The Saimatec Biomass Drying System

I was reading Ekogen Uutiset this morning and stumbled upon a blog posting mentioning Managing Director Heikki Rasimus Saimatec Biomass Drying System presentation. The below described innovation promises to decrease the problem of biomass feeding.  My intention was to learn more about the Taivalsaari Ekogen CHP Pilot Plant producing 600 MWh electricity and 2 000 MWh heat.

• heat produced by pellets and later transformed to wood chips (300 kW)
• electricity produced by microturbine (100 kW)
• power and heat for 50 – 100 households

The new biomass drying system is based on Saimatec’s long-term knowledge and technology for bulk material handling in Pulp & Paper industry.
The vertical silo type dryer is suitable for different types of biomass, for example:

• wood bark
• wood chips all varieties
• sawdust mixed in other materials
• sludge mixed with biomass.

System is a self-contained unit, including in-feed silo and out-feed equipment as well as automation. The drying process is controlled in a way that leads to good energy efficiency. Drying energy may be received from different heat sources such as:

• Connection to other processes
• CHP plants
• District heating plants
• Industrial power plants
• Independent combustion gas generators
• Hot air generators
• Steam generators, etc

Source: Saimatec Engineering, Savonlinna, Finland (2013)

More information to be obtained from Heikki Rasimus: heikki.rasimus@saimatec.fi

Biopower investments take off

I was looking for more background about the Amel project and stumbled upon this one.

1. High electricity price in Belgium, UK and Spain
   

Biopower investments take off: "To fulfill Kyoto commitments the European Union Member States have taken in use several measures of support to promote renewable energy production, especially electricity.

Tougher emission limits, emissions trading, new laws in force and subsidies are raising the feed-in price of green electricity. The higher price shortens the payback period of small-scale cogeneration and electricity only plants investments and makes it more profitable and commercially attractive.

As a consequence, the investment scene is changing. Besides utilities also private persons, SMEs and associations are interested in investing in small-scale CHP using biofuels. There are clear signs that the investments take off.

Helge: This is an interesting market scene development. The customer base is expanding.

The threshold price for competitive electricity production in small-scale CHP is 100 €/MWh. Today the price in Austria is about 150 €/MWh, in Germany 130 €/MWh and in Portugal 110 €/MWh. The prices are feed-in or price per unit of electricity that a utility or supplier has to pay for renewable electricity from private generators.

In Belgium and in the UK the price of electricity has also become so high that investments are competitive. Spain has an ambitious program for increasing production of bioelectricity six-fold from the current 500 MW. France and Italy are expected to take notable steps towards higher feed-in prices."

Biomass cogeneration

The project presented in my previous posting - the biomass cogeneration plant in Amel, Belgium - is an initiative by the company 4Energy Invest.

This company, listed on the stock exchange since June 2008, has new projects in the pipeline.

4Energy Invest has been created by three experts who have vast know-how in the energy sector and more particularly in the field of the

• design
• financing
• realization
• entry into operations of pilot plant completed within two years
  
• management and operation of national and international projects

Collaborating with companies such as Tractebel, Dynegy, Nuon, SPE, Datkia and Indaver.

This Belgian cluster focuses that often are too modest to be of interest to the main energy producers and too complex to be directly carried out by the industrial clients themselves.

4Energy Invest aims to establish and manage a portfolio of small and medium-sized local projects focusing on the the conversion of biomass waste into energy, whether directly or indirectly.

This team is now moving around to identify a number of sites that offer opportunities to build and operate cogeneration projects similar to the one in Amel.

Currently, other projects are under development, in particular in Ham in Flanders but also in Pontrilas of England and in Germany.

Tri-o-gen electricity production

Tri-o-gen: "Tri-O-Gen nomination for prestigious Horti Fair Innovation Award 2007 Print. The Tri-O-Gen ORC has been nominated for the prestigious international Horti Fair Innovation Award 2007 at the RAI Exhibition Centre at Amsterdam. The price will be given by the Dutch Agricultural Minister, Mrs. Gerda Verburg.

De eerste Tri-O-Gen ORC’s staan opgesteld bij Stainkoel’n in Groningen, Olij Rozen B.V. in De Kwakel en CleanMinerals in Esbeek."

CHP Ten Years ago

I read some old stuff from 2001. Finland leads the world in combined heat and power production (CHP). A total of 77% of the country's district heat was sourced from CHP facilities in 1999; and the remaining 23% from separate district heat units.

CHP or cogeneration plants make the maximum use of fuel energy by generating both electricity and heat. Plants typically have total efficiencies of 80% to 90%. This compares very favourably with conventional condensing power units, which normally turn in efficiencies of only some 40% to 45%.

The article in High Technology Finland 2001 says, "District heating accounts for 48% of Finland's total space heating requirement. In the country's largest urban areas, district heating accounts for between 80% and 90% of heating, and in Helsinki, over 90%. Some 2,3 million people, or 45% of the population, live in homes heated by district heating, and the majority of the country's public buildings are connected to a district heating system."

What has changed during the past ten years?

CHP technology is considered as one the best means of improving energy efficiency and reducing energy generating-related emissions. Cogeneration uses roughly one third less primary energy than separate generation. Lower fuel use per kilowatt of electricity generated translates into proportionally lower levels of carbon dioxide emissions when firing on fossil fuels, and similarly lower levels of sulfur and nitrogen oxide emissions.

Bioenergy and Biofuels

Bioenergy

• Rational Choice

As the world makes moves towards biofuels (= biomass fuels in this context), the source of the biological material is going to become important. The European Commission has published a green paper called "A European Strategy for Secure, Competitive and Sustainable Energy for Europe", which, in the view of the European Renewable Energy Industry is a missed opportunity for showing the way forward in Europe's energy policy and strategy.

• PRODUCT | Biomass fueled CHP is a proven concept; the 1 - 10 – 20 MW plant sizes for France / Europe are however new concepts and the plan to implementation could face some barriers and uncertainties compared to Scandinavian countries where wood based bioenergy units have a long history.

• PRICE | The initial CHP investment is higher but ROI over lifetime should support the decision. The acceptance of a higher initial investment price demands strategic decision making and local political wisdom has to be a part of the decision making process.

• PROMOTION | Biomass fueled CHPs 1 - 10 – 20 MW as valuable community / district level investments are not well known outside the Scandinavian markets. Much more grassroots and selective local promotion is needed to advance the Public-Private-Community-District partnership.

• PLACE | Location, location, location is everything. A CHP (cogeneration heat and power) should be installed in a location where the Public-Private-Community-District initiative has the logistical, operational and supply chain actors participating. To succeed, a multidisciplinary local action group has to be arranged by someone who wants to lead the operation from start to finish. Such a team was in place when the Autun, France, BioGrate 10 MW project proceeded from idea to completion.

• POLITICS | The City / Community level decision makers have to be a natural part of the planning process and a project team. A CHP plant want be a strictly Business-to-Business sales and implementation project. A successful project requires long term cooperation of several parties. If the networking infrastructure isn’t in place, there will not be a successful project.

Bioenergy for Small Communities

2006.10.13 07.47 | Bioenergy Plants for sawmills and district heating. I'm moving over material from other blogs. Information has been scattered around the blogosphere. I try to concentrate my stuff to this biotech and engineering site.

2006.10.02 12.10 | Bioenergy and Water | I'll use this blog to write about bioenergy, water, environmental and forestry industry issues.

This is from an old posting 13.10.2007 - nearly a year ago - where I started to research some of our global bioenergy connections. One year later, things are now moving ahead on a new level. I'm happy to have much more readers to this blog.

As the world makes moves towards biofuels (= biomass fuels in this context), the source of the biological material is going to become important. The European Commission has published a green paper called "A European Strategy for Secure, Competitive and Sustainable Energy for Europe", which, in the view of the European Renewable Energy Industry is a missed opportunity for showing the way forward in Europe's energy policy and strategy.

• PRODUCT | Biomass fueled CHP is a proven concept; the 10 – 20 MW plant sizes for France / Europe are however new concepts and the plan to implementation is facing some barriers and uncertainties compared to Scandinavian countries where wood based bioenergy units have a long history.
  
  
• PRICE | The initial CHP investment is higher but ROI over lifetime should support the decision. The acceptance of a higher initial investment price demands strategic decision making and local political wisdom has to be a part of the decision making process.
  
  
• PROMOTION | Biomass fueled CHPs 10 – 20 MW as valuable community / district level investments are not well known outside the Scandinavian markets. Much more grassroots and selective local promotion is needed to advance the Public-Private-Community-District partnership.
  
  
• PLACE | Location, location, location is everything. A CHP (cogeneration heat and power) should be installed in a location where the Public-Private-Community-District initiative has the logistical, operational and supply chain actors participating. To succeed, a multidisciplinary local action group has to be arranged by someone who wants to lead the operation from start to finish. Such a team was in place when the Autun, France, BioGrate 10 MW project proceeded from idea to completion.
  
  
• POLITICS | The City / Community level decision makers have to be a natural part of the planning process and a project team. A CHP plant want be a strictly Business-to-Business sales and implementation project. A successful project requires long term cooperation of several parties. If the networking infrastructure isn’t in place, there will not be a successful project.