A Smoke-Ring Blowing Power Plant. April Fools? You Tell Us.
Copenhagen could inaugurate, as early as 2017, a new combined heat and power plant that features a roof-wide artificial ski slope open to the public and blasts smoke rings through a 124-meter chimney.
The $611 million Amager Bakke plant is owned by five Danish municipalities and is being built by the Copenhagen-based waste management company Amager Ressourcecenter. It will replace a 45-year old waste-incineration plant.
The plant’s smoke ring system is part of the plant’s design. Reportedly, it would belch out a smoke ring—actually water vapor—every time 250 kilograms of carbon dioxide is released through the atmosphere to remind residents of their carbon footprint.
Construction of the plant began in March 2013. It will include two furnace lines connected to a boiler and a joint turbine and generator system. Each fuel line will have a capacity to burn 35 tonnes of waste an hour using Babcock & Wilcox Vølund’s advanced combustor grate, called DynaGrate.
IG-Bjarke Ingels Group is the architect of the Amager Bakke waste-to-energy plant. Topotek/Man Made Land and AKT. Realities:united will provide the smoke ring generator, and Ramboll is the owner’s engineer, responsible for providing planning and commissioning services.
—Sonal Patel, associate editor (@POWERmagazine, @sonalcpatel)