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The scale of that shift becomes clear when the team starts talking about fuel volumes. She adds:“ Now our boiler consumes anywhere from 240,000 to 350,000 tons of biomass each year, depending on how we operate.” Supporting that level of demand meant a rethink of transportation and storage infrastructure.“ The greatest challenge associated with the use of large quantities of biomass is its external and internal logistics, which differ significantly from coal,” Sebastian observes.
Reliability depends on more than securing biomass supply; it depends on ensuring multiple ways to move it to the plant.“ Deliveries will, for the most part, be carried out by rail, and the new FHS is designed for this purpose, while the modernized fuel transport system is primarily intended for road deliveries. Still, both delivery methods can be used for both fuel handling systems,” Sebastian clarifies.
In day-to-day project management, the most important factor is the team you work with
Building resilience into fuel supply meant creating backup options beyond transportation alone. Sebastian elaborates:“ The CFB boiler will therefore be served by two independent systems, equipped with two silos, giving a total of four external storage silos.”
Behind the construction program sits an investment process that began years before equipment arrived on site. Fortum started evaluating pathways for its coal phase-out program in Poland in 2021 before making the investment decision for Częstochowa CHP plant bio-conversion in 2024.
Moving toward a low-carbon future
Long before contractors arrived on site, the project team was evaluating which decarbonization pathway made the most sense for the asset.“ Although the execution phase of a project of this type can be completed within approximately two to two and a half years, sufficient time must be allocated to the concept and pre-engineering stages,” Kamila notes.
For Sebastian, the challenge is no longer identifying the right solution but bringing together the people needed to deliver it.“ In day-to-day project management, the most important factor is the team you work with, and I emphasize the words‘ work with,’” Sebastian reflects.
“ The outcome depends on the combined expertise, commitment and cooperation of all team members. In a complex brownfield project, effective coordination between operations, engineering, contractors and technology providers is as important as the technical solution itself,” Sebastian adds.
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