from coal – up until 1974 it was producing 20% of Scotland’s gas.<\/p>\n

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\nThe plant used four Lurgi gasifiers – the idea was to secure gas supplies for when North Sea gas ran out, which would have been a brilliant theory if almost all the coal mines had not also been shut down. Nevertheless, after spending about \u00a31bn in today’s terms, the process was pronounced a resounding success in 1991, and shut down in 1992.<\/p>\n

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A more modern test gasification plant was also built, as was a 120MW Combined Cycle Gas Turbine built in 1992 by Global Energy, who bought the site.<\/p>\n

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The plant was bought by Scottish & Southern Energy in 2003 who operated the power station (using piped-in gas) until March 2011.<\/p>\n

First, I had a look at the boiler house – I’m a little unclear on the exact process, but I think this was to produce “process heat” (i.e. lots of steam) for the gasification process, and it contains three coal-fired boilers.<\/p>\n

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Up at the top, a coal conveyor:<\/p>\n

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The roof, with views of the chimney:<\/p>\n

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Next the gasification plant:<\/p>\n

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Reached via the steep conveyors:<\/p>\n

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The whole place is ankle-deep in pigeon poo – ironically right next door is a cutting-edge biomass power station which runs on chicken poo. If they popped over with some wheelbarrows, there’s a good few kW in here.<\/p>\n

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The top of the gasification building, where hoppers feed in the coal:<\/p>\n

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To a lab:<\/p>\n

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And the control room:<\/p>\n

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Down and out for some outisde views:<\/p>\n

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This is the boiler house from the outside, the open space in front is where the gas turbine was. It was a GE frame-6 one which is portable:<\/p>\n

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Back inside, and various misc bits and pieces:<\/p>\n

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All images:<\/p>\n

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