Bioenergy Insight May/June 2014

MAY/JUNE 2014 Volume 5 • Issue 3

Slowly but surely

The first biogas plant in London has opened its doors

The bigger the better?

Why small-scale biomass systems punch above their weight as sustainable energy players

Regional focus: bioenergy in the UK

Bioenergy xxxx

biomass

Cogeneration

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xx • December 2011

Bioenergy Insight

contents Bioenergy

Contents

Issue 3 • Volume 5 May/June 2014 Horseshoe Media Limited Marshall House 124 Middleton Road, Morden, Surrey SM4 6RW, UK www.bioenergy-news.com PUBLISHER Margaret Dunn Tel: +44 (0)208 687 4143 margaret@bioenergy-news.com EDITOR Keeley Downey Tel: +44 (0)20 8687 4183 keeley@bioenergy-news.com ASSISTANT EDITOR Natasha Spencer Tel: +44 (0)20 8687 4146 natasha@horseshoemedia.com STAFF WRITER Daniel Traylen Tel: +44 (0)20 8687 4126 daniel@horseshoemedia.com INTERNATIONAL SALES MANAGER Anisha Patel Tel: +44 (0) 203 551 5752 anisha@bioenergy-news.com NORTH AMERICA SALES REPRESENTATIVE Matt Weidner +1 610 486 6525 mtw@weidcom.com PRODUCTION Alison Balmer Tel: +44 (0)1673 876143 alisonbalmer@btconnect.com SUBSCRIPTION RATES £150/€210/$275 for 6 issues per year.

Contact: Lisa Lee Tel: +44 (0)20 8687 4160 Fax: +44 (0)20 8687 4130 marketing@horseshoemedia.com Follow us on Twitter: @BioenergyInfo

2 Comment 4 News

22 Technology news 30 Green page 31 Incident report 32 RHI changes implemented 33 Competing for CfDs 34 AD gets a break

35 EPA releases CO2 reduction plan 36 Power for the people 39 Biogas profile: TEG Group

ISSN 2046-2476

Bioenergy Insight

TEG Group opened London’s first AD plant in April

41 Plant update: UK focus 44 The bigger the better?

Why small-scale biomass systems punch above their weight as sustainable energy players

46 The wait is over

Meeting a range of uniform national requirements for BtG means various processing equipment must be added to the basic upgrading plant

48 Measure that methane 50 Hybrid AD holds the key

Dry AD can be useful in avoiding complex logistics and pre-processing

52 Room to grow

A contract awarded back in 2008, for one of the first commercial biogas plants in the UK, has grown into a sixyear relationship and two extensions to the initial plant

54 From bathrooms to biogas

BIOFerm is turning sewage waste into energy

55 Membrane technology goes global 57 Preventing corrosion 61 Replacing coal with biomass

A US-based biomass boiler combustion system specialist reveals how it successfully converted a fossil fuel power station to burn biomass

64 Overcoming hurdles 66 Adding value

Societies and industries are being driven to find more eco- efficient raw materials and sources of energy, as well as to make products and services in a more sustainable way

68 Harbouring new opportunities

No part of this publication may be reproduced or stored in any form by any mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording or other means without the prior written consent of the publisher.

Whilst the information and articles in Bioenergy Insight are published in good faith and every effort is made to check accuracy, readers should verify facts and statements direct with official sources before acting on them as the publisher can accept no responsibility in this respect. Any opinions expressed in this magazine should not be construed as those of the publisher.

Industry welcomes EIS reprieve as AD project finance will now continue under EIS-qualifying funds

The Port of Halifax is ideally located to quench Europe’s thirst for industrial pellets

70 Energy specialist

With a strategic location and existing dry bulk handling capabilities, the Port of Amsterdam is well located for the integration of renewable energy

72 All systems go

One engineering firm is nearing completion of two multi-million pound contracts — Drax Power station in Selby and E.ON’s renewable energy plant in Sheffield

MAY/JUNE 2014 Volume 5 • Issue 3

74 Quality control

What must Canadian wood pellets be tested for before they are shipped across the Atlantic to Europe?

77 In the spotlight

Slowly but surely

The first biogas plant in London has opened its doors

What attendees of the upcoming UK AD & Biogas 2014 can look forward to hearing about when the conference and tradeshow returns to Birmingham on 2-3 July

80 Events page

Advert index

The bigger the better?

Why small-scale biomass systems punch above their weight as sustainable energy players

Regional focus: bioenergy in the UK

Front cover courtesy of: PlanET Biogastechnik GmbH Bioenergy front cover_may-june14.indd 1

10/06/2014 15:10

May/June 2014 • 1

Bioenergy comment

UK: Small but mighty

T

Keeley Downey Editor

Follow us on Twitter: @BioenergyInfo

2 • May/June 2014

he regional focus of this May/June issue is the UK. In the past, analysis of this market has been part of our wider European focus. However, with so many bioenergy developments unfolding in this region, almost on a daily basis, we felt it needed a spotlight of its own. And when better to showcase such a progressive nation than in conjunction with UK AD & Biogas 2014 — one of the UK’s largest anaerobic digestion and biogas tradeshows. We look forward to seeing many of you there.

As of September 2013, www. biogas-info.co.uk reported there were 137 operational industrial, agricultural and community biogas plants in the UK, producing energy and heat. This is excluding the additional 146 AD plants operating within the water industry. These numbers are only set to grow in the future with the introduction of the domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) on 9 April, and recently implemented changes to the non-domestic RHI. Anaerobic digestion has been used in the sewage treatment industry for many years and, in Europe, on-farm biogas plants are common.

But that’s not to say these renewable facilities aren’t suited to urban environments as well — today we are hearing more and more success stories about biogas plants generating energy from large quantities of locally sourced food waste.

One of these plants — TEG Biogas — happens to

be London’s inaugural AD facility. Within this issue, TEG’s CEO Michael Fishwick talks about the financial risks that still exist today when trying to establish a biogas plant. Interestingly, he also highlights some of the reasons why it is difficult to build an AD plant in London, despite the huge quantities of food waste generated there.

I couldn’t talk about Great Britain’s bioenergy sector without touching upon growing biomass demand and Megawatt Valley — an area in Yorkshire home to the Drax and Eggborough power stations. Together, these two plants produce between 13 and 14% of the UK’s total generation capacity.

At the recent Argus European Biomass Trading conference in London, it came to light that a staggering 12GW of generating capacity could be offline by the end of 2023 in the UK alone — a figure that has the potential to significantly increase the risk of electricity outages.

Speaking at the Argus event, Nigel Adams, MP for Selby and Ainsty, said that while on- and offshore wind energy will have an important role to play in closing this phenomenal void left by coal, ‘it is not the only technology available’.

He went on: ‘Wind power is expensive and intermittent and we must not be lulled into a false sense of security. The gap left by a lack of coal in the UK must be replaced with reliable and flexible sources.’

Standing in the wings, ready to breathe new life into existing, aged coal-fired

power stations is biomass.

Globally abundant and able to deliver immediate carbon savings, this feedstock is well positioned to fulfil an impending void of calorific energy fuel.

Unfortunately, things are not always that simple. The situation at Eggborough is a clear example of this, where plans were in place that would have seen the facility switch from firing fossil to renewable fuels as early as January this year. In December 2013, however, the power station was not one of the 10 shortlisted projects considered ‘provisionally affordable’ and as a result lost out on being fast-tracked for the Contracts for Difference support mechanism. As a result the conversion has been halted for the time being.

With this in mind, Adams called for ‘DECC [the Department of Energy and Climate Change] to pull its finger out and get this market moving’.

Hopefully Eggborough soon gets the answer it is looking for so work on this important £750 million (€930 million) conversion project can resume. If all the biomass-topower projects proposed for the UK go ahead, between 9 and 14 million tonnes a year of biomass and wood pellets will be required by 2016.

We hope you enjoy our UK special focus and welcome your feedback.

Best wishes, Keeley

Bioenergy Insight

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biomass news

Biomass growth capacity drops in US Five new biomass plants with a total generation capacity of 10MW came online in the US in April, according to the Energy Infrastructure Update for April, published by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

Since the start of 2014, 12 biomass-fired facilities producing a total 20MW of renewable energy have commenced operations. During the first four months of 2013, 35 biomass units generating 112MW opened.

This reduced growth in capacity is not just limited to biomass-based energy. The report states that in April, the only renewable technology type to add more capacity than biomass was solar, with 52MW of combined capacity.

As of the end of April, the US was producing 15.88GW of renewable energy from biomass. This is approximately 1.37% of total US capacity.

In addition, a landfill gas-to-energy plant also opened in April, the report stated. This is a 1.4MW plant owned by the Bannock County Public Works Department, located at the Fort Hall Mine Landfill in Idaho. l

Woodchip exports from Australia on the rise Australia, one of the world’s largest exporters of woodchips, appears to have recovered from a 10-year low in 2012 as shipments rose again last year. In the first quarter of 2014, exports were close to the highest since 2010.

When Australian exports fell, it was replaced by Vietnam as the largest supplier of woodchips in the world. Exports of eucalyptus chips peaked at 5 million tonnes in 2008, dropping to around 3.3 million tonnes in 2012. This is the lowest export volume since 2000 and can be attributed to the diminishing demand for chips in Japan.

The recovery of Australia’s export figures is due to a high demand for wood fibre coming from China and, over the past six months, woodchip exports have grown once again. The end of last year and beginning of this saw the highest quarterly shipments since 2010.

China’s demand for wood fibre has been attributed to Australia’s growing woodchip exports

China’s need for wood fibre is for its pulp industry and Q1 2014 was the first time Australia exported more woodchips to China than Japan. Of the total 1.2

million tonnes shipped from the nation earlier this year, about half was destined for China. The remaining volume was exported to Japan, Taiwan and India. l

Finnish region to invest in woodchip facility The Turku region of Finland is investing over $350 million (€250 million) in a plant that will run primarily on local woodchips.

The latest United Nations climate report urges a shift from coal to renewable energy and in April, the Turku region’s energy consortium TSE confirmed plans to replace a 50-year-old coal plant in Naantali with a multi-fuel

4 • May/June 2014

facility that can be fuelled by 100% biomass and waste.

The facility is expected to burn between 915,000 and 1.57 million cubic yards of chips annually.

Construction will begin in spring 2015, with production at the combined heat and power plant set to start in late 2017.

At present, TSE is looking into whether the plant can run using purely biofuel. If so, it says, some will need to be imported. l

Bioenergy Insight

biomass news

Work progresses with Bulgarian gasification plant Eqtec Iberia, part of Spanish holding company Ebioss Energy, is progressing with the construction of its 5MW Karlovo renewable plant located in Bulgaria’s Plovdiv province.

The biomass-to-energy plant with integrated biomass gasification technology, construction on which started last October, will use three GE Jenbacher fuel-flexible engines — one J612 and two J620 units — powered by syngas derived from straw and woodchips to generate enough electricity to power 2,000 homes.

The plant is scheduled for completion by the end of

Bioenergy Insight

Ground broke on the 5MW biomass plant last year

2014 and will help Bulgaria produce 16% of its energy demand from renewable sources — a target which must be met by 2020. Currently over 70% of the nation’s energy is sourced from imported natural gas and oil.

‘Using syngas as a fuel is

uncommon in such plants and represents an innovative solution to the energy challenges Bulgaria, and many other nations, face. However, it is challenging to develop an integrated gasification design that doesn’t produce syngas containing impurities that

can foul engines,’ explains Leon van Vurren, global sales leader, Jenbacher gas engines for GE’s distributed power business. ‘The selection of technologies to work together is important, and the Karlovo plant produces cleaner syngas.’ l

May/June 2014 • 5

biomass news

Italian companies to build 30MW biomass plant

Greenergy to sell stake in Philippines biomass project

Two Italy-based companies are to develop a 30MW biomass plant in the country’s Ravenna region.

The Powercorp project, a joint venture between Enel Green Power and Seci Energia, will be built on an industrial site previously occupied the Eridania sugar refinery.

Fuelled by locally-sourced woodchips, the plant will have an estimated total annual output of 222GWh. The €126 million facility will also feature a 1MW biogas plant that will use silage and pig manure from local producers.

Enel and Seci bought Italian developer Powercrop last year after the deal was cleared by the European Commission. l

Greenergy Holdings is reported to be selling its 60% stake in the company building an 18MW biomass power plant in the Philippines province Negros Occidental to a German hedge fund.

The company has agreed to sell its stake in Biomass Holdings, which is developing the P3.5 billion (€56.16 million), bagasse-fired power generation plant, to ThomasLloyd

Cleantech Infrastructure Fund, according to reports.

The project will be built alongside the existing San Carlos Bioenergy ethanol facility on a 20 hectares of land, with another five-hectare plot of land allocated for fuel storage, and is expected to be completed by early 2015.

A certificate of registration was issued to the project in December 2012. The facility will provide both electricity in the Visayas amid an increasing demand for power and an additional source of income to the local farming community. l

Consortium to develop ‘integrated’ biorefineries New consortium ValorPlus, made up of the UK Health and Environment Research Institute (HERI), has been established to develop second generation integrated biorefineries.

The aim is to create biomass with zero waste, improved process efficiency, increased commercial competitiveness and profitability, and a more diverse and sustainable biomass resource.

Valor-Plus will develop quality control procedures for the reliable and consistent recovery of minimally degraded hemicellulose fibres and lignin macromolecules. The project will undertake a complete lifecycle assessment, evaluate and demonstrate the potential for scale-up and integration of the project results within existing and future biorefineries, while defining biorefinery technology and product stream roadmaps to promote awareness and engagement of stakeholders.

The Valor-Plus consortium will support the realisation of sustainable and economically viable closed-loop integrated biorefineries through the development of knowledge, technologies and products that enable valorisation of key biorefinery by-products.

Mick Parmar, project manager at UK HERI, says: ‘Biorefining is not a new

6 • May/June 2014

concept and has been used for many years for the production of product streams such as biodiesel, bioethanol and polymers. However, the focus on a single stream and the fraction of the biomass leads to a number of limitations. The first generation of biorefineries were a result of growing demand for energy and transport fuels, driven by government regulation and financial support. This artificial market is not sustainable in the long term and a more commercially viable solution must be found.

‘The role of the Valor-Plus consortium

is to develop an ‘integrated’ biorefinery to allow multiple bulk and high-value product streams. This will bring a number of benefits, namely the full use of the biomass to generate the highest return value,’ he continues.

The project comprises five key areas: pretreatment and fractionation, hemicellulose valorisation, lignin valorisation, glycerol valorisation and the demonstration of the technological and economic potential for integration and scale-up within existing and future biorefinery value chains. l

The Valor-Plus consortium will develop an ‘integrated’ biorefinery to allow multiple bulk product streams

Bioenergy Insight

biomass news

Energy Works selects JV to build power plant Energy Works, a £150 million (€184 million) renewable power plant to be built on a 12-acre site in Hull, UK, has selected a joint venture partnership to design, build and operate the facility.

MWH Treatment, part of US-based MWH Global, and engineering firm Spencer Group have combined to win preferred bidder status.

Energy Works has named the joint venture as preferred bidder to deliver an engineer, procure and construct (EPC) wrap contract to deliver the first phase of the development, with construction due to begin early in 2015 and completion scheduled for March 2017.

The selection follows a competitive process complying with European Union procurement regulations.

The first phase of the

development will be an energy recovery facility that will generate 28MW of electricity via gasification. It will provide sufficient electricity to power 43,000 homes, by processing materials which would otherwise be sent to landfill, while also reducing dependency on imported fossil fuels. Phase two of the scheme will see the addition of an anaerobic digestion plant and materials processing facilities.

Energy Works project director Phil Morland says: ‘There is a clear synergy between the partners — MWH brings experience in energy recovery projects and a strong thermal process capability, while Spencer has experience in executing complex multidisciplinary energy projects and a track record of delivering large civil, electrical and bulk handling works. This is another major milestone for Energy Works, following securing planning permission, a £19.9 million capital grant and a grid connection agreement.’

Energy Works is in advanced

RockTenn to acquire Simpson Tacoma paper mill

The renewable power plant in Hull will be complete in 2017

discussions with feedstock suppliers and has appointed BDO as financial advisor. BDO will support the company in achieving financial close on the project this autumn, working closely with legal advisors Addleshaw Goddard.

The announcement comes just weeks after Hull made

a significant step towards being recognised as the UK’s capital of green energy following confirmation that manufacturing giant Siemens will invest £310 million, together with Associated British Ports, in offshore wind manufacturing sites in the city and on its eastern boundary. l

New series HEM 583 Hydraulic blower as standard equipment

North America-based consumer packaging firm RockTenn and forest products business Simpson Lumber have signed an agreement whereby RockTenn will acquire the Simpson Tacoma Kraft paper mill for approximately $343 million (€246.6 million).

The Tacoma Kraft Mill, located in the US state of Washington, operates a 55MW biomass cogeneration facility that was completed in 2009 and sells electricity under a long-term contract. In 2013 the mill produced 465,000 tonnes on two paper machines and two pulp dryers that made various paper grades including containerboard, specialty kraft paper and pulp.

RockTenn has committed to invest $60 million in the mill during the next three years and has also entered into a seven-year woodchip supply contract with Simpson Lumber.

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals. l

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May/June 2014 • 7

biomass news

UN IPCC report: sustainable biofuels are way forward UN IPCC report findings confirm that, while bioenergy has a significant role to play in society and although more research is needed, existing uncertainties should not prevent the pursuance of beneficial bioenergy options.

The published IPCC report, ‘Bioenergy and climate change mitigation: an assessment’, released as part of the IPCC 5th Assessment Report, comes as the EU considers the future of its biofuels policy within its climate and energy policy framework up to 2030.

The report emphasises how EU policymakers should not ignore the benefits offered by sustainable biofuels.

EU Commission statistics

show that EU transport emissions have risen by 36% since 1990 levels and are now responsible for 26% of Europe’s total GHG emissions.

Sustainable biofuels are the only cost-effective tool that is available in the short- to medium-term to reduce these transport emissions. Currently EU-produced ethanol reduces GHG emissions by up to 90% compared to fossil fuels and still saves significant GHG emissions even when scientifically unreliable ILUC emissions are accounted for.

Rob Vierhout, secretary general at ePURE, says: ‘Europe must address its transport emissions if it is to be serious about being a climate leader. Sustainable biofuels, such as EU-produced ethanol, are a low hanging fruit in the fight against climate change and must be supported through long-term and ambitious decarbonisation policies for transport.’ l

Global Power to build biopower plant in Philippines province Global Business Power (GBPC) has plans to build a biomass power plant in the Philippines province of Negros Occidental, with a feasibility study expected to be completed in the third quarter this year.

The company will join with Roxas Holdings to undertake the

8 • May/June 2014

project, while Pöyry Energy, a consulting and energy company, is undertaking the feasibility study to determine its viability.

Once complete, the power facility will have a capacity of 40-50MW. This is Global Power’s first renewables project.

It has been reported that Global Power is investing $1 billion (€721.9 million) to increase the company’s capacity from the current 627MW to 1,000MW by 2018. l

News in brief PLANS MOVE FORWARD FOR WELSH BIOMASS PLANT

PLANS TO build a biomass-fired power plant at the

former Anglesey Aluminium works near Holyhead, Wales are progressing after the UK government approved design changes proposed by Lateral Power.

The plant will generate around 299MW of electricity, which is enough to power around 3,000 homes.

A proposal to construct the plant was first submitted in 2009. The Department of Energy and Climate Change gave consent in 2011, with the license granted a year later.

According to reports, DECC said ‘ministerial consent’ has been given to allow for some technologies changes to the biomass generating station.

GREENPRAV INVESTS €35M IN CO-GEN PLANT IN ROMANIA

GREENPRAV, A Romania-based power producer, is developing a €35 million biomass-powered cogeneration plant in the town of Busteni.

The facility, expected to be operational by mid-2015, is being built by Irish firm Prime Energy Power, the main shareholder for SC Greenprav SRL Romania. Upon completion, the plant will produce renewable heat and power for nearby businesses and households.

Around €18 million of the total investment will be direct financing from Greenprav.

ALBIOMA ACQUIRES SHARES IN BRAZILIAN CO-GEN PLANT

ALBIOMA, A France-based independent energy producer, has finalised its acquisition of the totality of shares in Rio Pardo Termoelétrica, a cogeneration plant situated in the São Paulo region in Brazil.

The bagasse cogeneration plant, which has an installed capacity of 60MW, was commissioned in 2009. Albioma says its ‘expertise should enable significant improvements in the energy efficiency of the existing structure’. The company will also have scope to build a 15MW extension.

This operation represents the first stage in Albioma’s development in Brazil, the group’s number one growth priority outside France.

CALIFORNIA BIOMASS PLANT BEGINS OPERATIONS

DTE ENERGY’S biomass plant in northern California, US has begun operations.

The plant, located on the site of a former coal-fired power facility, will use around 320,000 tonnes of woody biomass fuel a year to generate 45MW of power.

Biomass for the facility will be primarily derived from urban wood waste, tree trimmings and agricultural processes.

DTE purchased the site, in San Joaquin Valley, in June 2010.

Bioenergy Insight

biomass news

Ameresco Biomass plant uses damaged wood Renewable energy company Ameresco has announced that its biomass cogeneration plant located in South Carolina, US is utilising storm-damaged timber as a result of the major ice storm which impacted the nation’s southern region this February.

The plant is located at the Department of Energy’s (DoE) Savannah River site in Aiken and provides half the necessary steam to power the facility.

‘Using the storm debris not only benefits the region and community’s critical clean-up initiatives but affords a positive environmental solution to keep the woody debris out of landfills and power the plant with renewable fuel,’ says David Moody, manager of the Savannah River site. ‘Working together, the region has been able to turn the aftermath of what was a devastating storm for all of us into

something positive.’

The company’s biomass cogeneration facility began receiving damaged wood the week after the storm struck. Since the incident, almost 21,000 tonnes of storm-related fuel wood has been purchased for the biomass plant, which represents more than 55% of total purchases during the period. Ameresco says it expects to continue Damaged wood is being used at Ameresco’s renewable power plant in South Carolina receiving damaged timber and woody debris wood because it is a valuable, clean from the region through the summer. and usable resource of renewable The plant has received storm wood fuel for our biomass cogeneration from Aiken, Allendale and Barnwell facility and it’s the right thing to counties in South Carolina, and Burke and do,’ comments Nicole Bulgarino, VP Hancock counties in the state of Georgia. of federal solutions at Amersco.

Ameresco estimates its power station will Following the February storm, the convert 30,000 tonnes of storm-damaged South Carolina Forestry Commission wood into renewable power this year. reported that timber damage affected ‘We have been working with local 24 counties across 1.5 million acres partners to utilise the storm damaged of forestland in the state. l

Forth Energy scraps biomass plans in Scotland Forth Energy, a joint venture between SSE and Forth Ports, says it is not continuing with plans to develop the Grangemouth and Rosyth biomassfired power plants in the UK. Both projects have gained consent from the Scottish government and Forth Energy is investigating options to attract other developers to take the projects forward.

As previously reported, the £325 million (€393 million) Rosyth-based project was to utilise biomass procured from overseas to generate 120MW of electricity and 30MW of heat. In Grangemouth, the combined heat and power facility was expected to generate 120MW of electricity and 200MW and heat, at an

Bioenergy Insight

investment of £465 million.

Additionally, Forth said in a statement that it has also abandoned a biomass

project in Dundee: ‘We have withdrawn our applications for the proposed plant at the Port of Dundee

following an objection from Dundee City Council.’ l

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biomass news

Tokyo Power opens its second biomass plant in Sri Lanka Tokyo Power, the energy arm of cement and concrete manufacturer Tokyo Cement Group, has built a 5MW biomass-fired power plant in the Sri Lankan region of Mahiyanganaya.

This is the company’s second biomass plant; its first, also located in Sri Lanka, generates 10MW. According to a company statement: ‘Tokyo Power launched the Mahiyanganaya plant after successfully pioneering the first plant of its kind that provides 10MW of clean energy to its factory in Trincomalee’.

The new plant will utilise Gliricidia, a fast-growing tree

legume, which is available in abundance in the country’s dry zone, sourced mainly from plantations.

The expected generation capacity of 40 million kWh per year (3.33 million kWh per month) will benefit around 30,000 homes and is the equivalent of taking 5,920 cars off the road.

‘Our success with our initial biomass plant in Trincomalee gives us confidence that this plant will not only supply clean, stable energy to an under-served region but will also help stabilise the electrical grid by supporting the CEB [Ceylon Electricity Board]’, Tokyo Power’s GM E. Kugapriya was quoted as saying.

‘Consistent, stable power generation will allow for small- and medium-scale industries in the region to perform better without the fear of outages.’ l

Aseagas borrows capital to build biomass plant Aseagas, a joint venture between Aboitiz Equity Ventures and Gazasia, has received financial support for its first biomass plant from the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP).

The company has entered into a P2 billion (€33.7 million) notes facility and security agreement for its plant, to be built in at the LT Group's Absolut distillery in Lian, Batangas.

The plant will generate 9,000 tonnes of methane annually from organic waste by-products — enough to fuel 200 buses.

The fuel will be sold to commercial vehicle fleets and public transport running on gas.

The disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange said the new plant will be used 'to finance the construction of Aseagas' first biomass renewable energy plant'.

Completion of the facility, which is the first of five such plants planned

by Aseagas, is slated for 2015. l

10 • May/June 2014

Mitsubishi JV to build biomass plant An 86MW biomassfired power plant is on the cards for Japan, according to reports.

The $370 million (€272 million) facility is being developed in the north of the country by Mitsubishi Paper Mills in collaboration with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. The two companies will establish the partnership in August.

The plant will be located on one of Mitsubishi Paper’s factory sites in the Aomorei prefecture, where it will use as feedstock black liquor produced from the pulping process.

Operations are slated to begin in 2017. l

Sabic launches certified renewable polyolefins portfolio Petrochemicals manufacturer Sabic has launched its first portfolio of certified renewable polyolefins, certified under the ISCC Plus certification scheme, which involves strict traceability and requires a chain of custody based on a mass balance system.

Mark Vester, business leader LL-LDPE, Sabic, adds: ‘We have optimised our technology to allow the production of renewable PP and PE (polypropylene and polyethylene) using renewable feedstocks, which are made from waste fats and oils and are not in direct competition with the food chain, with equal performance to those produced with fossil fuels.’

The company is the first petrochemicals company to produce renewable second

generation PP and PE, with an ability to crack heavy renewable feedstocks made from waste fats and oils in its assets.

‘Our move into the certified renewable polyolefins area is linked to the needs of our customers who increasingly require sustainable packaging solutions in response to both consumer and regulatory demands,’ says Mosaed Al-Ohali, EVP polymers, Sabic. ‘These materials can be converted readily on their existing equipment with no investment needed, and can contribute to an improvement of sustainability of their products.’

Sabic worked closely with the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC) organisation to prove the sustainability of the new feedstock. Independent third party auditors checked and ensured the reliable use of the mass balance system within the company.

The ISCC Plus certified PP and PE materials will be produced initially at Sabic’s production facilities at Geleen in the Netherlands. l

Bioenergy Insight

biomass news

Educational energy trail opens

Auction set for assets of biomass power plant in Hawaii

An energy trail has opened at the Hill of Banchory Biomass Energy Centre in the UK. The purpose of the new trail is to educate children about renewable energy and the environment. Pupils from Crathes Primary School were among the first to experience it.

The Forestry Commission Scotland partfunded the project and the organisation’s representative Jim Dewar officially opened it.

At the opening ceremony he said: ‘It is clear from the enthusiastic interaction shown by local school children that the layout, content and presentation of how forests can deliver a variety of habitats, a productive resource and a place in the landscape captured their full attention.’ l

A biomass-fired power station and activated carbon processing facility, formerly owned by Big Island Carbon, is to be auctioned off by order of the US Bankruptcy Court.

The live webcast auction will be conducted by Tiger Group’s Remarketing Services Division and Aaron Equipment Company.

Assets to be sold include process, plant support, laboratory/ testing, maintenance/shop, and electrical equipment; several preengineered metal buildings; and office furniture and equipment.

The sale is being conducted

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The plant, based in Waimea, Hawaii, was originally developed

by Denham Capital Management to ‘crush and char macadamia nutshells before activating them in a green, non-chemical manner’, according to a statement from Tiger Group. The on-site biomass power plant supported the facility with energy generated from pyrolysis oil synthesised by the process.

Around $40 million (€29 million) was invested in the project before access to funding stopped and the plant was unable to begin full production. Big Island Carbon filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in November 2012. l

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Handling a World of Materials

May/June 2014 • 11

biogas news Xergi to build biogas plant in France Biogas company Methalandes of France is developing what will be the nation’s largest anaerobic digestion plant to date in the town of Hagetmau.

France, the UK and the US because our system provides customers with peace of mind that the necessary amounts and qualities of biomass will be added in the long-term.’

The plant’s shareholders include Eneria Ren and the state-owned bank Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations. Eneria Ren is owned by the company Groupe Monnoyeur, a European retailer and wholesaler of industrial engines and construction machinery from the US firm Caterpillar. l

The facility will be able to handle waste products from the agricultural and food sectors in order to produce 37.8 million kWh of electricity.

The construction contract for the new project has been awarded to Xergi; the company’s fifth order in France in three years.

Construction is slated to being soon, with the plant expected to be put into operation in 2015.

Speaking about Xergi’s technology, the company’s CEO Jørgen Ballerman comments: ‘It has been well received in Xergi has developed five biogas plants in France in three years countries such as

Geopower acquires interest in biogas project Geopower Energy, an alternative energy developer, has closed a private debt facility of $5 million (€3.6 million) to acquire a joint venture interest in the Blue Mountain biogas project located in the US state of Utah.

The note was subscribed by accredited private investors. Geopower used a portion of the capital to acquire the interest in the project and will use the remainder of the funds as working capital for new project development.

The Blue Mountain project captures methane from swine waste at the Murphy-Brown, Circle Four Farm. Murphy-Brown is the livestock

12 • May/June 2014

production subsidiary of Smithfield Foods.

The methane released from the swine waste is cleaned, conditioned and burned to generate electricity, which is then sold on the grid under a long-term, fixed rate off-take agreement to a Utah municipality. The carbon credits and renewable energy certificates are also sold under long-term, fixed rate agreements. The current capacity allows the project to generate 3.2MW of renewable energy — enough to power 3,000 homes.

Geopower says it intends to offer up to $8 million of company equity this year to accelerate the development of other renewable and alternative energy projects. It is currently developing other projects in waste heat recovery and biomass, among others. l

Landfill gasto-energy plant opens in US The completion of a 4.8MW renewable energy facility in Valdosta, Georgia was commemorated at the beginning of May with a ribboncutting ceremony.

Environmental services provider Advanced Disposal partnered with Energy Systems Group (ESG) to design, build, own and operate the landfill gasto-electricity plant at the Pecan Row Landfill.

It will generate power by capturing landfill gas emitted from decomposing waste and using it as a fuel source to power generators. Green Power EMC will buy the power under a long-term power purchase agreement.

‘Being able to convert our landfill gas into reusable energy is a win for everyone: the environment, the energy users and the landfill,’ says Gerald Allen, Advanced Disposal’s VP of landfills.

‘This landfill gas resource will provide a long-term source of green, renewable electricity for the citizens of Georgia and fosters a collaborative partnership among key stakeholders in the field of electricity.’

Greg Collins, ESG president, adds: ‘This marks our third landfill gas project in Georgia and our sixth in the US.’ l

Bioenergy Insight

biogas news

Bluesphere commences 5.2MW waste-toenergy project in US Bluesphere, a clean energy company that develops, manages and owns renewable energy projects, has started the detailed design and engineering work for its 5.2MW waste-to-energy plant in Charlotte in the US state of North Carolina.

This detailed design and engineering work, which is expected to take about two months, is the first stage of project execution. It will be followed by work onsite.

‘There will now be constant activity on the project until it starts producing power in the summer of 2015,’ states Bluesphere CEO Shomi Palas. ‘We have started the project on time and will produce and deliver power on schedule. This facility is a

model for future Bluesphere projects.’

Bluesphere is the project owner, developer and manager for the anaerobic digester. It will handle organic waste such as food and farm waste that would normally go into landfills. The organic waste is processed in an anaerobic digester to emit biogas, which then is turned into electricity and compost. The facility generates revenues from intake of organic waste, as well Bluesphere’s 5.2MW biogas plant will handle food and farm waste as the sale of clean, renewable electricity, and the sale of compost. plant. Compost, which is a by-product of The company has signed on to provide the organics-to-energy generation process, $13.8 million (€10 million) in debt will be purchased under a contractual project financing for the facility and agreement, by one of the largest privately an environmental finance fund will held composting companies in the world. provide equity project financing of $9.1 Bluesphere is developing its second million. One of the largest power holding US organics-to-waste facility in Rhode companies in the US has signed a longIsland and, by 2018, plans to have 11 term contract with Bluesphere to purchase facilities built with six more under electricity generated at the Charlotte construction and development. l

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This cannot be typically achieved with conventional wet AD systems. The plant has an installed output of 1.6 MWel and provides energy for approx. 3,300 households.

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Bioenergy Insight

May/June 2014 • 13

biogas news

FLI Energy breaks ground on Fraddon biogas project UK-based biogas plant EPC contractor FLI Energy has begun constructing the Fraddon biogas plant, a biomethaneto-grid anaerobic digestion (AD) project located in Cornwall.

The company signed the EPC contract this March, with project developer Greener for Life Energy.

Under the £7 million (€8.5 million) contract, FLI Energy will provide the full EPC wrapped project delivery including the design, construction and commissioning of the plant. The project is funded by Londonbased Eternity Capital.

The plant is designed to convert organic materials from local sources, including agricultural and local food waste, into gas and electricity. It will also divert waste from landfill.

The plant is scheduled to be completed and handed over to owner Greener for Life Energy towards the end

of this year. The facility will be one of the few AD plants feeding biogas into the UK national grid. Once operating to full capacity, the amount of biogas energy the site will produce is estimated to be the equivalent to the amount of electricity consumed 2,500 households.

FLI Energy’s turnkey contract scope includes detailed civil and process design, ground works, site secondary containment bunding, drainage, feedstock clamp, digestate storage, full AD plant technology, M&E, CHP, biogas upgrading technology, propane addition equipment, and biomethane network entry facilities.

FLI Energy’s AD technology partner HoSt B.V. from the Netherlands will collaborate with FLI to deliver the Fraddon project. When commissioned, the project will generate 1,000m3 of biogas per hour, after which upgrading on site will be exported to the gas grid as renewable biomethane.

The biogas upgrading technology used for the plant will be the Carborex MS100 system, supplied by DMT. l

News in brief GE joint venture to build biogas plant in Malaysia GENERAL ELECTRIC has partnered with Malaysian biotechnology company Green and Smart to develop a palm oil effluent (POME) biogas plant to provide a waste-to-power solution for the country’s power providers.

The plant is expected to begin operations

by December this year, and will use GNS’ technology in anaerobic digesters and GE’s Jenbacher gas engine technology to produce power for supply to the electricity grid, GE said in a statement.

Malaysia is targeting 11% renewable energy usage by consumers and the industrial sector by 2020, with current use standing at around 1.5%.

Kansas company to build new biogas plant US COMPANY BioStar Systems is to

build a new biogas production plant in Pettis County, Missouri, US. Kansas-based BioStar converts agricultural manure into energy and fertiliser, with fuel production facilities located around the US. The company plans to spend around $60 million (€40 million) on the new plant, which will be partnered with local poultry farm, Rose Acres, to create a new regional source for renewable energy.

If criteria for job creation and investment are met, BioStar could receive up to $1.5 million in incentives as a result of the project.

Work to start on Virgin Islands biogas power plant A new 7MW biogas power plant will be built in Saint Croix, US Virgin Islands after the project received government approval.

Renewable energy development company Tibbar Energy is behind the project, which was granted final

14 • May/June 2014

approval by the Virgin Island Department on Planning and Natural Resources’ Division of Coastal Zone Management (CZM). The CMZ decision was the last step Tibbar needed in order to begin construction.

The biogas plant will supply renewable electricity to the Virgin Island Water and Power Authority (WAPA) for the next 25 years, generated from Giant King

Grass grown on the island.

‘We are required to begin producing power by December 2015 pursuant to the power purchase agreement,’ explains Tania Tomyn, Tibbar Energy CEO. ‘WAPA has no other base load renewable power source and our project will allow WAPA to be compliant under the Renewable Portfolio Standard. Tibbar’s general contractor will begin

site work as early as May or June and the expected schedule is 18 months for both the farming operations and the biogas plant.’

Tibbar executed the long-term power purchase agreement with WAPA last July, with a five year extension option for $0.245/ kWh and at the same time formed an interconnection agreement. l

Bioenergy Insight

Sembcorp building EfW plant in Singapore Sembcorp, an international energy, water and marine group, has broken ground on what will be its largest energyfrom-waste (EfW) facility in Singapore.

Costing over $250 million (€182 million), the plant will handle industrial and commercial waste to produce steam for supply to companies on Jurong Island. Sembcorp said in a statement the development is a step towards reducing the carbon footprint of the island’s petrochemical hub.

Located in the Sakra region, the project will offer an economical and environmentally friendly source of steam to serve the needs of companies in the vicinity. It will be equipped with two boilers with a combined capacity of 140 tonnes of steam per hour and is expected to be

completed in early 2016.

Compared to a coalfired steam plant, it will produce around 50% less greenhouse gas emissions.

Upon completion of the plant, Sembcorp will be able to supply a third of its customers’ steam needs in Singapore using renewable alternative fuel.

The facility will be designed to handle around 1,000 tonnes of industrial and commercial waste daily, meaning it will not only convert waste into energy but also reduce Sembcorp’s disposal costs for waste it collects.

Ng Meng Poh, Sembcorp executive VP, says: ‘The facility will produce a reliable, economical supply of steam to serve our customers’ needs, while helping them to reduce their carbon footprint.

At the same time, this project will reduce disposal costs for our solid waste management operations and improve synergies between our energy and solid waste management businesses.’ l

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May/June 2014 • 15

biopellet news European demand sees US wood pellet exports double Wood pellet exports from the US doubled last year, from 1.6 million tonnes (approximately 22 trillion Btu) in 2012 to 3.2 million tonnes in 2013. This is according to the US Energy Information Administration.

Over 98% of these exports were shipped to Europe, and 99% originated from ports in the south eastern and lower Mid-Atlantic regions of the country.

As recently as 2008, it was estimated that around 80% of US wood pellet production was consumed domestically. However, Europe’s strong demand growth for wood pellets has resulted in a rise in domestic wood pellet production for

Almost 100% of the US wood pellet exports were shipped to Europe last year

consumption internationally.

The majority of this growth has been in states located in the southeast of the US, which are advantageous in terms of abundant

Mercer looks to enter pellet trade Mercer International, a pulp manufacturer based in Canada, is considering entering the market for ENplus pellets through its German subsidiary ZPR. ZPR, it has been reported, has contacted various central European pellet manufacturers seeking quotes on a purchase quantity of around 5,000 tonnes of either ENplus or DINplus pellets for June, July,

16 • May/June 2014

August and September.

The pellets will then be stored, either in external intermediate storage facilities or directly in the manufacturers’ storage capacities, with a plan to further market the pellets throughout the 2014/2015 winter.

The pellets will not be fired in either of Mercer’s existing biomass-fired power plants, located in Blankenstein and Stendal, as the company’s entry into the pellet trade is a supplement to its existing operations in the pulp and paper sector. l

material supply and cheaper shipping costs to Europe.

Last year, the top five importing countries of US wood pellets were: the UK, Belgium, Denmark,

the Netherlands and Italy.

The UK accounted for approximately 59% of these exports, more than tripling its imports from the US between 2012 and 2013. l

Kleangas Energy to deliver 3,000 tonnes of wood pellets to Korea Kleangas Energy Technologies, a distributor of wood pellets and alternative clean technology company, has received a purchase order for 3,000 tonnes of G-Pel pellets.

The pellets will be shipped from the Port of Long Beach in California, US to

Korea. This is Kleangas’s second Korean buyer.

‘We now have two buyers from Korea and we are negotiating with several other buyers from Europe,’ says Maxine Pierson, Kleangas executive VP. ‘Our expectation is that this new buyer will be a repeat purchaser of at least 3,000 tonnes per month and, with our current buyer with 1,000 tonnes per month, we are at 40% of our goal of shipping 10,000 tonnes per month.’ l

Bioenergy Insight

biopellet news

Final coal plant closes in Ontario The Canadian province of Ontario has fulfilled its commitment to close all of its coal-fired power plants by the end of this year.

The last remaining fossil fuel burning facility, Thunder Bay Generating Station, has consumed its last supply of coal and will now be converted into a biomass-fired generating facility.

The province has phased out coal and replaced it with renewable sources such as biomass, as well as wind, solar, nuclear and hydropower.

In addition, the introduction of the Ending Coal for Cleaner Air Act last year means no new coal power plants can be built in the future. According to the Ontario Ministry of Energy, the cost of coal generating was approximately $4.4 billion (€3.2 billion) annually, taking into account health, environmental and financial costs. l

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Our mission is to improve the operating performance (fuel burning capacity and economy, efficiency, and emissions performance) of existing boilers that burn difficult fuels such as biomass, chemical spent liquors, municipal solid waste (MSW), refuse derived fuel (RDF) and tire derived fuel (TDF).

JANSEN has conducted engineering performance evaluations of over 300 boilers, worldwide, and has provided combustion system and/or superheater upgrades of over 100 biomass, chemical recovery, MSW, and RDF boilers.

The coal-fired power station in Ontario will be converted to fire biomass

Solvay JV produces torrefied biomass Solvay, a renewable technology company, says it has produced industrial-scale volumes of torrefied biomass.

The new business will be run by the recently established Solvay Biomass Energy, a joint venture between Solvay and the US company New Biomass Energy (NBE).

The torrefied biomass is being produced at NBE’s facility in Quitman, Mississippi. Current production of 80,000 tonnes per year will be ramped up by the end of 2014 to 250,000 tonnes. Solvay is

Bioenergy Insight

also working to improve the water repellent properties of torrefied biomass to further enhance its storage and handling properties.

‘This new business has a twofold objective. On the one hand, to offer solutions to utilities and energy companies, allowing them to lower the cost of using biomass in their plants, and in parallel to expand our access to biomass and to create new bio-sourced applications,’ says Philippe Rosier, president of Solvay Energy Services.

The biomass used will be sourced from by-products, such as sawmill residues from the timber industry. l

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> Replacement or upgraded superheater design and supply > Boiler circulation analyses > Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modeling > Feasibility studies and cost/benefits analyses > Emissions reduction (CO, NOx, PM, SO2, TRS, VOC) > Operations support and training

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www.jansenboiler.com May/June 2014 • 17

biopellet news

Zilkha signs agreement to produce black pellets Zilkha Biomass Energy, a renewable energy company providing the first commercially available waterresistant wood pellet, has agreed to license its Zilkha Black Pellet technology to Cate Street Capital, a developer of green technology companies.

Thermogen Industries, the pellet manufacturing subsidiary of Cate Street Capital, will use Zilkha’s patented proprietary process to produce black pellets at its site in Maine, US. Thermogen Industries will produce more than 300,000 tonnes a year of black pellets, increasing the supply of this biomass product to the renewable energy market.

Black pellets handle like coal and offer an alternative for coal-firing plants which are under increasing pressure to replace their fossil fuels with

Thermogen has partnered with Zilkha to produce black pellets in Maine

cleaner, sustainable sources.

‘Partnering with Zilkha will allow Thermogen to begin producing more pellets more quickly, tripling annual production. Our customers are saying we must have more capacity from the start, and Zilkha Biomass

Energy’s technology will help Thermogen meet that need,’ says John Hallé, president and CEO of Cate Street Capital.

Biomass pellet export volumes from North America to Europe have steadily increased over the past several quarters and the

market for this renewable product is expected to grow rapidly. Black pellets offer an alternative to conventional pellets due to their waterresistance, durability, reduced dust problems, higher energy content and lower shipping cost. l

Wood pellet exports continue to grow Wood pellet exports from North America exceeded $650 million (€466 million) last year, according to information from the North American Wood Fiber Review.

Shipments from North America to Europe have more than doubled in two years and reached 4.7 million tonnes in 2013. Of this volume, around 63% came from the US south.

Much of this growth can be attributed to those wood pellet exporting companies who continue to build

18 • May/June 2014

new pellet manufacturing facilities, with their products destined for European markets. The review reports that export volumes hit a record high in the fourth quarter of 2013 and the total shipments for 2013 were up almost 50% from the previous year and more than double that in 2011.

‘The expansion, which is entirely driven by demand for biomass in Europe, has increased pellet exports from 800,000 tonnes in 2011 to 2.9 million tonnes in 2013,’ the report said. ‘Many of the recent investments in pellet capacity in the US south have occurred along

the Atlantic coast, with Enviva and Fram Renewables expanding production in the states of Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia.’

Exports are also growing in Canada, although not as aggressively as in the US. Volumes in 2013 were over 50% higher than in 2011, with British Columbia shipping a majority of the pellets. The review points to two recent developments that are of interest. The first is regular shipments of pellets to South Korea, a trend which began in the second quarter of last year. Secondly, exports from the east of the region, such as Quebec, Nova Scotia

and New Brunswick also rose during this time.

‘Eastern Canada will see additional pellet export volumes later in 2014 when Rentech begins operation at its two pellet facilities now underway in Ontario. A Quebec pellet export facility under construction at the Port of Quebec is the first dedicated infrastructure for pellet exports along the St Lawrence Seaway,’ the review reported.

At the end of last year these eastern Canadian provinces exported around 25% of Canada’s total pellet exports.

This volume is expected to increase this year and next. l

Bioenergy Insight

biopellet news

Rentech acquires New England Wood Pellet Wood pellet producer Rentech has acquired New England Wood Pellet (NEWP), the largest producer of wood pellets for the US heating market.

NEWP operates three wood pellet facilities with a combined annual production capacity of 240,000 tonnes.

These plants are strategically located in the US Northeast, which is the largest domestic market for consumption of wood pellets for heating.

‘The acquisition brings additional cash flows and profitability to our wood fibre business. In addition, NEWP’s business broadens

Bioenergy Insight

our offerings, customer base and geographic markets,’ explains Hunt Ramsbottom, president and CEO of Rentech.

Approximately 1.5 million tonnes of wood pellets are consumed annually in the US Northeast and, according to independent forecasts, wood pellet consumption in the region is expected to increase at an annual growth rate of 7% through 2018.

Customer demand for wood pellets in this market exceeds available regional production.

‘By producing access to the domestic heating market, the acquisition broadens Rentech’s wood pellet product offerings, expanding its customer base, and opens up new geographic markets,’ Rentech said in a statement.

NEWP produces wood pellets for the US heating market

The acquisition, totalling $34.5 million (€25 million) in cash, is immediately accretive to Rentech’s wood fibre processing business.

Consistent with its 2013 performance, NEWP’s business

is forecasted to have revenues of approximately $44.8 million, operating income of around $4.6 million and EBITDA of approximately $7.6 million for the 12 months ending 31 December 2014. l

May/June 2014 • 19

biopellet news

KRF sells 100,000 t/y torrefaction plant to Europe A European corporation has ordered a full-scale commercial 100,000 tonne per year torrefaction plant from Konza Renewable Fuels (KRF) and Aeon Energy Solutions. Expected delivery is early 2015.

KRF is headquartered in Topeka in the US state of Kansas and operates in the green, renewable energy sector. The company says its proprietary test unit in

Healy, Kansas has torrefied numerous test materials over the past three years, providing proof of concept.

Some feedstocks, including purpose-growth crops and different species of woody biomass, have been tested to energy levels exceeding 25GJ per tonne. KRF’s current offerings consist of models with production capabilities up to 25 tonnes per hour (210,000 tonnes per year).

Its torrefaction equipment has also been designed to meet stringent air quality and particulate emission standards. l

Fruytier acquires pellet plant from ERDA

Finland increases wood pellet production

Fruytier, a Belgian sawmill company, has acquired Energies Renouvelables Des Ardennes’ (ERDA) pellet plant.

Finland’s wood pellet production capacity increased by 7% in 2013 compared to the previous year, according to reports. Output rose by 18,000 tonnes reaching 270,000 tonnes last year.

ERDA has reportedly been encountering financial difficulties for the last two years and in 2012 suffered losses of roughly €10 million.

Fruytier had until now been responsible for 55-60% of raw material deliveries to ERDA. Pierre Fruytier describes the takeover by ERDA as a vertical

integration with which the further processing of chippings generated in the company’s own sawmills will be safeguarded.

Fruytier aims to invest around €3 million in the modernisation of the plant, which currently has an approximate annual capacity of 100,000 tonnes of pellets.

Plans include the servicing of the lines, the roofing-over of raw material storage and the installation of a sacking line.

The pellet plant also features a biomass combined heating and power plant. l

Last year the nation exported 78,000 tonnes of wood pellets, the majority of which was destined for Sweden and Denmark. While this is an increase on 2012 figures, it remains significantly lower than in the mid-2000s.

Imports more than doubled compared to 2012 and totalled 60,000 tonnes last year. Two-thirds of this was sourced from Russia, with the rest coming mainly from Latvia and Norway.

Also on the up is domestic pellet production, with consumption increasing by 30% to reach 223,000 tonnes. l

Pinnacle Renewable to build seventh pellet mill in BC Renewable fuels producer Pinnacle Renewable Energy is developing a wood pellet production plant in British Columbia, Canada.

Costing $39 million (€28 million) with an output of 250,000 tonnes a year, the facility will be Pinnacle’s seventh such plant and bring its total capacity to 1.5 million tonnes a year of wood pellets.

The chosen site for the company’s latest project is located across from the

20 • May/June 2014

Lavington sawmill, which is owned by Tolko Industries.

This mill will supply a large portion of waste woody biomass to the plant as feedstock.

A total 100,000 tonnes of fibre will be required.

Pellets manufactured at the new facility will be transported to the west coast via rail, where they will then be exported overseas.

It is not yet known when ground might be able to break on the plant, given that a number of hurdles must still be overcome. For example, zoning requirements on the land must be addressed, in addition to environmental approval. l

Pinnacle’s seventh plant will produce 250,000 t/y of wood pellets

Bioenergy Insight

POWERFUL AND PROVEN BIOMASS SOLUTIONS. Vermeer, the Vermeer logo and Equipped to Do More are trademarks of Vermeer Manufacturing Company in the U.S. and/or other countries. © 2014 Vermeer Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

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EQUIPPEDTODOMORE.com May/June 2014 • 21

xx Bioenergy

technology news

New green energy heat recovery business set for UK launch A company specialising in renewable energy technology and wastewater heat recovery systems that deliver a sustainable energy source to commercial and residential multioccupancy buildings, is launching in the UK. Sharc Energy Systems is pioneering the introduction of environmentally-friendly solutions for heating, cooling

and hot water by bringing to the UK technology developed by Vancouver, Canada-based International Wastewater Systems Heat Exchange Systems (IWHES).

The Sharc system is suitable for commercial and multi occupancy residential properties and buildings, such as hospitals, schools, student accommodation, leisure centres, retail developments, shopping centres and multi-site and occupancy residential developments, whether as a new build or retrofit installation.

Sharc is the trading name of

IWWS (UK) and the company was officially launched in the UK in June. Its CEO Russ Burton explained: ‘The SHARC Energy wastewater technology utilises a clog-proof raw sewage filtration system and heat exchange technology that conducts the heat from untreated wastewater.

The system uses a building’s waste by taking the raw sewage, treating and cleaning it, then using it to create a highly cost-effective alternative heat source. It incorporates smart technology and heat recovery engineering to provide a system that

is reliable, affordable and almost maintenance-free.

Displays include real time read-outs and the system incorporates software to monitor and predict usage trends and issues.

The system’s heat pumps operate at an average 400% efficiency and heat water to an average 21°C at flow rates in the region of 200 gallons per minute. It can be fitted to buildings from 100,000 square foot upwards and will recover and recycle all wastewater to provide a constant supply of even temperature water and heating. l

Funded AD service for processing sector Ener-G is making AD technology available to the processing industry at no capital cost.

Biogas utilisation specialist Ener-G’s complete outsourced AD services include the design, installation and operation of AD renewable energy facilities. As the company will finance the project, there is no upfront cost or financial risk to the customer. The investment is recovered by sharing savings with the customer over the contract period, with the customer receiving between 20 and 50% of the annual savings.

The company’s complete AD package is suitable for a variety of industrial processes.

It is open to processing facilities of all sizes, but the minimum requirement to qualify for funding is a liquid effluent stream of at least

22 • May/June 2014

Ener-G’s complete AD package is suitable for a variety of industrial processes

3,000kg of COD per day.

‘Our outsourced build-ownoperate model means that clients can benefit without utilising their own capital or trying to raise finance themselves,’ says Stephen Kemp, head of AD at Ener-G.

‘We will design, install, operate and own the complete AD plant, shouldering all the financial risk and sharing operational savings with customers over an agreed contract term of 10, 15, 20 or 25 years. This provides

businesses with a steady and attractive income stream.’

As an independent company, Ener-G can partner with the best digester equipment suppliers to provide the optimum solution for the front-end of the process.

It manages all elements of the project, starting with an assessment of the client’s process waste by an independent laboratory to ascertain the type of AD technology best suited to the waste stream.

The specification process also involves calculating the potential heat and electricity yield and specifying and supplying an appropriately sized CHP system. As part of the after service, the company then manages the process of connecting to the national network for the export and sale of electricity, and manages claims for renewables incentives, such as the Feed-in Tariff. l

Bioenergy Insight

technology news

TerraSource demo and development centre nears completion When the US office of Jeffrey Rader, a brand of TerraSource Global, relocated from Woodruff, South Carolina to Duncan, South Carolina in 2012, a plan was put in place to create a single facility for all TerraSource Global material tests, demonstrations and product development.

‘Our expectations are that this facility will become a global resource,’ says Tony Lubiani, VP of Forest Products. ‘We expect

clients from around the world in various industries to visit and test their materials. To date, we have had clients from China, Russia, Poland and Chile, as well as the US and Canada visit the DDC [Demonstration and Development Centre].’

The relocation required the bringing together of three brands’ machines and auxiliary equipment from three existing test labs and designing the layout of the new 836m2 lab space. The entire project is expected to cost about $800,000 (€588,000).

‘The project was broken into two major phases,’ Lanham says. ‘The first phase was moving the Jeffrey Rader brand equipment from Woodruff,

Jeffrey Rader’s new facility in South Carolina

which was completed last September. The second phase was the relocation of equipment from its Illinois and Pennsylvania test labs, which is nearly complete.’

The last machines were installed in May and the DDC remains a work in progress, however more than 24 trials have been

performed in the new lab.

VP of power and mining Doug Sublett comments: ‘In our new test lab we can test material on a range of equipment rather than just one piece. Material can be run through wood hogs, hammermills, sizers, granulators, roll crushers, impactors and cage-paktors.’ l

Companies join forces for new shredder Agricultural AD developer BioG UK has teamed up with a national industrial shredder company to market a new shredder for improved gas yields at AD plants.

UK-based Mach Tech Services, which specialises in selling industrial shredders for the recycling industry, has launched the new Lindner Limator shredder specifically for AD plants.

The company has partnered with BioG UK, an agricultural AD crop specialist, to take the Limator to the agricultural market.

The Limator is suitable for the high volume, low energy processing of food waste and agricultural products for AD plants. The machine is a versatile modular impact crusher, designed to improve

Bioenergy Insight

gas yield by breaking up renewable resources, waste and foods as part of the anaerobic digestion process, to produce biogas.

The source materials are broken down both by

movable crushing paddles and the momentum of the rotating materials so not relying on cutting knives.

The Limator can be operated continuously or in batchprocessing mode, and is fitted

with a Hardox inner lining so increasing durability.

The Limator has been constructed by Lindner Recyclingtech of Austria. l

Waste to Energy with Anaerobic Digestion

More than 300 plants in 25 countries since 2001 WELTEC BIOPOWER GmbH Zum Langenberg 2 • 49377 Vechta Germany • Tel. +49 (0) 4441-999 78-0 info@weltec-biopower.de • www.weltec-biopower.de

Organic energy worldwide

May/June 2014 • 23

technology news

Heavy-duty vibrators for continuous duty Martin Engineering is helping bulk material handlers improve their process flow and efficiency with a lineup of heavyduty vibrators.

The Cougar B Series Vibrators minimise the accumulation of bulk materials in storage vessels, transfer chutes, dust collectors and other locations, maintaining throughput and reducing maintenance time required to clear blockages.

All models are totally enclosed, non-vented (TENV) designs with Class H high-

temperature windings and enclosures rated IP-66.

There are a variety of different models available, including water-tight, dusttight designs in a selection of voltages, speeds, force ratings and frequencies to suit virtually any application, including hazardous locations.

Specific models range from 70 pounds of centrifugal force output to 16,500 pounds, in speed ranges of 850, 1170, 1750 and 3450 RPM. All of the B Series vibrators are electric and assembled in the US. Material flow is critical to process efficiency in any bulk handling operation, and Martin Engineering has been

Cougar B Series Vibrators minimise accumulation in storage vessels, transfer chutes, dust collectors and other locations

providing customers with components, application assistance and technical

service for nearly 70 years, helping them improve efficiency and reduce risk. l

Biogas CHP plant to be installed in Ohio 2G Cenergy Power Systems Technologies, a 2G Energy AG Group, has received a large order totalling almost $8 million (€5.8 million).

Gemini, a sustainable project design and development company based in Orlando, Florida, has entered into an agreement with the Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio (SWACO) to build one of the world’s largest waste-toenergy and materials recovery facility of its kind in Grove City, Ohio. The agreement will see the integration of a viably sustainable solution that reduces SWACO’s use of landfills and will eventually eliminate the need for their use by replacing them with a state-of-the-art waste management facility.

Gemini will build both a waste receiving facility and a waste stream recovery plant including anaerobic digesters,

24 • May/June 2014

2G Cenergy will install the plant in two phases

which have been dubbed the ‘Center for Resource Recovery and Recycling’, or COR3. Both buildings will have a combined area of over 185,000 square feet.

The project is divided into two phases. Initially, the plant will be able to process up to 2,000 tonnes per day (about 30% of the current waste stream), with plans to process the entire waste stream in the future — thus achieving nearly 100% recycling of all the waste received. After recyclable

materials are recovered, which include metals and plastics, the balance of the organic waste will be pre-processed for use in anaerobic digesters.

The modular 2G biogas cogeneration system to be installed for phase one is rated 5,550kWh (5.55MWh) consisting of three fully integrated 2G Avus series CHP. The cogeneration system comes with ultra-low NOx and CO emissions control technology.

Delivery of phase one is expected in late 2014, and

phase two is following in 2015.

During phase one, landfill gas (LFG) from the adjacent SWACO landfill site will be utilised to fuel the 2G Avus cogeneration modules. Enco2 from Germany was commissioned to engineer and build the 8.4MW biogas/biomass plant, applying the patented UDR technology. It will be built by its US contractor partner Manhattan Construction.

During the second half of 2013, 2G Cenergy secured several large contracts, strengthening its position in the US market. The company’s order books also include a wide range of other new major, midsize and smaller contracts in addition to the larger project. As of January 2014, 2G Cenergy reached a market share of more than 40%, being the preferred supplier of advanced biogas energy conversion systems and cogeneration technologies for all new biogas plants constructed in North America. l

Bioenergy Insight

technology news

New compression technology for industrial-scale use of straw for biogas

Kinetec Biofuels, a joint venture between BioFuel Technology and C.F. Nielsen, has developed a new method for pre-treating straw, which allows for increased large-scale biogas production in conventional slurry-based biogas reactors.

The two companies have developed the new compression technology together, the technique of which makes it possible to use straw in a typical biogas reactor based on slurry and thereby, more than double the biogas production.

The technology can handle between 2,500-5,000 and 10,000-20,000 tonnes a year of straw.

During the last year, Kinetic Biofuels has for the first time succeeded in producing a high output of biogas by using this compression technology. The new technology exposes straw to high pressures and temperatures rendering the straw available to biogas production. l

Bin level control prevents material overflow A new level indicator from Conveyor Components, an ISO 9001 registered company, provides storage bins with protection from material overflow, empty bins, abnormal levels and lugged chutes.

A low torque motor drives a paddle sensor that rotates continuously inside the bin. The paddle rotates freely until it detects the presence of material.

The construction of the Model CRRoto Level Control is simple in design. The switches and motor are independent of each other providing for longer life of the unit. The housing is made of rugged cast aluminum and is available in NEMA Type 4 dustproof and weather tight models and NEMA Type 7 and 9 models for explosion proof

Bioenergy Insight

environments. The shaft and paddle are made of stainless steel for corrosion resistance.

Once material surrounds the paddle and stops the rotation it actuates one or more micro switches, which can be used to signal audible or visual warnings or stop operations completely. Once the bin material is cleared the micro switches are deactuated and the paddle turns continuously once more. l

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RUF_O_14_BioE_90x190_oM_GB.indd 1

May/June 201405.06.13 • 25 10:10

technology news

GAR launches fragmentation machine for MSW UK-based Global Advanced Recycling (GAR) has launched a new fragmentation/ desiccation machine for the waste disposal industry.

KDX Eliminator (KDX-E) reproduces the forces of a tornado or cyclone to turn solid material into fine particulates and simultaneously reduce the moisture content.

Municipal solid waste (MSW)

is first processed through a materials reclamation facility and sorted to remove any glass or metal. This takes the piece size of the waste material down to 75mm maximum. It is then fed into the KDX-E which reduces the size of pieces of waste to between 10mm and micron dust, and at the same time extracts much of the moisture content through the heat generated by the kinetic action.

The effect is to reduce all types of solid material to

homogeneous, co-mingled, confetti-sized flock, and to reduce its moisture content by almost a half without any mechanical grinding action.

The material particle size is reduced by a combination of simultaneous physical events (high speed collisions) caused by multi-directional vortices, pressure variations, kinetics and sound waves.

Operator controls on the KDX-E allow real time adjustment of particle size and moisture content of the output product to comply

with end-user specification.

Once reduced by the KDX-E, the co-mingled flock can be processed through a materials recovery processor (m3RP) into oil and syngas to make high grade diesel to power electricity generators, with the residue (bio-char) used to make organic soil stimulant, which is in high demand for enriching agricultural land.

There is no residue to go to landfill — in fact mining existing landfill sites will provide valuable feedstock for the KDX-E to process. l

Optimising wastewater plants

In the future, the anaerobic fermentation and utilisation of sludge from wastewater plants will play an increasingly important role. To ensure an economically and ecologically sustainable solution, more and more municipalities are optimising the energy potential of their sewage plants.

Wastewater treatment plant with a stainless steel digester from Weltec

For a plant dimension of 20,000-30,000 PE (population equivalent), biogas plant manufacturer Weltec Manufacturer from Germany offers a retrofit package for anaerobic sludge treatment.

Following the preliminary treatment of the wastewater and the removal of pollutants, anaerobic sludge fermentation — during which the sewage gas develops — is the process step that offers a particularly high energy utilisation and saving potential for the sewage plant.

The fermentation also

reduces the amount of sludge, which ultimately results in lower sludge disposal costs and reduces sewage plant operating costs even more. This reduction helps avoid harmful greenhouse gas emissions that diffuse into the atmosphere during aerobic sludge stabilisation.

‘With the possibility to generate power for their own consumption, sewage plants can cut their energy costs by up to a quarter,’ says Weltec Biopower’s sales manager Hajo Schierhold. ‘Additionally, the heat produced by the cogeneration unit can be used

26 • May/June 2014

directly and inexpensively to heat buildings and the digester in order to accelerate the entire fermentation process.’

However, to benefit from these advantages, appropriate plant technology must be implemented. A suitable anaerobic unit is required for sludge stabilisation under consideration of the properties of the sludge. This unit must be equipped with a special roof for intermediate storage of the fermentation gas as an energy source for the combined heat and power (CHP) supply.

The modular digesters

from Weltec are especially suitable for this purpose. In the stainless-steel bio-reactors, harmful carbon compounds are converted to methane by means of microbiological decomposition processes in the absence of air.

‘In view of the mounting energy prices and the advantages of a reduced sludge volume, the upgrade of sewage plants with a view to utilisation of fermentation gas for energy purposes is especially attractive for the range of 10,000 to 30,000 PE,’ Schierhold adds. l

Bioenergy Insight

technology news

Biogas compressors installed at German plant Streicher Anlagenbau, a large constructor of biogas supply plants in Germany, has installed two compressors from Atlas Copco, a provider of sustainable productivity solutions, at a plant in Geislingen.

The Atlas Copco GG 90 compressors, which have been specially designed for the biogas market and feature with variable speed drive (VSD), are used to compress the gas to 14bar for distribution into the medium-pressure

network of the local energy supply net.

The GG 90 can take in gas at a pressure of 1.1 to 1.4bar and compress it up to a pressure of 16bar.

Equipment for gas compression must meet more stringent safety requirements than conventional compressors, such as being gas-tight and compliance with ATEX Zones 1 and 2. Furthermore, gas production continuously varies. The gas compressor therefore must continuously adjust to these changing inlet conditions while keeping constant delivery pressure. This is achieved with variable speed compression.

Energy suppliers generally demand an availability rate of 97% from the

plant manufacturer as the biomethane production cannot be stopped. For this purpose, there are two speedregulated GG compressors at the plant in Geislingen, each of which is capable of compressing 500m3 of gas per hour.

The compressors adapt to conditions by means of suction pressure control.

The GG gas compressors feature a single-stage compression process and are water-cooled, speed-regulated and directly driven. This means that they also operate in an energy-efficient manner.

This is the second plant that Streicher has equipped with Atlas Copco gas compressors since last September. l

New shredder set to halve energy costs Global shredding firm Untha UK has launched a new series of shredder for alternative fuel production and bulky waste shredding.

The XR shredder series, which features a modular design, is the first machine to be designed and manufactured in Untha’s innovation centre in Kuchl, Austria.

Specifically engineered to shred untreated MSW and general bulky waste, Untha says its technology reduces energy consumption by up to 50% — potentially saving clients more than £500,000 (€614,000) in electricity costs alone, over the lifetime of the machine.

The XR is powered by new Untha Eco Drive technology, which uses water-cooled synchronous motors, rather than a conventional electrohydraulic operation. The machine therefore works more efficiently, without overheating, and loaddependent speed controls adjust the RPM and torque to maximise throughputs.

Operators can process up to 70 tonnes of waste per hour, while minimising the parasitic load of their plant.

Depending on the wasteto-energy scenario, the XR can be supplied with a ripping mechanism for tearing untreated waste, or a more defined cutting concept for precision shreds.

Operators can predetermine

their particle size with the help of interchangeable screens and screen bars,

to produce a homogenous fraction as small as 50mm or as large as 400mm. l

You can share the technological experience gained from over 750 projects worldwide

Dreyer & Bosse have become a leading manufacturer of CHP systems, they have developed a large and extensive line of products that combine to make energy from Biogas and Natural gas Our products: z Biogas / Natural gas CHP from 75 – 2.000 kW z In house System programming z Gas cleaning z 24 Hrs 7 days a week service z Project management from idea to realisation Advantages: z Competent experienced team z Highest reliability and availability due to individual design and technology for your project z D&B build and design ready to use with in house employees z We have our own service department with experience of more than 750 units worldwide. z Individual solutions offered for each possible CHP according to customer specifications See us on the web at: www.dreyer-bosse.de Dreyer & Bosse Kraftwerke GmbH Streßelfeld 1, 29475 Gorleben, Germany fon +49 5882 9872-0 • fax +49 5882 9872-20 • info@dreyer-bosse.de www.dreyer-bosse.com

Untha’s shredder can treat MSW

Bioenergy Insight

May/June 2014 • 27

technology news

Chopper pumps sustain Biogen’s waste-to-energy A piped digester mixing system that utilises Landiamanufactured pumps is helping UK food waste AD specialist Biogen with its new £5 million (€6 million) food wasteto-energy operation near Caernarfon in North Wales.

The 11,000 tonne per year GwyriAD anaerobic digestion plant features a Landia MPTK chopper pump that mixes 12% dry solids in a buffer tank. A further two MPTKs re-suspend grit (when existing diffusers are not running) via a pressurised ring main with four jetting nozzles, equally spaces around the base of a tank containing 9% dry solid digestate.

At a maximum particle size of 12mm (temperature

Biogen’s AD plant in Wales

60˚C), digestate at dry solids 8% is also pumped by two more MPTK chopper pumps at a flow rate of 36-72m3/ hour at a maximum total head of 15m. The system at Biogen further includes a 4kW 1500rpm DG Landia pump to transfer digestate at dry

solids 15%, (but still liquid) maximum particle size 20mm, at a flow rate of 20m3/hour.

In addition to renewable electricity for around 700 homes, the plant also creates biofertiliser for farms in the Gwynedd region, as well as helping the local council

to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill.

Landia has also installed pumps and mixers at Biogen’s Milton Ernest plant in Bedfordshire, where renewable energy is generated from pig slurry and food waste. l

Ecohz and CDP to accelerate deployment of renewable energy Ecohz, a provider of renewable energy solutions, and CDP have signed a partnership on a new solution that allows enterprises to track their renewable power consumption and at the same time contribute to developing new renewable generation, i.e. to produce as much as they use.

With this product companies will be able to contribute to the transformation of the energy system; by consuming renewable energy, a clear sign will be sent to the market of what energy type is preferred, and by contributing finance to the deployment of new renewable power.

28 • May/June 2014

Ecohz provides Guarantees of Origin (GO) in Europe, the only way to document renewable energy from production to consumption. CDP is an international NGO that works with investors, companies, and governments to drive environmental disclosure and action to deliver sustainable economies. The partnership between these two entities involves creating an open source standard for the Ecohz GO2 product, allowing other providers around the world to offer this new solution and participate in advancing renewable power generation.

To make progress with climate change issues, regulators and investors globally demand greater transparency from enterprises on their non-financial performance and contribution to sustainable development.

GO2 builds on the system of GO and bundles renewable energy consumption

with a contribution to new renewable energy production. GO² unleashes power plant projects previously blocked due to lack of financing and is a new way to achieve energy neutrality through the creation of new renewable production accessible to corporations that want the lead the way to a cleaner energy future.

‘The EU parliament’s recent vote in favour of a new law governing corporate reporting of non-financial information, and increased political pressure for everyone to respond to climate change, make enterprises look for certified solutions to stand out with their commitment to sustainability. GO and now GO2, are solutions that enable enterprises to take concrete steps to consume renewable energy, and even contribute to building new renewable sources,’ says Nigel Topping, executive director of CDP. l

Bioenergy Insight

technology news

Know your explosion limits Burning combustible dusts is very normal in the power generation industry and the explosion risks of handling coal dusts are understood. However, as more facilities are being modified to handle biomass dust, it is often wrongly assumed that the safety measures taken to mitigate the original risks will remain effective.

Biomass and coal dusts do share some similarities, however their explosion characteristics, such as Minimum Ignition Energies (MIEs) and Minimum Ignition Temperatures (MITs) are significantly different.

Biomass can also be susceptible

to self-ignition risks meaning well designed storage of the material is critical to running a safe plant.

For a reliable safety concept to be achieved, every aspect of the process should be considered. Simply installing explosion and fire protection systems is not enough, and areas such as sound process design, workforce training and housekeeping are all important factors in obtaining effective protection. All these areas must combine to avoid any counter productive safety measures.

Any explosion risks you may be faced with can be mitigated with current explosion protection and prevention technology. In areas where biomass is stored, fire protection measures such as dedicated inerting or extinguishing systems are highly recommended in order to allow a quick and sufficient

Rembe’s Ex-Go-Vent explosion panel protecting a filter

response to fire events.

Germany-based Rembe says its Ex-Go-Vent explosion panel suits most standard applications such as silos, filters, bucket elevators, bunkers and cyclones at operating pressures or vacuum of 50% of pstat. The flat, single-layer explosion panel is lightweight which leads to efficient venting. And as dead spaces and product

deposits are eliminated, the Ex-Go-Vent is also suitable for sterile applications such as the food industry.

This explosion panel is not torque-dependent during installation. Instead, mounting is typically fixed directly onto even walls or round shaped equipment, such as silos.

This means controlling the clamp torque of the screws becomes unnecessary. l

In biogas processing, it is often believed that: That is true.

But only if you consider a processing capacity of 2,000 Nm³/h small.

Membrane technology is only worth it for small plants!

Sepuran® Green membrane technology is an efficient and cost-effective way to upgrade biogas.

Our reference facility locations include Germany, England, Italy, Thailand, and the U.S.

www.sepuran.de

Bioenergy Insight

May/June 2014 • 29

green page Green whisky, anybody?

If there’s one thing the Scottish do arguably better than anybody else, it’s whisky. The country has been producing its famous Scotch for hundreds of years, so how do distilleries ensure their methods are up to scratch without compromising their product?

Aberfeldy Distillery, home of Dewar’s blended Scotch, in Perthshire is helping to push whisky production towards a sustainable future by becoming the most recent producer to invest in biomass boilers.

The distillery has secured £1.2 million (€1.4 million) in funding from the UK Green Investment Bank (GIB) for the boiler technology, which will replace the heavy-fuel oil burners currently installed, with no capital

investment required upfront.

Scotland. At the time of going to print, a Targeting lower energy costs and further three were due to be announced. greenhouse gas emissions, the new Aberfeldy is the second Scottish technology will use sustainably-sourced distillery to benefit from GIB funding. wood pellet fuel to produce steam The bank contributed £577,000 to a for the whisky-making process. £1.2 million project to install a woodBacardi, the distillery’s owner, fired boiler at the Tomatin Distillery, estimates that the near Inverness, last year. biomass boiler project The bank is quoted as could reduce the saying that Tomatin, which facility’s carbon is similarly structured to footprint by up to 90% Aberfeldy, is ‘on track’ to by replacing 100% of reducing its emissions by 80%. the heat currently For an industry largely generated from fuel oil. grounded in tradition to The investment is be consciously adapting in partnership with its processes to optimise Balcas, a UK-based sustainability and manufacturer of wood environmental awareness pellet biomass and is both exciting and part of a series of GIBencouraging. We can’t backed energy efficiency wait to see what else GIB projects worth £5 million Scottish distilleries are making a has in store — until then, splash in the bioenergy sector for distilleries around whose round is it? l

Aquatic invasion An aquatic plant from the Amazon may seem an unlikely foe for a global powerhouse of industry and technology. For China, however, the invasive water hyacinth has been causing all kinds of trouble.

In Kunming City, the provincial capital of China’s Yunnan Province, water hyacinth is a considered a pest of a plant — and it is growing in abundance in the city’s Dianchi Lake thanks to the polluted water in which it thrives.

As well as impacting biological diversity and affecting native plants and animals, the water hyacinth’s thick stems and broad leaves clog up waterways and make water-based activities like fishing almost impossible.

The use of chemicals to tackle the plant, while generally effective, is somewhat risky due to unknown environmental impact, and removing the plants to then dump them into a landfill site creates unwanted gas emissions. However, a new study supported by the Economy and Environment Program for Southeast Asia (EEPSEA) may have the solution — biogas.

‘An Economic Analysis of the Use of Water

30 • May/June 2014

Hyacinth for Phytoremediation and Biogas Production in Dianchi Lake, China’ assessed current water hyacinth control methods against the economic and environmental benefits of using the plant to produce biogas.

The study collected data from an experimental biogas plant and found that the use of water hyacinth in biogas production ‘can be a potential option to respond to policies on water pollution control, renewable energy development, and carbon emission reduction’.

A biogas plant has been proposed at a projected cost of around 13.52 million Yuan (€1.6 million). The facility would have an annual output of around 245,438l of biogas, as well as organic fertiliser with an estimated value of 210,000 Yuan, using water hyacinth as a feedstock.

It comes down to matter of scale, says the study. Only if the processing scale of the biogas plant is greater than the current amount of water hyacinth taken to landfill can it be a financially feasible option.

A complex but very interesting project, it will certainly be interesting to see the direction China takes in tackling the leafy scourge. l

The main offender: Water hyacinth is a big problem in China’s Yunnan Province

Bioenergy Insight

incident report Bioenergy A summary of the recent major explosions, fires and leaks in the bioenergy industry Date

Location

Company

Incident information

16/05/14

Meriden, Warwickshire, UK

A&A Recycling Services

A woodchip blaze is believed to have affected around 150m2 of woodchip material at the A&A Recycling Services site.

Operations were suspended while the fire crew tackled the fire.

They were present at the scene for over 48 hours after arrival.

Around 6,000 tonnes of wood was reportedly burning.

12/05/14

San Jose, California, US

Zanker Road Sanitary Landfill

Woodchip piles and equipment caught fire at the Zanker Road Sanitary Landfill, sending thick smoke into the air and hot embers towards the dry surrounding fields.

Eleven fire trucks responded to the call at 4.30pm.

28/04/14

Woodville, Texas, US

German Pellets

Fire crews were on the scene at around 7.30pm after a small explosion and fire in the plant’s silos.

Dust inside silo number one exploded, causing a fire to break out and spread to the number two silo. No injuries were reported.

29/03/14

Juniata County, Pennsylvania, US

Energex American

Bioenergy Insight

The wood pellet production plant in Juniata County was damaged after a fire broke out.

The four-alarm fire and subsequent dust explosion inside a warehouse used for storing pellets destroyed the office and sawdust warehouse, and one firefighter was taken to hospital.

The processing part of the plant was not damaged.

The cause of the fire is under investigation, however it is thought that an electrical fault is to blame. Between 75 and 85 fire fighters responded to the blaze, which took around six hours to extinguish.

May/June 2014 • 31

Bioenergy regulations Biogas capacity limits have been extended beyond 200kWh under amendments to the non-domestic Renewable Heat Incentive

RHI changes implemented

A

t the end of May changes to the UK’s non-domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) came into force. The changes will introduce new technologies to be covered by the scheme and new tariffs which may affect existing participants.

This incentive for nondomestic applications pays organisations for every unit (kWh) of useful heat produced using eligible renewable technologies. This counts towards the UK’s 2020 renewable energy target and helps reduce the nation’s dependence on fossil fuels.

The government outlined its proposals in the report ‘Improving support, increasing uptake’, published in December 2013. Within this document Gregory Barker, minister of state, Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), said ‘2013 has been one of the most successful years ever for Britain’s renewable energy drive. We have seen big leaps forward in actual deployment, in newly announced projects and in delivering a robust package of support for industry’.

He continued: ‘As we continue to break new ground through implementation of the RHI we are able to gather more evidence, market intelligence and deployment data to help improve the effectiveness of the scheme.

It is vital that we continue to make improvements to drive uptake even further.

The changes set out in this document are designed to stimulate significant additional growth in the deployment of renewable heating systems in the

32 • May/June 2014

coming years in a range of technologies and applications right across the country.’

Also in the report published at the end of last year, DECC said over 100 respondents contributed to the consultation ‘Expanding the non-domestic scheme’, the proposals in which received ‘mixed levels of support’. At the time it announced support would be introduced for biomass CHP (4.1p/kWh) and biogas above 200kW (5.9p/kWh and 2.2p/ kWh depending on size).

For biogas combustion exceeding 200kW, DECC said it will introduce banded tariff support, an approach that is consistent with the

and large biogas tariffs) will be £5.5 million (€ million) in January 2015 and £9.8 million in January 2016.

As well as support for on-site combustion of biogas from anaerobic digestion at all scales (previously limited to <200kW), key changes to the RHI scheme include increased support for large biomass heat projects, new support for biomass CHP and waste-based heating projects using commercial, industrial and municipal solid wastes, and preliminary registration for biomethane plants to help developers plan their projects.

These amendments to the RHI have been welcomed by the Renewable Energy

can feed district heating schemes, such as biomass and energy-from-waste.’

However, the government will not yet introduce a tariff for bioliquid CHP ‘given uncertainty around whether providing RHI support for use in CHP plants might lead to competition for limited quantities of available bioenergy that might be better used for transport’, it said.

The domestic RHI scheme opened in April and this saw the introduction of an important amendment to the non-domestic regulation, which excludes accrediting an installation on the nondomestic RHI scheme if it: • Has been an accredited

Renewables Obligation (RO) and Feed-in Tariffs (FITs). Subject to State Aid approval, tariffs will be set at 5.9p/kWh for installations with a thermal capacity of between 200 to 600kWth and 2.2p/kWh for those greater than 600kWth. The budget management quarterly tariff triggers for the three biogas combustion tariffs combined (the current <200kWth tariff for small biogas, as well as the medium

Association (REA) and affiliated trade body Wood Heat Association (WHA). CEO of the REA, Nina Skorupska, said in a statement: ‘Almost all renewable heat applications are now supported under the RHI scheme, offering businesses greater choice than ever before on how to sustainably meet their heating needs. Local authorities and housing associations can also benefit from the expanded support for technologies that

domestic plant • Has applied for the domestic scheme and has not been withdraw by the applicant or rejected by Ofgem • Provides heat to the same property as an accredited domestic plant or a plant for which an application for accreditation on the domestic scheme has been made and neither withdrawn or rejected. l

Bioenergy Insight

regulations Bioenergy DECC has announced which renewable technologies will compete for initial CfDs and which will receive initial support in a bid to encourage competition later on

Competing for CfDs

T

he UK Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has published a number of renewable energy proposals that could affect support mechanisms in place for renewable energy technologies, including those in the bioenergy sector.

In the consultation, published on 13 May, DECC stated: ‘This consultation document seeks views on the government’s approach to the use of technology groupings in the allocation of Contracts for Difference (CfDs). The policies set out in this document have been designed with State Aid guidelines in mind and we are in on-going dialogue with the European Commission.’

It has been decided that contracts now will be allocated through allocation rounds and the period of ‘first come first served’ allocation, that had been previously considered, will not apply.

It has also been confirmed that the budget for CfDs renewables spending will be divided into two main groups, for ‘established’ technologies (Group 1) and for ‘less established’ technologies (Group 2). The first group includes onshore wind exceeding 5MW, solar photovoltaic greater than 5MW,

Bioenergy Insight

energy-from-waste with CHP more than 5MW, landfill gas and sewage gas. Less established technologies under the document include anaerobic digestion, dedicated biomass with CHP and advanced conversion technologies, in addition to offshore wind, tidal stream and geothermal.

The most suitable category for each renewable technology was decided based on a number of criteria, including the maturity of the technology and industry, levels of UK and global deployment, the

technologies will be subject to an auction process from the beginning of CfD allocation.’

On the other hand, those renewable technologies categorised as the second group will receive support in a move that will encourage cheaper competitive development in the longer term. Such technologies will only have to compete at auction if there are more applications for CfDs than the budget can support. DECC explained: ‘Group 2 technologies will not automatically move to

The budget for CfD renewables spending will be divided into two main groups: Group 1 for ‘established’ technologies; and Group 2 for ‘less established’ technologies potential for further cost reductions and the contribution to future decarbonisation.

DECC explains that those technologies which fall into the first group will compete with each other for support from the first allocation of CfDs: ‘The size of the budget in the CfD allocation rounds for Group 1 technologies will be set to ensure competition from the start of the CfD regime.

At least the more established

competition and will not compete directly with Group 1 technologies. If all projects seeking support within Group 2 can be accommodated within the allocated budget, they will receive support at the administrative strike price.’

In addition to Groups 1 and 2, DECC is also launching a consultation under the Electricity Market Reform on proposals to treat biomass conversions as a separate,

third technology group (Group 3). It is proposing for this technology group to also be considered ‘established’ and be subjected to competition depending on available budget, while a separate grouping will ensure maximum competition within Group 1.

‘For biomass conversion plants,’ DECC said, ‘we propose that biomass conversion plants should be considered as an “established” technology, and subject to competition if budget is available, but in a separate grouping (Group 3) to ensure competition is maximised in Group 1.’

The deadline to comment on the consultation to establish a Group 3 technology group for biomass was 10 June.

DECC has also opened a consultation for community energy projects under the Feed-in Tariffs (FITs) scheme.

The department is consulting on the possibility of increasing the maximum capacity for community anaerobic digestion, as well as hydro onshore wind and solar photovoltaic projects, from 5 to 10MW under the FITs scheme. The consultation also addresses whether more can be done to allow grants to be combined with FITs payments for community projects up to 5MW. l

May/June 2014 • 33

Bioenergy regulations

Industry welcomes EIS reprieve as AD project finance will now continue under EIS-qualifying funds

AD gets a break

T

he UK government, on 19 May, announced that it will allow continued investment in anaerobic digestion (AD) plants from funds which qualify under the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS).

It was previously announced in the 2014 Budget that companies accredited under the Renewables Obligation (RO) or Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) will be excluded from the EIS and Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs).

At the time of this announcement, the Anaerobic Digestion and Biogas Association (ADBA) said: ‘VCTs using EIS are a vital source of funding for the AD industry. Without them, the potential for the sector to continue to grow will be severely impeded.

We believe that there are at least 25 projects currently in development which would be affected by this change, representing almost 20MW of potential capacity. The number in earlier stages of

34 • May/June 2014

planning which would use EIS-qualified funds is likely to be many times bigger.

‘We are aware of over £130 million (€160 million) of potential investment which has been raised under EIS and could

clear that the ‘UK AD industry is relatively immature and consequently has a risk profile better suited to equity rather than debt investment’, so other forms of finance are still not generally available.

‘AD investments remain relatively high risk from the funder perspective, so this [the EIS reprieve] is vital to continue industry growth’ Charlotte Morton, CEO, ADBA

be invested in AD, and the true figure is likely to be higher still. This potential investment would be lost and, as the section on risks makes clear, is unlikely to be replaced.

AD plants remain marginal investments with relatively low internal rates of return.

Even if other sources of finance were available, they would be too expensive for many projects to move forward.’

In addition, ADBA said, the Green Investment Bank’s 2013 market report made it

It went on to explain that proposals under the Electricity Market Reform also distinguish between ‘established’ and ‘less established’ technologies, and RHI technologies (biomethane and biogas heat) are even less well established than biogas for electricity.

ADBA added that this profile of risk means that the withdrawal of EIS-eligible funds is unlikely to be replaced by other sources of finance. The statement in the Budget document that the

government is introducing changes because they are ‘concerned about the growing use of contrived structures to allow investment in lowrisk activities that benefit from income guarantees via government subsidies’ should not apply in the case of a high risk investment such as AD. The news, therefore, that the government will allow continued investment in AD plants from EIS-qualifying funds has been hugely welcomed by ADBA. The association’s CEO, Charlotte Morton, commented: ‘As the Green Investment Bank’s market report in 2013 demonstrated, AD investments remain relatively high risk from the funder perspective, so this is vital to continue industry growth.

‘We are grateful that the government has listened to the case that the industry and its investors have made, and recognised that role of AD in tackling climate change and helping provide food and energy security.’ l

Bioenergy Insight

regulations Bioenergy Biomass has been identified as a key player in the EPA’s plan to cut GHG emissions by 30% in 2030 compared to 2005 levels

EPA releases CO2 reduction plan

T

he US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has recently released its Clean Power Plan proposal which, for the first time, cuts carbon dioxide (CO2) pollution from existing power plants — the single largest source of carbon pollution in the US. Under the proposed rule, which was published on 2 June, the agency aims to slash CO2 emissions in the US by 30% in 2030, compared to 2005 levels. And referring specifically to biomass, the proposal recognises that this renewable fuel ‘can play an important role in CO2 emission reduction strategies’.

Commenting on the proposal, Bob Cleaves, president and CEO of the Biomass Power Association, said: ‘We commend the Obama Administration for its strong commitment to reducing carbon emissions from existing power plants, specifically citing biomass as a carbon emission reduction strategy. The execution of the administration’s rules will make renewable energy sources, including biomass, an even more significant part of our nation’s energy mix.

‘The rules issued echo the findings of the National Climate Assessment (NCA) released by the White House last month [May] in recognising the climate benefits offered by biomass when compared to conventional fossil fuels. The NCA estimated energy from biogenic sources could displace up to 30%

Bioenergy Insight

of the nation’s current US petroleum consumption, while improving forest health.

‘Without biomass, biomass fuel would end up open burned or dumped in a landfill, where it would take up valuable space. As a reliable baseload power source that generates electricity around the clock, biomass is practical and adaptable.’

Power plants account for roughly one-third of all domestic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the US. While there are limits in place for the level of arsenic, mercury, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and particulate pollution that power plants can emit, there are currently no national limits on carbon pollution levels.

By 2030 the EPA plans to have: • Cut carbon emissions from the power sector by 30% nationwide to below 2005 levels, which is equal to the emissions from powering more than half of the homes in the US for one year • Cut particle pollution, nitrogen oxides and sulphur dioxide by more than 25% as a co-benefit • Shrink electricity bills by around 8% by increasing energy efficiency and reducing demand in the electricity system.

The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) has stressed ‘that the EPA should recognise that carbon emissions from renewable biomass are fundamentally different from those of fossil fuels’.

Brent Erickson, executive VP of BIO’s industrial and environmental section, stated: ‘The EPA is missing an opportunity to give industry clear guidance that using sustainable biomass in energy generation mitigates GHG emissions by recycling atmospheric carbon. This is fundamentally different from the use of fossil resources that continuously add carbon to the atmosphere.

In response to the news that the proposed plan does not take into consideration carbon capture and utilisation (CCU), the Algae Biomass Organization (ABO) called on the EPA to include CCU strategies in rules that would limit GHG emissions from the nation’s power plants.

In a statement it said: ‘The saying “if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail” is an appropriate metaphor for the approach to CO2 emissions reductions recently. The “nail” of CO2 emissions, it is believed, can only be addressed by the “hammer” of regulations to bury, sequester or otherwise get rid of the waste.

‘A new crop of algae technologies can flip this approach on its head by converting CO2 into valuable commodities for trillion dollar industries, thus turning a problem — the high cost of compliance — into an opportunity — an ongoing revenue stream. The more CO2 algae can consume, the faster they grow. As such, the US algae industry has a

vested interest in obtaining as much CO2 as possible.

‘By co-locating algae production facilities at coal or gas fired power plants and onsite at other industrial emitters, they can become customers for waste CO2.

One such demonstration facility, using CO2 from a coal fired power plant, has already been built in Kentucky. Another in Iowa is using the CO2 produced from ethanol production to create proteins for animal feed.

‘The EPA stopped short of considering CCU as an approved strategy in its new rules, so we will continue our efforts with EPA to try to get CCU qualified as an approved mitigation strategy.’

The plan will be implemented through a statefederal partnership under which states identify a path forward using either current or new electricity production and pollution control policies to meet the goals of the proposed programme. The proposal provides guidelines for states to develop plans to meet specific goals to reduce carbon pollution and gives them the flexibility to design a programme that makes the most sense for their unique situation. States can choose the right mix of generation using diverse fuels, energy efficiency and demand-side management to meet the goals and their own needs. They must submit initial or complete plans by the end of June 2016. l

May/June 2014 • 35

Bioenergy regional focus: UK British power companies are currently reviewing their biomass generation plans as the government launched consultation on its bioenergy and renewables investment incentive programme

Power for the people

by David Hayes

C

onstruction has reached an advanced stage on Britain’s latest biomass power plant, a 30MW waste wood-fuelled facility that Europe’s second largest electricity company, E.ON, expects to commission later this year near Sheffield.

Located at Blackburn Meadows, expected to burn about 180,000 tonnes of waste wood annually, the £120 million (€150 million) plant will generate sufficient electricity to supply 40,000 homes when commercial operations begin.

Waste wood recycling company R. Plevin & Sons signed a sole supplier contract with E.ON in 2011 to supply the Blackburn Meadows station with biomass for its full working life, expected to be at least 25 years.

This plant will be E.ON’s second British biomass-fired power station. The company has been operating a 44MW wood-fuelled power plant at Steven’s Croft near Lockerbie in Scotland in 2007.

E.ON’s preparations to commission its second UKbased renewables plant are underway at a time when a number of power companies planning to develop biomassfired power stations in the UK are assessing the possible impact of the government’s recent announcement of plans to adjust the Contracts for Difference (CfD) investment incentive scheme that is used to support development of renewable energy. Such conversion projects are reliant on government support to ensure the cost of

36 • May/June 2014

conversion can be recovered.

Doubts about the economic viability of several proposed coal-fired station conversion schemes have been created by a change in the government’s bioenergy investment support mechanism. Some of these projects are still awaiting a final go-ahead while others have been suspended.

Policy upheaval On 13 May the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) announced that the budget for CfD will in future be divided into two pots: one for established renewable energy technologies (Group 1) and another for less well established technologies (Group 2).

Group 1 renewable energy technologies will compete for the first tranche of CfD allocations. These technologies include energyfrom-waste with combined heat and power (CHP), and landfill and sewage gas.

Renewable energy technologies in Group 2 which are categorised as less established will receive support to assist their long-term development as competitive energy sources.

These technologies will be forced to compete only if more applications for CfDs are made than are affordable under the allocated budget.

These less established technologies include anaerobic digestion, dedicated biomass with CHP, and advanced conversion technologies.

DECC also has announced the launch of consultations under

the government’s Electricity Market Reform on proposals to treat the conversion of thermal power stations to burn biomass as a separate renewable energy technology group (Group 3).

This seperate grouping, while also classifying biomass conversion technologies as ‘established’, will ensure maximum competition among Group 1 projects.

DECC says competition in Group 1 could be lessened if biomass conversion projects fell within the group as other Group 1 technologies have lower electricity strike prices.

Meanwhile, competition in Group 2 also could be distorted if biomass conversion projects were placed in that group, DECC believes, given the size and relative strike prices of biomass conversion plant electricity generation.

Drax Changes in government support mechanisms for bioenergy development have created problems for some proposed biomass generation projects, causing a number of schemes to be abandoned. According to the Renewable Energy Association (REA), government support for new-build biomass-fired power plants is now largely limited to CHP biomass projects.

‘The major change the industry has had to adapt to is the exclusion of newbuild biomass power plants (without CHP) from the existing Renewables Obligation (RO) and the forthcoming CfD scheme — a move that the REA strongly opposed,’ comments James Beard, a spokesperson

for the REA. ‘To protect committed investments, the government allowed a further 400MW of new biomass power under the RO. However, the policy U-turn severely damaged confidence in the sector, and many projects that may have come through under the cap have since fallen away.’

He continues: ‘Drax’s biomass conversion plans are well advanced, although other conversions have not enjoyed the same success. A number of smaller new-build biomass power plants have been built under the RO, but the government has now effectively closed off the RO, and the new CfD scheme, to any new-build biomass power that does not run as CHP. However, CHP is not always possible as there is not always a local user for the heat the plant generates.’

Biomass-fired power stations, are generating a growing share of Britain’s renewable electricity supplies.

According to the Digest of United Kingdom Energy Statistics, renewable energy sources generated 11.3% of UK electricity supplies in 2012 compared with 39% for coal-fired stations, 28% for gas-fuelled power plants and 19% for nuclear power stations.

Bioenergy, including biomassfired generation, accounted for 67.8% of electricity generated by renewable power sources in Britain in 2012. During the past 12 months, the biomass share of power generated by bioenergy, which also includes landfill gas, waste gas and anaerobic digestion gas, has grown substantially.

This can be attributed to

Bioenergy Insight

regional focus: UK Bioenergy

the conversion of Drax’s first unit to 100% biomass generation in April last year.

Located in Selby, Yorkshire, next to the coal field that originally supplied all its fuel needs, Drax power station is the country’s largest biomass-fuelled generator.

Plans have already been approved to convert two more of its six 660MW units to burn imported wood pellets by the end of 2016.

Drax has used biomass for part of its fuel requirements since 2003, importing wood pellets from the US for cofiring with coal. While the first unit has been switched to fire 100% biomass under the government’s Renewables Obligation Certificate (ROC) scheme, Drax’s second unit will initially run on a combination of biomass and coal. Enhancements to this second unit to enable cofiring started earlier this year.

Following completion, at least 85% of the fuel used will be biomass and the rest coal; for which Drax receives 90% of the government’s ROC certificate value. Plans call for the unit to begin consuming biomass only within the next two years.

Drax’s third unit, which has been approved for conversion

Bioenergy Insight

to biomass-firing, was awarded early CfD status. Currently powered by coal, the unit will convert to 100% wood pelletfiring in 2016. With three units to be converted to solely burn wood pellets in the future, Drax will require at least 7 million tonnes of wood pellets annually. Additionally, Drax’s management is said to be evaluating plans to convert a fourth unit to wood pelletfiring, while the future of coal-fired units five and six has still to be fully studied.

‘Drax intends to become a predominantly renewable generator through the use of sustainable biomass. Carbon mitigation has been central to our business strategy for many years and biomass has been central to our plans since we first started using it in place of coal in 2003,’ a Drax power station spokesman tells Bioenergy Insight. ‘Our strategy cannot be described simply as a fuel switch. It is the transformation not just of assets but our business model.’

Historically, Drax was Britain’s largest and most efficient coal-fired power plant, typically generating about 7-8% of Britain’s electricity needs. ‘We still do,’ continues the spokesperson,

‘but our business now covers the whole supply chain from sourcing the biomass we need, generating electricity and supplying renewable power to business customers through our supply company, Haven Power.’

Converting three units to biomass-firing at Drax requires an investment of £650 to £700 million, of which about half is being spent on securing wood pellet supplies and the rest on storage and handling facilities along with Industrial Emissions Directive compliance.

Rated as a 4,000MW power plant, Drax’s overall net electricity sales were 26.2TWh in 2013, 8.1TWh of which Haven Power supplied to its business customers last year. Each of the six units can supply enough electricity to power one million homes.

When the three units are converted, Drax will supply sufficient biomass-fired renewable electricity to power three million homes.

‘On site, conversion has involved the creation of new railway unloading facilities, construction of four new storage domes, installation of 28 conveyor systems with a combined length of 4km and changes to the boilers themselves,’ says the power

station’s spokesman. ‘Much of this is needed because of the specific characteristics of biomass which is less dense than coal. This provides a need to transport more of it at once [to provide the same calorific fuel value as coal].’

Drax has ordered 200 railway wagons, designed and built in Britain with Lloyds Register and WH Davis, to transport wood pellets from east coast ports through which shipments are imported from the US and other sources to the power plant site. About half of the new wagons, which are about 30% larger than railway coal wagons, are in use today. In addition, the railway track at the power plant site has been upgraded so that freight trains can move around the site more quickly.

The Drax spokesperson adds: ‘Unlike coal, biomass needs to be kept dry which is why we need storage domes and the rail wagons have to be covered. Also, biomass can create dust, so we need covered conveyor belts and careful dust management. As biomass is combustible we need a range of fire suppression measures. These include monitoring the temperature of the pellets and ensuring the biomass is stored in a low oxygen environment through the use of CO2 and NO2.’

To ensure a stable supply of biomass, Drax is building two new wood pellet plants in the US, one in Mississippi, and the other in Louisiana, in addition to a port facility at Baton Rouge from where the wood pellets will be shipped to Britain. Wood pellets are also imported from the Balkans due to the high demand for British-grown timber and waste wood. The company does, however, operate a pellet production facility in Goole, Yorkshire that makes pellets from straw waste produced by British farms and from miscanthus grown on marginal land that otherwise would not be productive.

May/June 2014 • 37

Bioenergy regional focus: UK Investment Decision Enabling scheme, allowing the power station to be allocated an early version of a CfD. The Teesside plant is due to burn certified sustainable forestry residues, mostly from the eastern US, and will help meet Britain’s 15% renewable energy target by 2020.

Meanwhile, the future of Eggborough power station remains in doubt after the plant failed to be included in the list of 10 renewable projects selected to benefit under the CfD. Eggborough’s senior managers announced closure plans last December for the 2,000MW coal-fired power plant, which supplies 5% of Britain’s electricity, following the government’s

A storage dome at Drax keeps the biomass dry

‘Much of our biomass comes from the by-products from sustainably managed forests in the US, which has a vast forest products industry that creates a lot of unused wood by-products,’ the spokesman explains. ‘These include thinnings, which are trees removed to allow other trees to grow, and residues created by other industries such as furniture or construction.’

RWE Elsewhere in Britain, RWE Innogy UK commissioned its 65MW Markinch biomassfired CHP plant in Scotland this March. Designed to burn between 400,000 and 425,000 tonnes per year of wood products, the Markinch plant is expected to use 90% waste wood and 10% virgin wood.

RWE Innogy is part of the RWE electricity and gas group based in Essen, Germany. The group uses a small amount of biomass for co-firing at the Aberthaw power station near Cardiff in South Wales and is considering the use of biomass at Lynemouth power plant near Ashington in Northumbria which RWE acquired from Rio Tinto.

The Aberthaw facility

38 • May/June 2014

consists of three 500MW units which burn Welsh coal for about 60% of its fuel needs. Imported coal supplies represent a further 35% or more of fuel requirements.

‘Biomass use at Aberthaw depends on cost; 2-5% of fuel needs come from biomass.

It’s low level co-firing. We have done this for more than five years. We developed the capacity to process our own biomass four years ago,’ says Kelly Brown of RWE npower.

‘Biomass is a by-product from the Forestry Commission nearby. Also, we process a small amount of by-products on site. The biomass is delivered to Aberthaw by road.’

Meanwhile, RWE’s Lynemouth coal-fired power plant is under consideration for conversion to biomass-firing. The 421MW power station, fitted with three coal-fired units, was built to supply electricity to Rio Tinto’s neighbouring titanium works which is now closed.

Electricity generated by the Tynemouth power plant is supplied to the national grid.

If converted to biomass, Tynemouth is expected to become a 400MW capacity renewable power station. Biomass would be internationally sourced,

RWE’s pellet plant in the US state of Georgia

according to Brown, though no source has been selected at present.

Market uncertainty Further news is awaited on MTG Power’s 275MW biomass-fired Tees renewable energy CHP plant project.

Due to be built 5km from Sunderland on Teesside, the plant will generate sufficient electricity to supply 600,000 homes, as well as heat for nearby existing and planned commercial and industrial customers.

In December 2013, DECC announced the MTG Power project was the only biomass CHP plant scheme to qualify for the Final

decision not to support the power station’s £1 billion biomass conversion scheme.

Eggborough managers previously had prepared plans to import waste wood by-products, mostly from the US, through two new ports due to be constructed on Britain’s east coast. A contract had been agreed with GB rail freight to transport the imported woodchips, using 180 new wagons drawn by six new locomotives, from the port receiving terminals to Eggborough.

The government hopes the plant will remain open and continue to burn coal if affordable funding is not available to convert the plant to biomass-firing. l

Bioenergy Insight

profile Bioenergy The TEG Group opened London’s first anaerobic digestion plant in April. Here, the company’s CEO reveals why AD in the capital is playing catch-up with the rest of the UK

Slowly but surely

by Keeley Downey

T

here is something very symbolic about the fact London’s first commercial-scale anaerobic digestion (AD) plant has been built on a former coal handling yard and certainly reflects the UK’s changing energy market, which is moving away from fossil fuels and evolving to consume more and more clean energy.

The new AD and composting facility is located at East London’s Dagenham Dock in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. The £21 million (€25.8 million) plant, which was built using technology created by German company UTS Biogas and officially opened on 23 April this year, has been developed to handle 49,000 tonnes a year of local food and green waste.

Of that, around 30,000 tonnes — comprising ‘wetter’ food waste from households, restaurants and businesses — will be processed in the anaerobic digester and converted into 1.5MW of renewable electricity. About 15% of this electricity will be used onsite to run the plant, with the rest sold to the national grid which will be eligible for Feed-in Tariffs.

The plant also generates 1.15MW of residual heat, a proportion of which will soon be sent to nearby business Closed Loop Recycling, a food-grade PET and HDPE plastic bottle recycling plant.

The remaining 19,000 tonnes of waste delivered to the London site is made up of garden waste mixed with food leftovers which is fed into the composting plant to produce 14,000 tonnes of compost,

Bioenergy Insight

TEG’s £21 million biogas plant

in addition to the 36,000 tonnes a year of digestate for agricultural purposes.

Much of the food waste delivered to the AD plant will come from councils in North and East London, and will be delivered via truck by various waste collection companies.

All of this feedstock is first fed through a depackaging machine before being churned into slurry and pumped through a pipeline to a digester tank.

The slurry will then be left for 50 to 60 days to ferment in the plant’s network of tanks and pipelines, yielding energy. The 36,000 tonnes of digestate is a by-product of biogas production.

— and more recently energy — plants. Its current turnover stands at around £20 million and this will continue to grow thanks to increasingly

stringent EU and UK legislation regulating the treatment and disposal of organic waste.

Originally a composting company, TEG naturally progressed into the AD sector about five years ago. Dagenham is its second such facility and, with a third currently in the development stage, the company believes that the future for biogas looks bright.

Speaking to Bioenergy Insight, Michael Fishwick, TEG’s CEO, says: ‘We built our first AD facility in 2010 in Perth, Scotland, alongside our funding partner Albion. London is our second, funded by Foresight and the UK Green Investment Bank (GIB), and we have a facility on which we hope to reach financial close in the very near future. This is in Gaydon, Warwickshire and will be very

Steadily evolving Behind this development is The TEG Group Plc, which built the plant and also operates and manages it. An AIM (Alternative Investment Market) listed green technology company, the group develops and operates organic composting

The plant generates 1.5MW of renewable energy from food waste

May/June 2014 • 39

Bioenergy profile similar to the Dagenham plant.’

He continues: ‘Anaerobic digestion is very well established in northern Europe and is continuing to grow in southern Europe in countries such as Italy. In the UK, however, we only started pursuing this market about five years ago so the technology is still pretty new and the sector is continuing to develop.’

A market that is slow to come to fruition, however, is not an easy one in which to invest. Fishwick believes that, although UK residents are ‘slowly but surely beginning to recycle and gradually changing habits’, such an ongoing process ‘makes it more difficult to fund development in the UK as a result’. The recession has created additional roadblocks and made securing funding in the AD sector even more of a challenge.

‘This conservative nature in the UK has created a “chicken and egg” scenario,’ according to Fishwick. ‘Funders are reluctant to back new technologies, which cannot be proven until a facility is built which requires funding, and they are often seeking secure waste supplies, while the customer will only collect the waste when a facility is available. Secondly,’ he says, ‘the waste sector is not a goldmine. It offers steady — not spectacular — returns and, since the recession, funders have tended to look for higher return investments.’

Funding conundrum Despite these challenging market conditions for funders, investments from the likes of the GIB demonstrate that capital is available and there are profits to be made in AD. ‘The high street banks don’t invest in our sector; private equity is where, in the last few years, a lot of the less conservative money has come from,’ Fishwick reveals. ‘Private equity is more adventurous and takes more risks, and it’s where

40 • May/June 2014

The Dagenham site is an ideal location for the TEG facility

you find specialist funders such as the GIB, Foresight Group and Albion.’

TEG succeeded in securing £21 million for its Dagenham project. ‘Obtaining finance for the plant was a long, hard process as the market was not a naturally attractive one to funders, particularly during the recession,’ Fishwick says.

‘In the end, together with our partner Foresight Group, we were able to pull together a consortium of funders and get the project off the ground.’

In the end five parties invested in TEG’s Dagenham plant, sharing investment risk. This included £9 million from Foresight Group’s Environmental Fund and a further £2 million from the GIB, via its Foresight-managed UK Waste Resources and Energy Investments Fund. An additional £2 million came from Quercus Assets while the remainder £7.9 million was sourced from the London Waste and Recycling Board and Investec Bank.

This plant is the first project to be funded by the GIB and, in a statement, the bank’s CEO Shaun Kingsbury commented: ‘This project is an important first for London and provides a positive demonstration of a fully integrated renewable energy and waste management project. The AD and composting facility will see waste, which could have been sent to landfill, now being used to create renewable energy and heat, as well as compost and digestate for the agricultural sector.’

Fishwick adds: ‘In the end it was the GIB that made the difference for us. They provided the confidence other investors needed to come on board and showed this project could be attractive to them.’

Location, location, location Having overcome the challenges of available funding, securing investment from the GIB back in late 2012, the next difficulty TEG had to contend with was that of location.

Surprisingly, given London’s heavy population and huge volumes of generated waste, Dagenham is home to the UK capital’s first AD plant. Fishwick tells Bioenergy Insight why: ‘London is not an easy place to try and establish AD. Finding a suitable site that is reasonably priced in such a densely inhabited region is difficult. So, even though demand is there, the contradiction is that the space and infrastructure just isn’t, so London often opts for an alternative route and instead exports its waste elsewhere in the UK.’ With that in mind, TEG wanted to build on a low-cost brownfield site that came with support from the local authorities. It also needed good transportation links to accommodate the deliveries of waste via truck. The 4.7 acre Dagenham site, owned by the Mayor of London’s Greater London Authority and within its 60 acre London Sustainable Industries Park,

ticked all the boxes.

‘The area in which we are now used to be close to the Ford factory and our plot was actually a coal yard in the distant past,’ says Fishwick.

‘A brownfield site, it was still reasonably priced and had backing from the local government — they wanted us there and supported us through the planning process which made the site attractive to us.’

And in addition to the local authorities, Fishwick says the plant’s neighbours were also in favour of the plant given that the nearest households are some several hundred metres away. ‘We are not close to residential housing and there’s been no opposition at all to the development.’

Overall, construction work on the AD plant has been quick. Though planning permission was granted back in 2010 and financial closure was finally achieved in August 2012, construction took just one year, lasting between October 2012 and October 2013, before it was handed over to the client — TEG Biogas — in February this year.

The 12 month construction period is particularly remarkable, given the additional work TEG had to undertake. ‘The site required an extensive amount of ground works,’ Fishwick explains, ‘before an entire new infrastructure suite was installed, including a new road, power, water, gas, etc.

It was intense and we are very proud to have pulled it off in just one year. Our funders had an expectation that we’d be operational

by Q1 2014 and we were determined to meet that.’

With a total of 19 TEG plants having been developed in the UK, TEG’s expansion is impressive and Fishwick believes AD is where the future lies. ‘It’s AD’s turn now,’ he says. ‘We see our next few plants being AD based as there’s still a huge market in the UK and a lot of development potential.’ l

Bioenergy Insight

plant update Bioenergy

Renewable plant update: UK Greener for Life Energy Location Alternative fuel Capacity Feedstock

Construction / expansion / acquisition Designer / builder

Project start date Investment Comment

Cornwall, UK Biopower 1,000m3 of biogas per hour Locally-sourced organic materials including agricultural and food waste Construction of the Fraddon biogas plant, a biomethane-to-grid anaerobic digestion (AD) project FLI Energy will provide full EPC wrapped project delivery including the design, construction and commissioning of the plant May 2014 £9.6 million (€11.7 million) Once operating to full capacity, the amount of biogas energy the site will produce is estimated to be the equivalent to the amount of electricity consumed 2,500 households

Energy Works Location Alternative fuel Capacity Construction / expansion / acquisition Designer / builder

Project start date Completion date Investment Comment

Bioenergy Insight

Hull, UK Biopower 28MW Construction of a renewable power plant on a 12 acre site MWH Treatment, part of US-based MWH Global, and engineering firm Spencer Group Early 2015 March 2017 £150 million (€184 million) The first phase of the development will be an energy recovery facility.

Phase two of the scheme will see the addition of an anaerobic digestion plant and materials processing facilities

TEG Biogas Location Alternative fuel Capacity

Feedstock Construction / expansion / acquisition Completion date Comment

Dagenham, UK Biopower 1.5MW of electricity, plus over 36,000 tonnes of AD digestate and 14,000 tonnes of compost for agricultural use Up to 50,000 tonnes a year of food and green waste TEG Group built and will operate the plant under a 15-year contract Opened on 23 April TEG Biogas is a joint venture between TEG Group, which has a 24.5% stake, and its funding partners led by Foresight Group

ReFood UK Location Dagenham, London, UK Alternative fuel Biogas Feedstock 160,000 tonnes a year of food waste Construction / expansion / Construction acquisition Completion date 2014 Investment £30 million (€37 million)

Lateral Power Location Alternative fuel Capacity Feedstock Construction / expansion / acquisition Project start date

Holyhead, Wales Biopower 299MW Biomass Construction of a plant at the former Anglesey Aluminium works site Plans first submitted in 2009

May/June 2014 • 41

Bioenergy plant update Peel Energy Location Alternative fuel Capacity Feedstock Construction / expansion / acquisition Project start date Completion date Investment Comment

Birmingham Bio-Power Davyhulme, Greater Manchester, UK Biopower 20MW Commercial and municipal waste wood Construction

Location Alternative fuel Capacity Feedstock Construction / expansion / acquisition Designer / builder

2014 2016 £70 million (€85.6 million) The plant would have the capacity to process 200,000 tonnes per year of wood

Project start date Completion date Investment Comment

Tamar Energy Location Alternative fuel Capacity Feedstock Construction / expansion / acquisition Designer / builder Comment

Hertfordshire, UK Biopower 3MW Food waste Construction Imtech Water, Waste and Energy Tamar plans to establish a portfolio of 40 anaerobic digestion facilities over the next five years

Shropshire Energy Location Alternative fuel Capacity Feedstock Completion date Comment

Ely, UK Biopower 2.4MW Vegetable waste, maize silage December 2013 The plant will produce almost 20,000MWh of renewable electricity and 22,000MWh of renewable heat annually. A surplus 8,700MWh of power will be sent to the national grid

Foyle Food Group Location Alternative fuel Capacity Feedstock Construction / expansion / acquisition

Designer / builder Completion date Comment

Londonderry, Northern Ireland Biopower 500kW Waste from nearby abbatoirs Construction of an anaerobic digestion plant, a hygienisation unit, a 530m³ digestate storage unit and the MULTIMix input system Weltec Biopower 2014 Weltec has also opened a 500kW agricultural biogas plant in Leicester, UK, this year that will use a conventional mix of renewable raw materials. The operator, an agricultural contractor with its own cropping farm, mainly uses maize silage as substrate

Emerald Biogas Location Alternative fuel Capacity Feedstock Completion date Investment

42 • May/June 2014

County Durham, UK Biopower Enough to power 2,000 homes p/y 50,000 tonnes a year of food waste Started operations in January 2014 £8 million (€9.6 million)

Birmingham, UK Biopower 10.3MW Wood waste from local suppliers Construction of a biomass gasification plant MWH Treatment will design, build and maintain the facility December 2013 Early 2016 £47.8 million (€57 million) Over its 20 year lifespan, the facility is expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 2.1 million tonnes and save 1.3 million tonnes of waste wood, otherwise destined for landfill

Drax Location Alternative fuel Feedstock Completion date Investment

Yorkshire, UK Biopower Wood pellets December 2013 By 2016, £700 million (€837 million) will have been invested to convert three of the Drax power plant’s six coal-fired generating units to biomass

Cory Environmental Location Alternative fuel Capacity Feedstock Construction / expansion / acquisition Completion date Comment

Weston-Super-Mare, UK Biopower 500kW per hour Food waste Phase one complete, working towards beginning phase two Phase one completed in November 2013 The plant will use 12,000 tonnes of food waste a year. Around 7,500 tonnes of this feedstock is part of a seven year waste treatment contract with North Somerset Council

Bioenergy Insight

plant update Bioenergy Imperative Energy

Greensphere Capital Location Alternative fuel Capacity Feedstock Construction / expansion / acquisition

Project start date Completion date Comment

Port Talbot, Wales Biopower 14.7MW Waste wood Acquisition of the Western Bio-Energy plant in Port Talbot using funds from the UK Green Investment Bank Opened in 2008 Acquired in October 2013 Greensphere will invest to upgrade the plant and implement plans to increase the quantity of Grade A waste wood that the plant can convert to power

Location Alternative fuel Capacity Feedstock Construction / expansion / acquisition Designer / builder

Project start date Completion date Investment

PensionDanmark Location Alternative fuel Capacity Feedstock Construction / expansion / acquisition Designer / builder

Wyke Farms Location Alternative fuel Capacity Feedstock

Construction / expansion / acquisition Completion date Investment Comment

Somerset, UK Biogas for renewable power Three 4,600m3 digester vessels 75,000 tonnes a year Biodegradable waste materials from the farm and dairy, including manure Construction

Construction / expansion / acquisition Designer / builder Project start date Comment

Bioenergy Insight

Project start date Completion date Investment Comment

Lincolnshire, UK Biopower 40MW Locally sourced straw Construction of the Brigg Renewable Energy plant BWSC invested £32 million into the new project and is responsible for the construction, operation and maintenance of the plant 2013 2016 £160 million (€187.5 million) The plant’s operations will also result in an annual CO2 reduction of approximately 300,000 tonnes

September 2013 £4 million (€4.7 million) The new plant means Wyke Farms is the UK’s first national cheddar brand to be fully self-sufficient in renewable energy

BioCore Environmental Location Alternative fuel Capacity Feedstock

Birmingham, UK Biopower 17.75MW Locally-sourced waste wood Construction of a biomass CHP plant M+W UK has been awarded the engineering, procurement and construction contract for the project Planning permission granted in November 2013 2016 £70 million (€85.6 million)

Suffolk, UK Biopower 12MW Locally produced energy crops generate around 2,000m3/hour of raw biogas which, following an upgrading process consisting of CO2 and trace contaminant gases removal, will be converted into 1,100Nm3/hour of biomethane Construction FLI Energy August 2013 Under the contract FLI is responsible for the design, construction and commissioning of the plant. It also has a five-year maintenance and process analysis support contract

Energos Location Alternative fuel Capacity Feedstock Construction / expansion / acquisition

Project start date Comment

Lisburn, Northern Ireland Biopower 7MW 80,000 tonnes of non-recyclable, non-hazardous mixed waste Construction of a clean energy from waste recovery facility at the former Burn House rendering facility Planning permission granted in July 2013 Around 60% of the electricity generated by the Energos gasification process will be renewable energy generated from biomass and will qualify for double Renewables Obligation Certificates (ROCs) from the UK government

*This list contains major plant projects in the UK, including the information available at the time of printing. If you would like to update or list any additional plants in future issues please email keeley@horseshoemedia.com

May/June 2014 • 43

Bioenergy opinion Why small-scale biomass systems punch above their weight as sustainable energy players

The bigger the better?

R

enewable energy has grown in popularity across the UK during the past few years, in both the residential and industrial sectors. And it has done so to such an extent that, in its recent report ‘Review — Renewable Energy View: 2014’, the Renewable Energy Association (REA) revealed that renewable energy supports more than 100,000 jobs in the UK and has attracted almost €37 billion in investment since 2010.

It is not surprising, therefore, that the last 12 months have witnessed a re-energised renewable energy sector with even more investment and large numbers of green jobs being created. Biomass is now an important driver for change in this dynamic sector.

According to the latest findings from the ICAEW/ Grant Thornton UK Business Confidence Monitor, business confidence is continuing to rise and has been sustained for the past six consecutive quarters, as the UK economic recovery gains a stronger foothold.

With this in mind, the biomass market is changing the way it is managing its business models, in order to maximise profits and encourage more growth. An upward trend is seeing more companies invest in building smaller heat and power electrical centres — based at the site of, rather than away from, industrial-scale heat and power consumers.

With the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) fully underway, heat for industry — whether it be for onsite heating or industrial processes — is now a major driver for investment,

44 • May/June 2014

and combining heat with electrical power production means that the efficiencies in terms of generation and investment are very attractive to developers.

To date, 3,160 biomass heating plants have been accredited for the RHI, with a total installed capacity of 644MW. Of these, 2,712 were under 200kW capacity and 431 plants were between 200kW and 1MW capacity.

For example, a factory that manufactures food or pharmaceutical products will require an industrial heat centre to operate. Heat supply contracts are difficult to manage with third parties, for example supplying to a number of companies on an industrial park, as the investor will question whether the heat consumers will still be in business in the long term.

This is especially true in the case of biomass-fired combined heat and power (CHP) plants under the government’s forthcoming Contracts for Difference (CfD), where there will only be an uplift in electricity sale prices if the plant is a CHP, and investors will likely demand a 25-year heat take off agreement to make the investment secure.

Therefore it makes commercial sense to build a centre on the site of an industrial heat consumer, rather than relying on third party customers, who may or may not be in for the long haul.

Bigger isn’t always better It is no surprise that large power station installations such as Drax can put strategic strain on the global timber industry. They consume vast

Drew: Locally sustainable, small-scale biomass systems can achieve more than some may believe

volumes of imported timber, potentially taking away the financial resources from more sustainable projects, which utilise UK-sourced wood in the form of forestry or low grade (and lower cost) timber waste.

Whilst pushing through such larger co-firing/coal conversion projects to enable them to say they are achieving renewable targets, the government should not forget about dedicated small-scale biomass as an effective and efficient way to generate power.

The efficiency of CHP can be almost double the percentage that the larger power stations can produce, so it makes sense to consider creating a greater number of smaller-scale projects that can generate more than 75% efficiency, compared to 3035%. The cost of conversion to wood pellets may be cheaper, but it is sacrificing overall

efficiencies in the long-term.

Pöyry Forest Industry Consulting, an expert in bioenergy and biomass procurement strategies, predicts that by 2015, global pellet demand will almost double, reaching approximately 24 million tonnes (CAGR of 10.5%), due to the world’s need to develop renewable forms of energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Wood pellets are therefore an attractive option as biomass material, particularly due to the greater transport efficiency over longer shipping distances. UK companies, however, should make more effort to use locally-sourced materials in order to reduce additional importing costs and take advantage of lower priced materials. This makes a stronger business case for smaller energy

Bioenergy Insight

opinion Bioenergy sources to create a more manageable energy solution.

Support the UK economy There should be more CHP plants spread across the UK, rather than a handful of large-scale plants, such as Drax. Smaller-scale biomass projects that utilise wood for both heat and power achieve more efficiency, particularly as they can use lower grade fuel, such as forestry waste (twigs, sticks, stumps, etc.) and low quality waste wood, which can be sourced in the UK instead of overseas. This would reduce the current cost of exporting waste wood overseas where it is burned to produce energy.

The European Commission produced a draft proposal last year for a European biomass policy setting out the sustainability criteria for

future biomass use, which specified that biomass can only be sourced from forests which are sustainably managed.

This demonstrates the need for tighter reins to be placed on sustainable forestry management resources in the UK, particularly those which supply biomass plants.

used to power UK businesses, whilst supporting the country’s strengthening economy.

Reviewed by the Institute for European Environmental Policy, a new study also found that a waste-to-industry could support 300,000 direct jobs across Europe in construction, refining and waste collection between now and 2030, and create between €1.1 and €2.4 billion in net revenues for the agricultural and forestry sectors. It could also play a significant role in providing an alternative to the declining fossil fuel supplies and help cut Europe’s CO2 emissions.

This is put into sharp context by recent moves on the world stage, with nations now examining ways to reduce energy dependence upon major suppliers, such as Russia’s natural gas supply.

The UK not only needs to

Independent energy source In addition, with the UK economy predicted to exceed its pre-recession growth peak later this year, according to the British Chambers of Commerce, the nation’s biomass, recycling and timber sectors should work closer together to support each other and use more UK materials to generate biomass energy.

This is a more cost-efficient way of using UK-sourced fuel to create energy that can be

focus on building small-scale biomass projects across the country, but also needs to increase the use of British grown fuel in the form of waste wood, in order to keep costs low, support the economy by reducing the amount of imports from overseas and ensure greater sustainable forestry management.

Downstream, more opportunities could arise for recycling, wood and biofuel generation over energy, which will provide added opportunities across a range of sectors and benefit the small- to mediumsized customer base. l

For more information:

This article was written by Matt Drew, MD of Saxlund, a provider of biomass solutions and bulk solid handling and storage. Visit: www.saxlund.co.uk

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Bioenergy Insight

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May/June 2014 • 45

Bioenergy biomethane Meeting a range of uniform national requirements for BtG means various processing equipment must be added to the basic upgrading plant

The wait is over T he biomethane-togrid market in the UK has finally gained true momentum, that is, if the number of recently announced projects receiving the go-ahead is taken as an indicator.

The most commercially efficient use of biogas produced by anaerobic digestion (AD) is to upgrade it to biomethane and inject it into the national grid, known as ‘biomethaneto-grid’ (BtG). Following the settlement of certain compatibility issues, in particular oxygen content of the gas, the potential for this process can start to be fully realised.

‘Efficient’ is the key word.

It relates to the best unit return in converting the energy in the raw biogas but in the amount of energy wasted. When raw biogas is used to generate electricity — usually in combined heat and power (CHP) systems — it is only about 40% efficient. When upgraded to biomethane and used in the grid, it rises to 90-95%.

There is no doubt that extra investment and a lot of work is required to turn an AD facility into one which is enabled for BtG, with the gas output compliant with regulations, and with gas properties that are virtually identical to the natural gas which makes up the bulk of the current supply to homes and businesses.

Yet site owners, project developers and their investors who have done their sums are making the commitment in increasing numbers. Given a reasonable payback period, the returns justify the cost.

46 • May/June 2014

A biogas upgrading plant in Canada is the largest in the world

The basic tests of feasibility A range of feedstocks, including agricultural and food wastes, water treatment and a variety of other organic sources, are suitable for AD. But to have a commercially viable project for gas-to-grid, a fundamental point to consider is will there be enough feedstock for a sufficient and continuous supply?

The economics of gas-to-grid are less tolerant if the system is under-utilised. One highprofile project discovered this not long after commencing operation. Importing more feedstock is not as simple as it sounds because different blends of feedstock (and a blend is often a good idea) produce small volumes of different constituents in the raw biogas — even when that gas has the expected content of around 65% methane. Such constituents may require some extra treatment before

upgrading in order to achieve the necessary properties in the biomethane.

One example of such constituents is hydrogen sulphide (H2S). Others within the group of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are siloxanes which can be more prevalent in food waste and derive from a number of sources including traces from cosmetics. But the upgrading industry now has enough analytical data to anticipate and resolve such questions of chemistry.

Naturally the environmental impacts will need to be considered. With AD, the upgrading and grid connection kit is not going to make a radical further impact on socalled visual amenity. Biogas upgrading itself does not emit odours; the feedstock is far more likely to. However, hydrogen sulphide above about 100 parts per million (ppm) may need a catalytic filter to suppress odour.

Every project is different because feedstocks and site conditions vary. Another critical factor can be the site proximity to the nearest gas grid and the costs associated with reaching it, including easements. Projects will have a number of parties involved in the contract.

Lawyers are inevitable.

Obtaining a suitable end product It would be great if all that were needed was a simple upgrading unit to convert the raw biogas to meet the uniform national gas quality schedules and distribution standards. The biogas, however, must comply with the UK regulatory framework, in particular the Gas Safety (Management) Regulations 1996 (GSMR).

So frequent was the excess water content from the raw biogas output from an AD, it was typically much higher oxygen than the onerous 0.2%

Bioenergy Insight

biomethane Bioenergy molecular specified by the GSMR as the maximum in the gas transmission system.

This major barrier of noncompliance has now been removed without changing the GSMR. It was accepted that all biomethane sites and processes would exceed the 0.2% level. A general derogation now applies in the UK of 1% at -10°C for low pressure systems. Even so, this remains more rigorous than in some countries.

There are various methods of upgrading, the most popular in the UK so far being the water-wash process of gas scrubbing, as developed by the Greenlane technology.

This was employed in the UK’s first gas-to-grid project in 2010. Other methods include pressure swing adsorption (PSA), and membrane and chemical systems.

Whatever the method, the prime objective is to remove CO2 which forms approximately 35% of the biogas, reducing it to no more than 2% of the final composition. Including trace constituents, the output (or product) gas has to be virtually identical within very tight regulatory parameters.

Much of this is widely known and information and advice is available. What may be less well realised, however, is that additional treatment may be required because not all gas in the UK grid is the same.

After the gas is upgraded, other equipment will be needed to achieve a target calorific value (CV) in order for the biomethane to be injected (or shipped) into the grid. Here is where regional variations come in.

For a project to be accepted, a Network Entry Agreement (NEA) is needed with the regional transporter of the gas i.e. the owner of the distribution network to which the project is to connect. This will set a target for the CV of the gas.

CV dictates the amount of energy extracted from the gas when burnt. Gas users pay

Bioenergy Insight

according to the CV of the gas they receive. CV varies depending on the primary inputs (such as the North Sea) feeding to the National Transmission System, including the import of liquefied natural gas and, unsurprisingly, from a new and very different source — biomethane from renewable resources.

CV in different parts of the system therefore varies and a cap was introduced to limit the extent. The networks that distribute gas had to bear the cost of the difference in the price they give to the shipper (as part of the NEA) and what they receive when selling it to the domestic suppliers. This is known as CV shrinkage. A complex formula (related to flow-weighted averages of CV in local distribution zones) calculates whether this cap is likely to be triggered.

Under a recent agreement brokered by industry regulator OFGEM, the solution to avoid the trigger is to enrich the upgraded biomethane with propane. Such equipment will be a necessary part of the upgrading installation.

The NEA will specify this.

Safeguarding gas quality Health and safety is the overriding concern in producing gas suitable for public use.

The 1974 UK Health & Safety at Work Act still applies. For example, if siloxanes are not efficiently removed they can convert to silica when burnt by the consumer. This may build up on the gas appliance and impair its operation over time.

The Wobbe Index is one yardstick used to define suitable interchangeability of gas from different sources inputting a network. It relates to heat output when the gas is burnt. Other factors are incomplete combustion of the gas and its potential for sooting. Wobbe sets a range of CV within which the gas must fall.

H2S and VOCs will need to be removed from the biogas

before it is scrubbed. One method is to fit a polishing system which will take care of the problem. A pressure blower may be needed to boost the gas flow after this is done. Thus the NEA is very likely to insist on some form of pre-filtration.

As has been shown, time and experience have helped to ease the challenge of oxygen content in the upgraded gas.

Oxygen and hydrogen present in the CO2 in the biogas will condense into water at their dew point and this varies according to temperature. This allowance does not remove the need for the gas to be dried.

Surprisingly perhaps, leaving less CO2 than 2% in the final biomethane produces a noncompliant gas (when propane is added) because the percentage oxygen content rises.

In summary, meeting the range of uniform national requirements means various processing equipment must be added to the basic upgrading plant. Regional and local variations and the unique characteristics of the site will determine just how such equipment will be calibrated and potential inconsistencies monitored.

But none of it should be viewed as optional extras.

What equipment is needed?

Gas-to-grid, and what is involved in achieving it, is not so widely known as AD and CHP operations. So, if you have got this far and the project looks feasible, what can you expect to see on a project proposal?

The Greenlane water-wash range of upgraders features a gas compressor to obtain the optimum gas pressure for scrubbing, plus a dryer unit to regulate the moisture content after scrubbing. A heat recovery unit and an output gas analyser are also included in the main upgrading unit.

A stripping unit regenerates the process water and the tiny amount of unconverted methane is recovered.

The final parts of the system

will include an odourising unit to give the upgraded gas its typical recognisable scent.

There will be gas analysis and monitoring equipment which may be owned either by the site operator or the gas transporter, as set out in the NEA. PLC equipment will be needed for process control and for remote monitoring, if required. Finally there will be the flow monitoring at the point of injection and the necessary grid connection gear itself, with all the necessary safety features and valves.

It will be worth it A good projection of OPEX is essential and affects the payback period. The waterwash method requires no heat to operate and no chemicals, thus contributing to lower costs. A necessary small electrical usage could be derived from diverting some from a CHP unit taking part of the AD output. Water is the only other requirement.

Much of it can be recycled.

Other upgrading methods may need different inputs and maintenance, such as periodic membrane changes.

The completed project will provide two income streams: the gas sold to grid; and the return from the government through the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI). The UK industry now has a more substantial ‘template’ based on proven experience and it is reckoned that the country could potentially meet 10% of its gas demand through biogas upgraded from AD. Plenty more participants are needed to achieve this.

But many are investigating and, in the UK at last, the necessary precedents and insights are there. l For more information:

This article was written by Stephen McCulloch, MD of Chesterfield BioGas, www.chesterfieldbiogas.co.uk.

Chesterfield Biogas is the sole manufacturer and installer of the range of Greenlane biogas upgraders in the UK and Ireland.

May/June 2014 • 47

Bioenergy biogas monitoring Many biogas monitoring solutions are available for the wide range of biogas applications. Which system best suits your process?

Measure that methane T he development of biogas production and monitoring has had many twists and turns since its early days in Germany, and is now driven by the economic considerations of each varying application and country. Government incentives and generation of revenue for renewable energy, local infrastructure and the characteristics of waste are now key factors in biogas production, monitoring and use.

Europe lends itself to biogas production because of the commercial incentives and feedstocks available.

Processing of small- and large-scale agricultural and food waste along with sewage and wastewater allows for production of organic matter which readily breaks down to produce methane-rich biogas.

complete upgrading systems, a rapid change in gas quality has potential to damage or increase the maintenance of the CHP engine being powered by raw biogas, so it is essential that the process is monitored frequently and is accurate and reliable.

Often, controlled circuits in PLC systems receive signals for engine shutdown before any potential damage is caused by a fast-changing

whether it is for CHP engines or biogas upgrading for use as a fuel or injection to grid. Many Eastern European projects have taken on processes which have been successful, with over 300 biogas upgrading facilities in Europe upgrading to grid or vehicle fuel. Most sites have either portable or fixed biogas monitoring systems.

At one AD plant in Austria, organic household and

install an AD plant to generate revenue and dispose of waste. This is usually from a single crop, such as potatoes in the UK. McCain Foods built a covered anaerobic treatment lagoon producing methane (CH4) for burning from 77,000m3 of wastewater rich in potato starch. The lagoon’s cover keeps out oxygen (O2) and enables collection of CH4 for burning in the CHP engine to produce

Wastewater treatment Anaerobic digestion (AD) of wastewater and sewage has been common in many countries for years but increasing energy costs now drive efficiency. In Turkey, at the $150 million (€110 million) Antalya wastewater plant, over 3 million m3 of wastewater are treated daily, with the biogas being used for a combined heat and power (CHP) engine.

Similarly in the UK, at South West Water’s Countess Wear Sewage Treatment, the gases produced from two anaerobic digesters fuel four 165kW CHP engines, which generate electricity and heat.

Since CHP projects are so common across Europe where there may be a lack of infrastructure or funding for

48 • May/June 2014

The Antalya wastewater treatment plant in Turkey

gas mix. Gas thresholds and trigger alarms are set and the engine is automatically shut down, with gas often diverted to flare. CHP systems are often totally dependent on gas analysis, with reliability and minimal downtime being essential.

Food and agricultural waste Treatment of waste food and agricultural organic matter is a major source of raw biogasto-energy throughout Europe,

garden waste is sorted, crushed and then digested in an anaerobic digester to produce biogas. The digestate is then processed, separated and screened to produce high-quality compost. The biogas produced is a valuable commodity and is monitored by a fixed biogas analyser to ensure the gas quality is correct for the CHP engines.

AD of agricultural waste, both small and large scale, is common across Europe. Many large agricultural processors

electricity. Monitoring the process with a fixed biogas analyser enables McCain to ensure the protection of its CHP engine from dangerous hydrogen sulphide (H2S) levels, which can corrode internal components.

The time taken for complete digestion to take place varies between feedstocks, as does the gas mix produced. Whilst the bulk gases of raw biogas are CH4, usually 50-60% and carbon dioxide (CO2), usually

Bioenergy Insight

biogas monitoring Bioenergy 30-40%, two other critical gases are H2S and O2.

Dealing with H2S H2S is a challenge in biogas, as it readily forms sulphuric acid and causes extensive damage to the expensive engines used to generate electrical power by burning biogas. Whilst the boilers used to create heat for use on site may be more tolerant of H2S, the turbines that may be used to generate power on smaller sites have limits for H2S content in biogas, and biogas that is purified for compressed natural gas (CNG) must normally contain no more than 50 parts per million (ppm) of H2S. H2S is a toxic and corrosive gas and monitoring levels can be as challenging as removing it. The portable equipment used to ‘spot check’ gas levels is only exposed to small amounts of the gas, so sensors generally have a long life. However, the increasingly popular fixed monitoring systems which communicate directly with site control systems, such as SCADA systems, must be correctly set up to ensure a reasonable sensor life.

In addition, H2S calibration gas, which is important to fine-tune and verify measurements at the low levels required, can be expensive, complicated, or even impossible to get to where it is required.

As a result, pre-calibrated sensors or cross-checking with a portable analyser which has been calibrated elsewhere offer practical solutions to this problem.

Incoming H2S in biogas will vary according to the process and feedstock and can be anything up to 3,000 ppm in a municipal sludge plant, but may also be in tens of thousands for industrial or food related AD systems.

At these levels, rather than monitoring H2S in raw biogas, the challenge is to

Bioenergy Insight

remove the H2S effectively Whilst complex gas chilling and monitor that it has systems sound appealing and been removed. Alarms are can reduce the humidity of set to indicate any sudden biogas when working well, increases which should shut they are fragile, expensive down vulnerable equipment. and often require high Many proven H2S maintenance and spare desulphurisation methods parts. Good monitoring are used across Europe system design and passive such as chemical scrubbing, moisture removal offer a biological or down flow cheaper and ultimately systems. Biological H2S more effective solution. scrubbers are commonly used as they are cheaper Using biogas to run and maintain than chemical scrubbers, which In Europe, biogas is generally require frequent replacement burned in CHP engines to of expensive chemicals. generate electricity, which As well as checking H2S can feed into the grid and can levels, gas monitoring earn a considerable income systems must also measure for the operator, dependent O2 in the biogas. Whilst a on the kW/hr of power healthy biogas process will generated and the financial produce very little (close to zero) O2, a leak which allows air into the system can prove catastrophic for an engine. In addition, biological scrubbers can introduce small amounts of O2, particularly if following maintenance. Many biogas sites set a tolerance level of 0.5-1% O2 with McCain’s lagoon in the UK alarms set if this figure is exceeded. A reliable incentive offered for each O2 sensor is critical and the unit of renewable energy from system must be carefully set the national government. up and managed to ensure This model also exists in long-term performance. farther Eastern continents, but it is dependent on the Maintenance site being of a scale to justify the capital expenditure Often an appropriate level and also local power of maintenance is difficult infrastructure; if the nearest to achieve on many sites, point of the electricity due to the availability of grid is far away, the cost trained staff or the remote of creating a connection location and need for minimal could be prohibitive. downtime. The best fixed A popular model is to gas monitoring systems upgrade the biogas from take this into consideration 50-60% CH4 to over 95% to produce CNG. The gas and require little on-site composition requirements maintenance, from changing vary between application parts to calibration or and country, with limits management of the moisture, for use in motor vehicles which is an unwelcome being more relaxed than for feature of biogas from many injection to the gas grid. common feedstocks.

As well as checking that CH4 is consistently around 97-98%, it is also important to keep H2S and O2 levels very low. A good monitoring system can also manage the higher pressures involved in biogas upgrading through carefully positioned pressure regulators.

Biogas from landfill Municipal waste is managed differently throughout Europe, depending on availability of land, government policy and incentives, public opinion, historical legacy and budgets.

A well-managed landfill site will also yield high quality biogas in large volumes. As with biogas, some sites do not

lend themselves to electricity generation, or for other reasons may find a better business case for generating CNG from landfill gas.

Many monitoring solutions are available for the wide range of biogas applications around the world, whether it is a fixed system installed to protect a CHP engine, or a portable analyser for spot checking gas levels throughout the AD process.

A regular monitoring routine will assist with process efficiency and protect against potential damage, ultimately saving time and generating revenue. l

For more information: www.geotechuk.com

May/June 2014 • 49

Bioenergy anaerobic digestion Co-mingled collections like food and green waste are a challenge in the processing of bio-waste using anaerobic digestion. In order to avoid complex logistics and preprocessing, dry AD can be a useful alternative

Hybrid AD holds the key

‘D

ry’ or high solids anaerobic digestion (AD) is commonly used to process bio-waste in mainland Europe.

In the UK, however, the first tranche of AD facilities have all ‘wet’ systems where pumpable substrates, energy crops and organic waste materials are digested and stirred in cylindrical tanks.

Applying this type of digestion means the full potential of bioenergy in the UK is far from being exhausted and there is a lot of underutilised capacity left, for instance in co-mingled waste collections and in the municipal solid waste (MSW) streams.

As much of the biological material in these waste streams is not readily pumpable, there are advantages to managing the material in its original form. This eliminates the necessity of excluding large proportions of the bio-waste stream from digestion and/ or deploying expensive and energy hungry pulping and decontamination equipment required to facilitate wet digestion. Similarly, separate collection and facilities for green waste and food waste is also avoided. In summary, dry digestion is a perfect option.

For dry digestion or fermentation, co-mingled waste collections are an ideal input material source as they are stackable substrates. This method is therefore well suited to the processing of food and green waste, contaminated food waste and even the biological fraction of MSW. The requirements for the feedstock are simple and

50 • May/June 2014

it is typically not necessary to pre-treat the biomass.

Moreover, the separate collection of these fractions of the bio-waste stream incurs considerable costs and high carbon emissions. In addition to transport and logistics, the effort required to pretreat contaminated food waste can be immense. By applying the combined bio-waste streams in dry AD, these costs are considerably reduced. These are just a few reasons to expand dry AD in the UK. Go large In 2011, Scotland’s Fife Council was faced with the challenge of a plant that facilitated the co-collection of food and green waste while extracting the renewable energy benefits of AD. Supported by technical

advisors SLR Consulting, the council ruled out wet digestion and in-vessel composting (IVC) and instead opted for a dry digestion solution that allowed the processing of both food and green waste while having the flexibility to also process commercial Category 3 material containing commercial former foodstuffs.

Following an open tender process, Lochhead Energy (a joint venture between Jones Engineering and Luddon Construction) was awarded the construction contract for the facility, while the BioFerm system, a batch dry fermentation technology designed by Schmack Biogas, was selected as the chosen technology. Schmack is part of the Viessmann group and a German provider of biogas plants. Together, in

2012, the companies laid the foundation to Europe’s largest batch dry facility.

The facility was designed to process 40,000 tonnes a year (from 160,000 households) of co-mingled domestic bio-waste and 3,000 tonnes of Category 3 commercial food waste.

The facility comprises 14 BioFerm batch dry fermenters and a digestate composting and pasteurisation system from Celtic Bioenergy to provide a fully integrated solution for ABPR and PAS 100 compliance. The important advantages of dry batch digestion in the configuration described include: • The improved logistics of co-mingled collections — separate collection of food waste is not necessary • Pre-processing (depacking/decontamination)

Fife council’s dry AD plant is now operational

Bioenergy Insight

anaerobic digestion Bioenergy

A hybrid AD facility

is not required • The harnessing of the biogas potential of green waste as well as food waste wherein the inclusion of green waste can double the biogas potential from domestic collections • Integration with solid state pasteurisation allows for ABPR and PAS 100/110 compliance • The advantages of generating low volumes of compost product as opposed to large volumes of digestate liquor • Low parasitic electrical demand and low emissions.

Construction on the facility was completed last July, after which it underwent commissioning and performance testing in the following five months. A comprehensive performance test was concluded in December 2013.

Thanks to a number of unique features, co-mingled bio-waste coming into the plant needs little or no pre-treatment prior to direct loading into fermenters via loading shovels.

Over the 28-32 day digestion period, the bio-waste generates between 90 and 125m3 of biogas per tonne of feedstock.

This biogas is then exported to the existing energy compound at the adjacent landfill where it is utilised by dedicated combined heat and power (CHP) plants which export around 1.4MW electricity while contributing approximately 900kW of heat into the district

Bioenergy Insight

heating system in Dunfermline.

Following the batch digestion phase, the solid digestate is unloaded and bio-dried using forced aeration which requires no mechanical de-watering.

Thereafter the digestate is pasteurised in mechanically heated proprietary solid state pasteurisation tunnels prior to storage of the compost product ahead of beneficial use in agriculture.

The plant is a genuine dry system where very little wet digestate is produced and the primary product is a stable, marketable compost. The plant is the first in the UK to generate a PAS 100 compost product from an AD facility.

It has also gone through its ABPR validation and is due to be shortly issued with its full license. The facility also operates under a SEPA PPC permit with emission standards being achieved.

Follow-on facilities are currently being deployed in Rotherham and Milton Keynes to demonstrate the further utility of the system in the digestion of MSW organic fines.

or may require the addition of bulking materials where the substrates are very wet.

In this case, the ideal way of digestion is bringing the two processes together and creating a hybrid-type AD facility.

This includes the combination of both dry and wet fermentation technologies in order to allow the most efficient treatment of the input material. Depending on the delivered material, the substrates can be fed to the different fermentation systems. This allows for the implementation of the most efficient fermentation in each case — at any time.

Separate loads can be directed to the respective lines, i.e. pumpable substrates are directed to the wet reception pit while dry stackable loads progress to the dry AD plant.

Additionally, intermediate loads are subjected to a simple screw press process

where the liquor and solids are separated prior to digestion by the respective lines. This is particularly effective for wet contaminated bio-waste loads where expensive front end de-contamination processes are avoided as the contaminants are simply screened out of the dry compost at the end of the process.

During the process, the dry and wet fermentation lines are independent from each other before the resulting biogas from both lines is then brought together. This biogas can either be utilised in a CHP plant or upgraded prior to being fed into the natural gas grid. This synergetic effect makes the plant highly economical.

To conclude, the interplay of wet and dry fermentation are evidently beneficial, helping to achieve the widest range of input materials. The system operation can also manage seasonal peak periods of material streams. Certainly this high level of flexibility and reliability leads to a processand energy-optimised system.

Hybrid anaerobic digestion can be an innovative way to deal with input material that formerly were unsuitable for conventional fermentation processes. This enables even more potential for the UK biogas market. l For more information:

This article was written by Jan Buschmeyer of Schmack Biogas, and Dr Andrew Walsh of Jones Celtic BioEnergy. Visit: www. schmack-biogas.com; www. joneseng.com/services/bioenergy

Hybrid AD Depending on the characteristics of the available substrates, each AD method has its own advantages.

However, sometimes bio-waste is highly heterogeneous and the deployment in a batch dry fermentation plant is only possible to a restricted extent

A hybrid AD plant with wet and dry fermentation, gas dome and biofilters

May/June 2014 • 51

Bioenergy anaerobic digestion xxxx A contract awarded back in 2008, for one of the first commercial biogas plants in the UK, has grown into a six-year relationship and two extensions to the initial plant

Room to grow

I

n 2008, faced with increasing power utility bills, Cannington Cold Stores, a supplier of prepared and packaged products to UK supermarkets, established Cannington Bio-Energy to produce an affordable renewable energy solution for its cold storage through the use of anaerobic digestion and waste management.

Kirk Environmental was initially approached to design, supply and build two anaerobic digestion tanks and two pasteurisation tanks. This was one of the first plants in the

UK to incorporate the digester tanks with the now industryleading Biodome Double Membrane gas holder roof to store the biogas produced during the treatment of the food waste ready for conversion to renewable electricity.

Expansion The initial project was a great success, with enough energy being produced to not only power the cold storage plant but to also create additional revenue for the customer by being able to release the surplus energy

AD tanks at the Cannington Bio-Energy site

back into the national grid.

This resulted in the plant being expanded in 2011, with Kirk adding a further digester tank and pasteurisation tank. Kirk is also working on a second extension to the site which will see three more digester tanks and four pasteuriser tanks come online in mid-2014. Upon completion the site’s total digestion volume will reach 18,000m3 with a total generating capacity exceeding 3.3MW. Typically food waste, when disposed of to landfill, can generate large quantities of methane gas, contributing to

global warming as greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Treating food waste in the digesters, however, and capturing the biogas in the Biodome roofs, Cannington Bio-Energy is able to utilise this waste material and create renewable energy.

The company processes a range of wood wastes such as liquids, plant material and animal by-products. It also separates packaging from the waste in order to recycle as much as possible.

‘We have used Kirk for all three phases of the development of our plant,’ explains Tim Roe of Cannington

reduce GHG emissions and generate renewable energy.

Joining this award was also the title of Environmental Innovation at the 2013 Lancashire Business Environment Awards, highlighting new technologies and services that other organisations would benefit from.

Kirk plans, organises, directs and controls all resources required to deliver each project on time. It works

with the client and other suppliers to form a team to ensure all interface issues are managed throughout project implementation, thus providing a smooth transition through the varying scope of work.

The company has also invested time and resources into systems and procedures that allow for industry certifications and accreditations to be achieved and maintained.

Hard work pays off IN 2013 the Biodome product saw some advancements in product specifications and increased safety control levels; the establishment of strategic partnerships and increased investments into R&D resulted in a change to the equipment offered to both gas pressure relief and air envelope regulation.

Bill Leach, Kirk Group CEO says: ‘We are always reviewing our product range, providing excellence in liquid

52 • May/June 2014

and biogas storage solutions.

Our knowledge, expertise, product quality and customer service are the foundations to the great success at the Cannington Cold Stores anaerobic digestion plant.’

Biodome was awarded ‘Environmental Technology Business of the Year’ in the Red Rose Awards last year. This achievement recognised the portfolio of completed projects across the UK, many of which also

Bioenergy Insight

anaerobic digestion Bioenergy

The plant has undergone two expansions

Cold Stores. ‘Ever since our first contact with them they have been both professional and flexible to their approach for providing the required tanks.

The entire tank procurement and erection process has been relatively straight forward and hassle free.’

Top technology Each digester tank was built from glass-fused-to-steel panels, an established and proven tank finish which is quick to install, requires little maintenance and offers a long project asset life. The high temperature fusion of glass to steel fired at 850°C results

in an inert, durable finish.

Applied to both interior and exterior, this technology is able to withstand the rigours of a construction site and provide years of trouble-free service in harsh environments. The Biodome Double Membrane gas holder is suitable for a range of working gas pressures, storage volumes and gas production rates due to the utilisation of a high strength membrane.

Installing the gas holder on top of the digester rather than having it as a stand-alone unit meant Cannington Cold Stores was able to take advantage of some major benefits. For example, a ground-mounted standalone gas holder would

require the construction of a concrete base, and additional pipework to connect it to the digester tank which would have needed a steel roof. These extra requirements would have significantly impacted the capital cost of the project.

In addition, a top-mounted gas holder also results in further reductions to the project’s footprint and a lower maintenance regime. The outer membrane of the gas holder is constantly inflated by electrically operated blowers.

When gas production exceeds the rate of use the internal membrane rises and vice versa — when the gas usage exceeds the rate of production the internal membrane falls,

with the air pressure inside the air compartment maintaining the system pressure.

‘Our team has worked closely with the customer to understand their plans and technical requirements and to ensure that the items of the plant provided by Kirk were delivered on time and within budget,’ comments Andrew Peace, MD at Kirk Group. ‘Hopefully we will continue our involvement for many years to come and support Cannington Cold Stores through any future stages of development and upgrading.’ l

For more information:

Visit: www.kirk-group.co.uk

Total digestion volume will reach 18,000m3 later this year

Bioenergy Insight magazine brings you a new weekly newsletter focusing exclusively on bioenergy.

Updates will cover new pellet, biogas and biopower plants, new types of biomass, production technologies and the latest industry regulations.

Free weekly bioenergy news!

For advertising queries contact:

anisha@bioenergy-news.com • +44 (0) 203 551 5752 To submit company news please email keeley@bioenergy-news.com Bioenergy Insight

May/June 2014 • 53

Bioenergy anaerobic digestion BIOFerm is a company at the forefront of anaerobic digestion technology processing sewage waste into renewable energy

From bathrooms to biogas

by Daniel Traylen

I

t is not unfair to say that working with sewage waste is a fairly unpleasant business, especially when dealing with a whole town’s-worth. However, for KB Bioenergy, owner of the anaerobic digestion (AD) plant in Akron in the US state of Ohio, it is all in a day’s work.

The plant was constructed in 2007 across the river from the city’s wastewater treatment plant as a joint venture between the City of Akron and KB BioEnergy (formerly KB Compost Services) in conjunction with Applied Technologies, PNC Bank and Viessmann Group members BIOFerm Energy Systems and Schmack Biogas.

BIOFerm was contracted

by KB BioEnergy to be the project’s technology provider.

The plant began life as a compost facility before the decision was made to capitalise on the biosolids resource through anaerobic digestion.

‘We took waste material and turned it into something that was useful in many gardens and flowerbeds across the country as well as keep Akron beautiful. It helped beautify the city and that was a good thing but, as we looked at technology and looked down the road, the important part was to keep ahead of the technology,’ says Akron’s mayor, Donald Plusquellic.

The plant Originally designed to treat up to 7,000 dry tonnes of biosolids a year, the facility can now handle up to 15,000 tonnes a year following an expansion in

54 • May/June 2014

2013. The expansion allows the digester to process 100% of the sewage sludge from the wastewater treatment facility to generate roughly 12,192MWh of electricity in 2014 — enough to provide electricity to 1,600 homes.

All of the biosolids, which have a solids content of up to 30%, will be processed via AD, which involves heating the feedstock up to 40°C while bacteria break down the organic matter into methane and carbon dioxide. The resulting biogas is collected and converted to heating and electricity via a combined heat and power (CHP) unit.

Profits are maximised by eliminating wastage at the facility. The addition of a dryer means post-digester biosolids can be turned into a sellable, pelletised fertiliser, providing a secondary source of revenue.

Phase one of the project saw the installation of a Schmack EUCO Titan system, the first of its kind in the US, which the company says is ‘well suited for high solids, homogenous feedstock materials such as corn silage, grass silage or other energy crops’.

‘EUCO is a plug-flow high solids digester,’ says Amber Blythe, an application engineer at BIOFerm. ‘It is designed to handle feedstock between 15-17% total solids.

EUCO is typically paired with a CSTR digester where it acts as a vessel for the first stage of AD and the final three stages would happen in the CSTR. ‘The first stage of AD is hydrolysis, during which water is produced decreasing the solids content of

the feedstock/digestate making is more suitable for a CSTR style digester.’

KB Bioenergy’s plant features three horizontal plug-flow EUCO digesters with a combined capacity of 696,000 gallons, three complete mix COCCUS (CSTR) digesters with a combined capacity of 1,900,000 gallons, three additional 600kW MWM engines and one All-In-One (AIO) technical container with a Jenbacher Type 2 J208 GS CHP unit.

The AIO houses all technical equipment used to operate the plant, including pumps, control panels, heating distribution, CHP unit amongst others. The container is pre-assembled at the factory and delivered to the project ready for installation.

Only the connections for gas, electricity, feedstock and heat supply are made at the site, reducing the overall installation time.

An investment of $32 million (€23.5 million) went into expanding the plant, though only $5 million of this went towards the new AD technology — including two additional complete mix digesters and two horizontal plug flow digesters — and further upgrades are a possibility.

‘There are plans to renew and modify phase one to match the state-of-theart technology of phase two. This may include replacing the phase one CHP. However, there are no plans to increase the digester volume at this point, since the plant is designed to handle 100% of the city’s wastewater,’ says Blythe.

Looking ahead BIOFerm’s work is ongoing, pushing towards state-wide sustainability. As well as providing the technology for KB Bioenergy’s plant, the company has three plants located in the Oshkosh, Wisconsin area: one processes manure from an 8,500 head dairy, another handles manure from a 136 head family dairy, and the other uses food and yard waste from the University of Wisconsin.

The University of Wisconsin facility can process up to 10,000 tonnes of organic waste per year and provides up to 10% of the university’s electricity demands to help achieve sustainability goals.

Anaerobic digestion generating energy from human waste/wastewater plants is still fairly uncommon, according to BIOFerm. The company cites Biogas Data as saying over 4,000 additional wastewater treatment facilities across the US have the potential to adopt AD technology but are not taking advantage of the opportunity.

‘Over the past three years I have seen the market and public awareness increase dramatically. With the increase in organic diversion and waste bands, the public and private sectors are looking towards anaerobic digestion and composting as a solution,’ Blythe says.

‘I think we are going to continue to see growing interest in anaerobic digestion in the upcoming years, both for the renewable energy aspect and for the organic diversion aspect.’ l

Bioenergy Insight

gas separation Bioenergy The full potential of biogas as a renewable energy source is still relatively untapped.

Turning it into electricity can waste some its energy, while small biogas plants do not benefit from conventional upgrading methods. Membrane technology can overcome these hurdles

Membrane technology goes global B iogas is an eco-friendly energy source that is becoming increasingly important in today’s energy supply. It can be used to generate power and/or heat or as a fuel, and provides a high energy yield per m2 of land. This, however, does not unfold the full potential of biogas.

Increasing biogas efficiency Conventionally and historically, biogas has been turned into electricity right where it is produced.

Only as much as 40% of the energy content can be used as electricity, however. In addition, it is rare for the heat generated in the process to be recycled sufficiently.

On the other hand, if the gas is fed into the grid, more than 90% of the energy content can be used.

An extensive upgrading and purification process is required before biogas is fed into the natural gas grid.

Old and new separation methods Biogas is produced via biomass

Evonik’s hollow fibre membranes for efficient gas separation

Bioenergy Insight

fermentation. Biomass is an organic substance consisting of, for example, plants, liquid manure, or effluent sludge. In addition to the methane energy source, raw biogas also contains carbon dioxide (CO2) and other trace gases and, because CO2 is not combustible, this lowers the calorific value of the gas and must therefore be separated out.

The common separation methods such as pressurised water scrubbing, pressure swing adsorption and amine scrubbing have considerable

disadvantages. They need comparatively large amounts of energy as well as auxiliary materials and chemicals.

The wastes and wastewater generated must be treated and disposed of. Further, the biogas after upgrading is usually at low pressure.

Before it is fed into a medium-pressure grid, it needs to be compressed to 15-20bar by, for example, an additional compressor.

Conventional upgrading plants are therefore usually cost-effective only for raw biogas quantities in excess of 500m3 per hour (Nm³/h). This usually makes them unsuitable for decentralised energy supply with a large number of relatively small plants.

Membrane-based technology is applicable and economical for smaller plants, however the use of former membranebased technologies caused the loss of appreciable amounts of methane through ‘slippage’ as the selectivity of the polymer was too low.

With that, effective CO2 and methane separation required either energy-consuming, high feedback streams, or with a series connection of several membranes in the row. Both of these methods increase the investment and operating costs.

Alternatively, the process required thermal recycling of the methane-rich waste gas, which also normally generates high added costs.

May/June 2014 • 55

Bioenergy gas separation As a result of the weaknesses of past membranes, this technology had been unable to compete with other separation methods.

Evonik Industries, a specialty chemicals company headquartered in Germany, has developed a next generation membrane technology for cost- and energy-efficient separation of CO2 to overcome the disadvantages of conventional methods as well as that of previous membrane systems.

What appears at first sight to be a bunch of spaghetti strands or a paint brush is in fact a bundle of selective membranes. Several thousand of these hollow fibres are bundled, the ends embedded in a resin, and the bundle inserted into a metal pipe. The finished module or cartridge can now be subjected to a pressurised gas mixture.

Membrane-based biogas upgrading Sepuran Green membranes are made from an internally developed high-performance polymer with high temperature and pressure resistance. Made of this polymer, the membrane has the property of distinguishing effectively between methane and CO2, allowing the raw gas to be purified to more than 97% methane.

Gas molecules are of different sizes and have different solubilities in polymers. The biogas to be cleaned is introduced under high pressure at one end of the membrane. The CO2 molecules are smaller than the methane molecules and also more soluble in the polymer. Consequently, they pass through the micropores of the membrane much faster and are thus quickly separated from the methane.

CO2, water vapour and traces of ammonia and hydrogen sulphide are drawn off at the low-pressure side, while

56 • May/June 2014

Close-up view of a hollow fibre membrane cartridge

the methane collects at the other end of the membrane, the high-pressure side.

The methane-rich gas is directly drawn off at the high-pressure side and needs no further compression for feeding into the grid.

Evonik’s membrane-based biogas upgrading offers high plant availability and has both low energy requirements and maintenance costs.

Moreover, the upgrading generates neither wastes nor emissions, and there is no need for auxiliary materials such as water or sorbents. Additionally, the flexibility of the process makes it applicable for small and large plants, and the technology can be adapted for changing flow volumes and gas compositions.

Membrane technology around the world Evonik has been operating its biogas refining plant, based in Neukirchen an der Vöckla, Austria, since early 2011. The raw gas is sourced from a farmer’s fermentation plant, which generates biogas from renewable raw materials.

Within the framework of the GIZ project Biometec (biomethane generation through Fiber Membrane Technology in China), this pilot plant was successfully shipped to China last summer and today operates in Shandong province. The refining capacity of the pilot plant is 10 Nm3/h.

The raw gas arrives from the fermentation plant as a mixture of CO2, methane and the typical secondary components, and is first desulphurised with activated coal, filtered and predried. This ensures that no condensate forms on the membrane and that no particles or sulphur compounds can deposit on the membrane. The prescrubbed gas is then drawn into an oil-free compressor and can be then compressed.

The number of biogas plants based on Sepuran Green is growing. In 2012, EnviTec Biogas and Evonik opened an industrial-scale pilot plant at the Sachsendorf site in Germany. This was followed a year later by the start-up of another 350m3 gas upgrading plant in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. In October

2012 DMT Environmental Technology started a plant with a capacity of 650m3 gas in the UK while, at the same time, MT Biomethan opened a 250m3 biogas upgrading plant in Zeven, Germany.

Sepuran Green began to be rolled out globally from 2013. To date more than 20 projects have been installed or are about to be installed in Germany, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland, the UK, Austria, the US, China, Thailand and Korea, with a capacity of up to 2,500m3 of upgraded methane.

Within the next years Evonik believes its membrane technology will play an important role in establishing a decentralised energy supply and help to finally release the full potential of one of the most valuable renewable energy sources — biogas. l

For more information:

This article was written by Dr Sandra Uebbing, director of membrane technology for biogas upgrading, Evonik Industries.

Visit: www.sepuran.com

Bioenergy Insight

boilers Bioenergy Problems such as corrosion in biomass combustors can reduce the energy production output and operation time of the combustor

Preventing corrosion

B

iomass fuels appear as a promising economic and environmental alternative to fossil fuels, being renewable and not contributing to the increase of the level of CO2 in the atmosphere.

Nonetheless, the combustion of biomass fuels causes important difficulties to combustor operation and maintenance due to their higher concentration of problematic inorganic matter and volatiles, such as K and Cl, compared to coal and other solid fossil fuels.

Therefore, combustion problems such as corrosion in combustors are more frequent in biomass than in fossil fuel combustion.

These problems significantly reduce the energy production output and operation time of the combustor.

During combustion, elements that play an important role in the corrosion mechanisms, such as K, Na, S and Cl, are released from the fuel into the flue gas. In the hot temperature of the combustion chamber, these elements are transported under the form of a gas.

Once the alkali chloride or sulphate vapours come into contact with the relatively cool surfaces of the heat-exchangers, they may condense, forming a thin deposit layer on the boiler tube surfaces.

Alkali chlorides are more corrosive to metals than alkali sulphates and, due to the high concentration of chlorine and low concentration of sulphur in

Bioenergy Insight

biomass fuels, alkali chlorides are more often formed during biomass combustion.

At the super-heater and re-heater temperatures, this alkali salt layer is generally semi-molten on the boiler tube surface. Molten alkali chlorides can cause rapid corrosion of the boiler tube at high temperatures. These alkali chloride vapours can continue their path to the boiler exit and pass through the convective pass of the boiler and onwards. Deposition of the alkali chloride corrosive layer occurs all along the way as the temperature decreases. Additionally, it can condense on the surface of ashes and nucleate from the gas, forming very small aerosol particles (< 1µm).

Many factors influence deposition of the corrosive salt layer on the surfaces of the boiler, including: • Partial pressure of gas species. It depends on the concentration of the species in the fuel, the fuel feeding rate and the air flow rate. The higher the partial pressure of the

species, the higher the temperature the species start to condense and the higher the amount of the compounds that condenses • Gas and wall temperature.

It influences the type of compound that can condense, for example, sulphates condense at higher temperatures than chlorides. Additionally, corrosion rate rises with the increase of the temperature, for a specific deposit layer composition • Flue gas flow. It influences the partial pressure of the gas species.

• Cl and S concentration.

S/Cl ratio is indicative of the type of salt that will form. Higher ratio favours the formation of sulphates, which are less corrosive than chlorides • Redox conditions (%O2). Oxygen favours the oxidation of FeCl2 to form iron oxides, closing the corrosion cycle and rendering the Cl available to corrode new metal surface.

Since the alkali chlorides are the most corrosive compounds

Figure 1

Flue gas

O2(g)

Scale layer

Scale layer Corrosion front Tube wall

KCl(g) NaCl(g )

SO2(g)

Cl2(g) + H2O => HCl(g)

2 NaCl + SO2(g) + O2(g) => Na2SO4 + Cl2(g) (2 KCl(s) + SO2(g) =>K2SO4(s) + Cl2(g)) 3 FeCl2 + 2O2(g) => Fe3O4(s) + 3Cl2(g) 2FeCl2 + 1.5 O2(g) => Fe2O3 + 2 Cl2(g) FeCl2 + O2(g) + Fe3O4 => 2 Fe2O3 + Cl2(g) FeCl2(s,g) <= Fe(s) + Cl2(g) Fe(s)

Figure 1: Corrosion mechanism by chloride compounds on the metallic surfaces of the boiler1

that form the deposit layer, the main corrosion mechanism on the metallic surfaces of the boiler can be described by the corrosion model shown in Figure 1.

As demonstrated in Figure 1, other compounds influence the corrosion mechanism, for example: • H2O plays a positive role in avoiding corrosion because it reacts with Cl2 to form HCl, decreasing the concentration of Cl2 available to react with the metal surface • SO2 is playing a negative role, by reacting with the alkali chlorides to form Cl2 which will react with the metal surface • O2 is playing a negative role by participating in the reaction that yields Cl2 and by reacting with the FeCl2 to form iron oxide and Cl2.

Combustion additive for preventing corrosion Aurora, an engineered aluminosilicate additive from mineral-based speciality solution provider Imerys, contributes towards reducing the problems caused by inorganic matter contained in the fuel and corrosion.

The beneficial effect of Aurora on combustion is generally assigned to two independent mechanisms acting on the inorganic matter during combustion, i.e. the capture of volatile alkali elements from the flue gas, and the increase of ash refractoriness. The first mechanism can be used for the combustion of fuels containing high concentration of alkalis and

May/June 2014 • 57

Bioenergy boilers

CI evacuated in the flue gas Combustion tests were

58 • May/June 2014

Table 1: Characteristics of the wood pellets

performed in a 57kWel pilotscale vertical atmospheric pulverised-fuel drop tube combustor under two conditions. First, burning pure wood pellets and, secondly, burning wood pellets with 2% Aurora addition (dry basis) to the fuel. The total air flow was 12 Nm3/h and O2 excess of about 3.5% vol dry.

The wood pellets chosen

place (about 1,150°C).

Gas measurements (O2, CO2, CO, SO2, NOx) were performed within the combustion chamber and HCl concentration was monitored outside the furnace in the flue gas path at temperature between 200-400°C. The effect of the additive on ash transformations and thermal behaviour, deposit formation,

Figure 3

60 50 HCl mg/m3.N

chlorine; therefore, with high corrosion potential.

By capturing the volatile alkali elements in the flue gas, Aurora reduces their partial pressure in the boiler and prevents the condensation of alkali salts onto the tube surfaces. In this way, the condensation of chlorides is either shifted to lower temperature regions, close to the exit of the boiler, or chlorine exits the system under the form of HCl, which can be treated in the flue gas treatment systems. When condensation of chlorides is shifted to lower temperatures, the chlorine condenses preferentially on the surface of the fly ashes and exits the boiler as a solid.

The dosage of this additive in the combustion of a specific fuel plays an important role if either the chlorine exits the boiler system under the solid form with the fly ashes, or as HCl. Low Aurora dose favours the first case, while a higher dose favours the second.

Either dose shall be enough to avoid the condensation of alkali chlorides on the surface of heat exchangers and on the surfaces of the convective path.

The characteristics of this technology (type, mineralogy, surface area), concentration added to the fuel and the amount of alkalis and chlorine in the fuel influence the way the chlorine exits the system.

By avoiding the condensation of alkali salts on the boiler surfaces, it reduces or prevents fouling and slagging.

Deposits eventually formed are also more friable and are easily removed from the boiler surfaces by the turbulence of the flue gas.

The effect of Aurora on the fate of chlorine, as formerly described, has been confirmed in several combustion cases using variable fuels and boiler technologies.

40 30 20 10 0

Fuel

Fuel + Aurora

Figure 2: HCI concentration measured in the flue gas

for this test were rich in ash (2.6% in a dry basis) and SiO2-, CaO- and K2O-rich.

The fuel characteristics are shown in Table 1.

Ashes generated during combustion were collected at four points: inside the combustions chamber (just after the flame, simulated heat-exchange entrance zone, at the end of the chamber) and accumulated at the candle filter. Ash deposits were collected at the simulated heat exchange entrance zone using a cooled deposition probe (kept at 545°C) and an uncooled deposition probe kept at the flue gas temperature at this

combustion efficiency and gas emissions were studied.

Aurora was able to capture alkalis and fix it into stable alkali-aluminosilicate crystalline phases in the ash.

It also promoted an increase of the release of HCl in the flue gas compared to the combustion of pure wood pellets. The exit of chlorine from the combustion system under the form of HCl implies that less Cl is available to form the corrosive alkali chloride layer on the metallic parts of the combustor.

As a result, corrosion potential is reduced.

Particles forming the deposits of pure wood pellet

ash yielded dense deposits strongly bound to the deposition probe, which was composed of a continuous glassy phase exhibiting high mechanical resistance. On the other hand, deposits formed by ash containing Aurora were weakly attached to the probe surface, very porous and easily broken. The absence of a liquid phase in contact with the probe’s surface in the deposit formed with Aurora reduces the possibility of the deposit to corrode the substrate, since the greatest part of the substrate’s surface is deposit-free.

The presence of Aurora also shifted the liquid temperature of the fly ash to about 80100°C higher compared to pure wood pellets ash, as revealed by Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and Hot Temperature X-Ray Diffraction (HT-XRD). This resulted in a comparable increase of their softening temperatures measured in the ash fusion tests.

In this way, Aurora confirmed being able to promote increased refractoriness of the ash under the conditions of a pulverised fuel combustor.

Despite the extreme temperature conditions of pulverised fuel combustion (>1400°C) and short residence time, Aurora performed well in capturing alkali volatiles and alkaline earth compounds, increasing the refractoriness of the ashes, rendering deposits more porous and easily removable.

Combustion was performed in a 150MW Foster Wheeler CFB, which burned 1,890 dry tonnes per day of peat and with limestone as bed material. Ash content in the fuel varied between 1 and 8.1% dry basis, with an average content of about 4%. Ash was high in alkali and chlorine content and low in sulphur.

This boiler had undergone critical corrosion of the super and re-heater tubes

Bioenergy Insight

Figure 5 High alkaline salt concentration deposition sites Highest recorded corrosion rates

boilers Bioenergy Without Aurora

100% Peat

With Aurora

Corrosive Flue gases Peat + Aurora

Figure 3: Deposits formed on the deposition probes for peat pure and peat with 1% Aurora

Figure 4: The chemical composition of the bottom ashes

after five years of service.

High corrosion rates on the convective pass were observed due to deposits of alkali salts and molten halides. A five-month outage was necessary in order to replace the heat exchangers.

The combustion behaviour of peat with 1% Aurora (dry basis) was compared to the combustion of peat alone.

This was done by analysing the bed ash and fly ash generated, and the deposits formed on a cooled probe (probe’s surface was kept at about 490°C) placed at the re-heater location for five hours to study fouling and by monitoring the flue gas in the empty pass of the boiler for O2, CO, SO2, NOx, H2O and HCl. Figure 3 shows that the locations where the highest concentration of alkali salts is observed in the deposits, and the highest corrosion rates occur in the same locations (A and B).

Table 2 shows the

demonstrates that chlorine is leaving the system and is no longer available in the boiler to build deposits. Therefore,

Figure 3 shows that the deposit formed during the combustion of pure peat covers the whole surface of the probe, while the deposit formed during the combustion of peat with 1% Aurora is mainly formed on the centre of the probe. In addition, Table 2 shows that the concentration of alkalis and halides in the deposit at locations A and B is lower with the addition of Aurora (about 70% lower in alkalis and 65% lower in halides), while the concentration of Al and Si is increased. The deposit formed with Aurora is less corrosive than the deposit formed without.

With regards to corrosion, Aurora changes the amount (less deposit formed), the structure (covering a smaller extension and not wetting the surface) and the chemical composition (lower alkali halide concentration) of the deposits formed during the combustion of variable fuels, such as wood pellets

(MSW) in two 20MWel stoker furnace units operating under negative pressure. Both units were cleaned prior to

Figure 5: Mineralogical composition of the bottom ashes

deposits eventually formed are less corrosive to the boiler surfaces.

Cl evacuated in the fly ashes Aurora was used during the combustion of 350 tonnes a day of municipal solid waste

the trial. The ash content of this fuel type is considerably high, about 28%, from which 90% is estimated to produce bottom ash and the other 10% yielding fly ash.

The aim of the addition of Aurora in this case was to help maintain the steam

Table 2: Concentration in wt% of elements in the deposits formed at locations A and B during combustion of pure peat and peat with 1% Aurora, obtained by EDS chemical analysis

concentrations of alkalis (K and Na), halides (Cl and Br), Al and Si obtained by Electron Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) analysis of the deposits formed in locations A and B during the combustion of pure peat and peat with 1% Aurora.

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and peat. Again, the deposit formed was easily removed.

The increase of the HCl concentration in the flue gas exit path with the addition of Aurora was also verified, from 26mg/m3 to 50mg/ m3 (92% higher), which

Figure 6: Mineralogy of fly ashes produced

May/June 2014 • 59

Bioenergy boilers outlet temperature constant at about 455°C as long as possible, which indicates an improvement of the heat transfer, and decrease slagging formation at the entrance of the waste in the incinerator and accumulation of bottom ashes on the conveyor belt.

The effect of a 2% addition (dry basis) to the combustion of MSW was evaluated by comparing the chemical and mineralogical composition of bottom and fly ashes formed with the addition of Aurora to the ashes formed during combustion without.

Figure 4 shows the chemical composition and Figure 5 shows the mineralogical composition of the bottom ashes with and without the addition of Aurora.

It is noted that, with the addition of Aurora, there

is lower residual carbon and less potassium in the bottom ashes. On the other hand, there is an increase of the Al2O3 and SiO2 content in the bottom ashes, as expected. Additionally, chlorine is negligible. Figure 5 also confirms there are only traces of chlorides formed in the bottom ash.

The mineralogy of the fly ashes produced with and without Aurora is demonstrated in Figure 6. There was a decrease in the quartz content and an increase of the alkali chlorides and alkali sulphates content in the fly ashes with the addition of Aurora.

This result indicates that the chlorine and sulphur are leaving the boiler in the solid state as fly ash and there is a lower amount of these elements available

in the boiler to form corrosive deposits on the boiler surfaces. In this way, Aurora contributes towards the decrease of corrosion potential of the combustion of high alkali- and high chlorine-containing MSW. Conclusion The use of Aurora to reduce or eliminate the problems caused by the inorganic matter contained in fuels, such as corrosion, is becoming increasingly important as it can play a determinant role to reduce the costs of energy production and power plant maintenance. In this way it can contribute towards the widespread use of biomass for energy production.

Reacting with alkali elements, Aurora evacuates chlorine and sulphur from

boilers either with the fly ash or as vapour in the flue gas. Therefore, the key elements involved in the development of the corrosion process and other problems, such as fouling, slagging and agglomeration, are no longer present in the boiler. l

References:

1 Source: Riedl, R., Dahl, J., Obernberger, I., Narodoslawsky, M. 1999. Corrosion in fire tube boilers of biomass combustion plants. In: Proceedings of the China International Corrosion Control Conference â&#x20AC;&#x2122;99, paper Nr. 90129, October 1999.

Beijing, China, China Chemical Anticorrosion Technology Association (CCATA) (Ed.), Beijing, China.

For more information:

This article was written by Christian Ravagnani, Tom Landon and Murielle Perronnet of Imerys.

Visit: www.imerys.com

UK AD & Biogas, Birmingham (UK)

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The Hibbard Renewable Energy Center in Minnesota

A US-based biomass boiler combustion system specialist reveals how it successfully converted a fossil fuel power station to burn biomass

Replacing coal with biomass

M

innesota Power operates the Hibbard Renewable Energy Center in Duluth, Minnesota, US. At Hibbard, superheated steam for power generation is supplied by two identical boilers. The units, originally supplied in the 1950s to burn pulverised coal, were converted in 1985 to each generate 136,100kg/hr of superheated steam by firing a mixture of wood and stoker coal (in a 60:40 heat input split) on a travelling grate.

During the 1985 conversion, overfire air (OFA) systems (typical of that period), comprising numerous small circular ports arranged in multiple levels on the rear and front wall, were installed (see Figure1). The boilers currently fire Powder River Basin (PRB) stoker coal and biomass fuel which consists

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of a mix of purchased wood wastes, railroad cross-ties, and short fibre residue.

Flue gases leaving the furnace pass over two long flow superheater sections

before entering a long flow generating bank (GB).

Downstream of the GB, the gas stream flows into an ash collection hopper, followed by a secondary tubular air heater

Figure 1: A sectional side view of the boilers following the 1985 conversion

(TAH) section, economiser, primary TAH section, and mechanical dust collector (MDC), before entering the induced draft (ID) fan and the electrostatic precipitator (EP).

Historically, the boilers had not been able to reliably achieve the designed biomass firing rates; increased biomass firing (and reducing coal firing) led to excessive carryover of unburned char and fly ash, high flue gas exit temperatures and limited ID fan operating margin.

Looking to increase the biomass firing rates and eventually eliminate coal firing without increasing air emissions, Minnesota Power contracted Jansen Combustion and Boiler Technologies to meet its goals through a phased programme of evaluation, engineering and equipment supply.

The first step in meeting the project objectives was to

May/June 2014 â&#x20AC;˘ 61

Bioenergy boilers gather reliable information on the boiler operations. Jansen engineers made first-hand observations and collected data from the boilers while being operated at high steaming rates with -57% of the heat input being supplied by biomass and the rest by coal. The approach and methodology for this work is described in Reference 1. The following operational deficiencies were identified from this evaluation: • Non-uniform fuel delivery and an ineffective OFA penetration and mixing caused high char and ash carryover • High flue gas velocities in the GB outlet ash hopper resulted in poor ash collection and increased the ash loadings to downstream equipment • High flue gas velocities and low heat transfer surface area of the economiser and TAHs contributed to increased erosion, high flue gas exit temperatures (~260°C), and low boiler thermal efficiency • The high gas exit temperature also increased the flue gas volumetric flow, which limited the ID fan capacity.

To overcome these limitations, the following upgrades were recommended to sustain increased biomass firing rates, while achieving lower ash loadings in the back passes without exceeding the capacities of the MDC, the ID fan and the EP: • A combustion system upgrade that improves the burnout of in-flight char and volatile gases. This included upgrading the OFA system and replacing the existing fuel distributors with modern, more effective fuel distributors • A redesigned GB outlet ash hopper for improved ash collection to lower fly ash loading in the boilers’ back passes. The ash hopper was designed with improved access to the hopper internals to

62 • May/June 2014

clear out ash deposits • An upgrade of the existing economiser with a significantly larger one to improve heat capture, increase boiler thermal efficiency and lower flue gas flow rates • The replacement of the existing TAH with a larger unit to improve heat capture and to reduce erosion rates.

All of these recommended upgrades have now been implemented on the boilers except an upgrade of the fuel distributors.

Combustion system modelling and design Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modelling was implemented to quantify flue gas flow patterns, oxygen (O2) and carbon monoxide (CO) levels, turbulence and temperatures for different OFA delivery strategies; and fuel delivery patterns to illustrate the advantage of an upgraded combustion system over the existing configuration.

Jansen has used CFD modelling to evaluate over 150 industrial boilers burning a variety of solid and liquid fuels. These models have been used to identify combustion improvements and other operating problems while firing biomass, coal, sludges, refuse-derived fuels and spent chemical liquors.

Jansen’s approach was to install eight ‘dual range’ OFA nozzles on the furnace sidewalls in an interlaced pattern that supply 35-50% of the total combustion air. The nozzles’ dual range design achieves optimal flow and jet penetration over a range of flow demands. In addition, the nozzles’ low pressure drop design allows OFA feed pressures of less than 38cm wg (water gauge). In this case, the low feed pressure requirement allowed the system to be implemented without an upgrade of the existing OFA booster fan.

The original OFA system

with numerous smaller ports provided insufficient jet momentum for the OFA to penetrate very far into the furnace. In comparison, the upgraded system provided significantly deeper jet penetration and generated intense mixing and turbulence.

As shown in Figure 4, improved air and fuel delivery improved the burnout of the in-flight fuel particles. The plots show particle traces of the in-flight fuel particles and are coloured by the particles’ stage in the combustion process. The green particle traces represent drying, yellow represents volatiles burning, red represents char burning, and teal represents residual fly

ash. The upgraded combustion system arrangement predicted a significant reduction in carryover of in-flight char particles and volatile gases.

Improved burnout of volatiles and in-flight fuel particles in the lower furnace led to hotter lower furnace temperatures and cooler furnace exit temperatures. A hotter lower furnace aids the fuel drying process and helps prevent fuel piling on the grate.

The evaluation and CFD modelling effort concluded that the unit’s furnace volume and grate surface were adequately sized to achieve 100% biomass firing and helped define the upgrade design of the OFA and fuel delivery systems.

Figure 2: The new OFA nozzle arrangement on the boiler sidewall

Figure 3: Modelling plots of the jet penetration profiles of the original and upgraded combustion systems, where regions of the furnace with velocities higher than 18m/s are shown

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Figure 4: Improvement in the burnout in the in-flight fuel particles by improved air and fuel delivery

on 100% biomass • Even with increased biomass firing, adequate capacity margins on the FD and ID fans were achieved • The flue gas exit temperature was reduced by -65°C • Lowering the flue gas exit temperature reduced the flue gas volumetric flow at the ID fan by 21% • Lower flue gas exit temperatures, and reduction in unburned fuel losses, increased the boiler thermal efficiency by 6 percentage points • These improvements have resulted in a 10% increase in steam generation for the same fuel heat input.

Conclusions

Figure 5: The modified GB outlet ash collection hopper that was installed on the boilers to reduce the flue gas velocities through the 180° turn and improve the drop out of fly ash into the hopper

Upgrades to lower erosion and improve heat capture The original economiser was replaced with a larger one with a surface area more than 2.3 times larger than the original. The secondary TAH was removed to make room for the upgraded GB outlet ash collection hopper and the new economiser.

The primary TAH was upgraded with larger tubes that increased the gas inlet crosssectional flow area by over 50%.

This area increase was designed to significantly lower flue gas velocities and control erosion.

In addition, the TAH tube arrangement and length was optimised such that the new TAH surface area was more than 50% higher than the original primary and secondary TAH.

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Post-upgrade operation Jansen provided support to Minnesota Power for the commissioning of the upgraded equipment on the two boilers which included training and hands-on start-up assistance. Boiler operating data following the commissioning was evaluated to estimate the improvements in boiler operation due to the various upgrades. This evaluation demonstrated the following benefits from the boiler upgrades: • The biomass fuel heat input was successfully increased to account for 78% of the total fuel heat input. If the recommended fuel distributor upgrades are made, the boilers are expected to be able to achieve operation

The replacement of fossil fuel with biomass fuel firing requires a comprehensive evaluation of boiler operating parameters that starts from the fuel delivery into the furnace and continues through to the flue gas exit from the stack.

It is necessary to evaluate the OFA system performance to determine whether the system has adequate flow capacity and jet penetration to generate an intense mixing zone above the grate to burn out the in-flight char and volatiles that result from firing biomass. Experience has shown that an OFA system upgrade is often required to support increased biomass fuel firing.

Typically, increases in biomass fuel firing leads to increased fly ash loadings as compared to stoker coal firing.

Therefore, an evaluation of the back end fly ash collection systems is required.

Maximising the collection of fly ash at the GB outlet will lower erosion rates and put less ash load on the MDC. Replacing coal with biomass results in increased flue gas flow rates for the same steaming rate. An increase in the flue gas cross-sectional flow area (similar to the TAH upgrade at Hibbard) may be required to control erosion while

increasing biomass fuel firing.

Adequacy of the heat transfer surface areas should also be evaluated to identify opportunities for increased heat recovery (similar to the economiser upgrade at Hibbard).

Evaluations of the combustion air and ID fans, and pollution control devices should be included to ensure that these auxiliaries have sufficient capability to support the higher air and flue gas flow rates associated with increased biomass firing.

Optimising the fuel delivery patterns on the grate is one of the critical factors in ensuring uniform grate combustion conditions. Upgrades to the fuel distributors, changes to the fuel delivery elevation, or possible adjustments to fuel size distribution are some of the upgrades/modifications that can be implemented to improve grate fuel delivery patterns.

At the Hibbard plant, successful boiler upgrade projects to increase biomass firing were accomplished by first implementing a thorough review of the boilers’ operation and their auxiliaries. Upgrades and modifications targeted to overcome existing limitations were integrated successfully with the existing equipment.

To make this possible, close interaction between Minnesota Power, Jansen and equipment vendors was required during every stage of the project, including design concept development, engineering and supply of deliverables, boiler outage planning, and subsequent start-up support. l Reference:

1. Verloop, Arie, Biomass Combustion Troubleshooting, Bioenergy Insight, June 2012, Issue 3, Volume 3, p. 56-58.

For more information:

This article was written by Samit Pethe of Jansen Combustion and Boiler Technologies, and Robert Bastianelli, PE and Luke Schwartz, PE of Minnesota Power. Visit: www.jansenboiler.com Jansen would like to thank Luther Kemp, Minnesota Power’s control specialist, and the Minnesota Power boiler operators for their assistance and valuable editorial review.

May/June 2014 • 63

Bioenergy boilers A number of factors are hindering the development and roll-out of industrial-scale biomass boilers

Overcoming hurdles

D

irect fire heating — specifically boiler technology — is not a new technology and is still arguably the most common way to produce energy from biomass. Since the 1800s direct combustion of solid biomass has been deployed to generate hot flue gases which in turn produce steam in a boiler.

A variety of material (e.g. lignin, citrus peel, animal waste) can be used for electrical generation, industrial process heating and/ or commercial heat. Boilers are configured in different shapes and sizes which, in turn, affects the quality of the steam produced. Boiler size is described by the fuel input as MMBtu per hour, however can also be measured by output in pounds of steam per hour.

Two categories of biomass boilers are stoker boilers and fluidised bed boilers. They can either solely process biomass or co-fire both biomass and coal.

These boilers can also take on many forms, from manual log boilers, to ‘automated’ woodchip and pellet boilers.

It is not a matter of picking a boiler out of a catalogue; instead it is a matter of what technology works best in each individual situation, what the payback is and what is the true total cost of ownership.

At the heart of a boiler is its burner, which heats the biomass so it ‘gasifies’. Better burner design translates into improved biomass burning efficiency, which helps to reduce ash and produce more heat per tonne of biomass.

Burner design and control determines the efficiency of the boiler as well as the maintenance schedule.

Well-designed burners

64 • May/June 2014

automatically detect how the fuel is burning and make adjustments to the air-flow to ensure the most efficient burn, while poorly developed ones can lead to clogging with tar buildup, resulting in an increased cleaning and servicing schedule.

Summerhill Biomass Systems is a US-based engineering firm with biomass-related patents awarded and pending. The company evaluates biomass solutions, from the fuel, to the technology that uses it for heat, electricity, and transportation. Summerhill Biomass is not a boiler company, instead describing itself as ‘boiler agnostic’.

Its burners are designed to retrofit existing boilers and, unlike travelling grate systems, the burner technology is instant on and off, requiring no warm up time.

Challenges in the industry Biomass is an attractive fuel source because it is renewable, generally underutilised and its use can strengthen local economies, while also reducing the carbon footprint and dependency on fossil fuels.

While the use of domestic residential biomass boilers is on the rise in Europe and holding steady in the US’s northeast, a number of factors affect the development of industrial-scale versions: Scale The biomass equivalent to a conventional boiler system requires a much larger footprint in the boiler housing.

This is due to the need for additional fuel handling equipment and material filtering. Biomass boilers under consideration sometimes

include manually fed log wood boilers which require a large area to store and process wood.

Fuel transport and storage One of the main reasons why biomass energy is considered to be a localised phenomenon is due to the cost of transportation and the space needed to store it; it is bulky and presents handling challenges.

Depending on the supply chain stage, it contains moisture, A Summerhill Biomass burner configured to burn vertically. which adds weight This is a demo unit but similar to what would be mounted and air, which adds on a traditional boiler space. Where oil and natural gas can be chips around with a tractor, delivered quickly via pipeline, cleaning out the exhaust, or biomass is generally moved via emptying out an ash bin or bag, supersack, and/or truck, dust bag. The inconvenience methods whereby loading and of manual labour means it is unloading also take longer. The difficult for the technology growing trend to pneumatically to be adopted, unless other deliver wood pellets in bulk, resources are scarce or however, is proving to be a mandates are in place. great industry development.

Increased maintenance costs When delivered in bulk, must also be considered. A biomass is not an on-demand biomass boiler with a stoker commodity and therefore has many mechanical parts needs to be stored beforehand. which inevitably leads to A barn, silo, hopper or bin with additional time and expense. truck access can all be used for this requirement, but the Regulations space required, in addition While emissions such as NOx, to transport costs, can be SOx and volatile organic additional barriers to adoption. compounds (VOCs) from newer biomass boilers are low or Manual labour and maintenance comparable in comparison to Most biomass boiler systems other forms of combustion require some form of manual heating, the release of fine operation, unlike other systems particulates into the air is such as natural gas and oil a concern. PM2.5 emissions which are largely transparent. of older generation boilers This type of interaction can can be problematic in poorly include storing feedstock ventilated areas. However, in a covered barn, moving large installations use

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boilers Bioenergy electrostatic precipitators, cyclonic separators, or baghouse particle filters to control particulates.

Just as any other heating method, when properly maintained and operated, these systems are safe.

Many of the newer biomass boiler systems are laying claim to more efficient systems, yet they must abide by fossil fuel standards. In the US state of Maine, for example, pellet system manufactures find themselves being regulated by standards meant for fossil fuels, which leads to added costs for unnecessary materials and accoutrements. Both fuel and technology costs must make economic sense if consumers and businesses are to adopt without government mandates or subsidies.

Fuel costs The more refined the biomass, the higher the cost; the more raw the feedstock, the higher the moisture content and the lesser the efficiency. Last winter, the price of propane was close to $5 (€3.7) per gallon, while pellets were going for $200 per tonne.

The price of natural gas is notoriously hard to beat. One barrier to adoption, therefore, is the ability of biomass to compete on price with the nearest available fuel.

Fitting in The sweet spot for Summerhill Biomass is a customer in need of a 5-40 million BTU burner, that is not on a natural gas line, that uses fuel in high volume, and, has a high heating bill. These can be divided into two groups: (1) agricultural processors, biomass refiners such as pellet mills, grain mills, other energy producers and processors; and (2) any company with a high-volume waste stream or by-product, and end users with processing plants or other large-scale applications with heating or drying applications. By targeting

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its audience, Summerhill Biomass says it can help reduce the barriers to adoption.

The company’s burners fit into the existing burner envelope or can be part of a new design, with no additional construction required. The project is right-sized to properly design for fuel volume needs and properly size the storage requirements.

By working with other suppliers and manufacturers, Summerhill Biomass is able to understand the costs involved with transport and storage. It has different solutions for the size of the application and the constraints of each individual project. The company also works with suppliers such as American Wood Fiber to determine the best storage design and most appropriate delivery method. Competing with largely automated systems, Summerhill Biomass’

customers will benefit from Summerhill-owned production burners and a surveillance programme.

As there are no current emissions regulations for powder, Summerhill Biomass follows EPA PM 2.5 standards and coordinates with its boiler partners on other regulatory and permitting issues. In tests performed to date, burners from Summerhill Biomass The density of the fuel is higher due to its have consistently powder form. There is no smoke and no smell produced emissions levels comparable to that of natural gas.

Summerhill Biomass are able The smokeless, odourless to handle feedstock changes as feature of the burn process market conditions change. The produces no carbon compound size of the particulate matter particulates associated allows for the small footprint with environmentally of the burner, and simplicity damaging air pollution. in the burner design. This also Fuel costs must be factored creates a higher density of fuel into every project. for storage and transportation Summerhill savings. Combustion occurs in Biomass consults one small area, and biomass to companies in the explosible range for that are seeking burners combusts completely. cost efficiencies There is no odour or smoke, in powder and any ash that is produced production. As is in the micron range. such, it is aware of several methods Current projects to produce powder fuels in Summerhill Biomass spent high volume.

18 months meeting with The appropriate prospects and focus groups method is before building a growth and determined by expansion plan. The company the moisture level is now embarking on its first and consistency project at The Gear Factory of the feedstock. in Syracuse, New York (www.

The end of a burner immediately after use with no residue Summerhill thegearfactorysyr.com). This leftover. This translates into minimal maintenance Biomass project, which is currently powder burning systems partners with suppliers in its first phase, is a multiare also automated, from of powder processing phase demonstration which material delivery and storage, equipment to select the only begins with a 120,000 to the combustion process. most suitable application.

BTU oil furnace conversion to A 100% combustion rate Why go to powder? The a powder burner. This furnace means any ash that comes out level of efficiency in the will be used in real time to of the exhaust is not visible to powder burn system is due heat a portion of the building. the naked eye, resulting in a to the size of the particulate Testing is also being done on ‘clean burn’ and no leftover in the powder. The system the technology as well as the residue. With a simple design, is able to process any fuels used in the system. l maintenance of Summerhill particulate matter in the For more information: Biomass boilers will be similar right explosible range as long This article was written by to that of a natural gas furnace. as it is not fully oxidised.

Theresa Auricchio, CEO, Summer However, as the company is Biomass Systems. Visit: www.

Feedstock agnostic as well as summerhillbiomass.com in the early stages, its first boiler agnostic, burners from

May/June 2014 • 65

Bioenergy pulp & paper Societies and industries are being driven to find more eco-efficient raw materials and sources of energy, as well as to make products and services in a more sustainable way

Adding value

N

ew biomass conversion technologies create opportunities for companies, especially in the pulp and paper, oil and gas, chemicals and materials, and power generation industries. It is estimated that by 2030 there will be several entirely new value chains.

Increasing numbers of biobased markets are expected to grow and pave the way towards new technologies, products and production systems. New kinds of eco-efficient gaseous, liquid and solid fuels, chemicals and materials will be developed.

In this business it is very important to manage the entire life cycle of a product, from purchasing the raw material to end use and recycling.

As an example, companies in the forest industry sector are in an excellent position to gain significant benefits by implementing new biomass conversion technologies.

Integrated production of solid and liquid biofuels in the pulp and woodworking industries is an important outcome.

Biomaterials such as ligninbased carbon fibres and nanocellulose fibres, composites and bioplastics also have great potential as bio-based materials will increasingly emerge in the markets.

Because of rising energy prices, all industries are paying more and more attention to the energy consumption and operating costs of their production lines. New innovations are already making pulp and papermakers’ production processes more efficient.

For instance, a press to improve press dryness and save energy, as well as a new process for low consistency refining are already part of

66 • May/June 2014

commercial practice. Pulp and paper companies can also improve their product quality and materials efficiency through light-weighting and by using new coating methods.

Valmet, a service and technology supplier for the pulp, paper and energy industries, is providing customers with technologies for intensifying the sustainable use of wood, agricultural materials, recyclable paper and various waste flows, and also has experience in converting biomass into renewable energy such as electricity, heat and gas, and recyclable products like pulp, paper, board and tissue.

The company’s technologies can also make existing heat and power plants more sustainable by using different kinds of biomass or sorted waste as a co-fuel. Over the past decade it has delivered more than 13GWth of boiler capacity that utilises renewable fuels and reduces emissions associated with fossil fuelfired boilers. Today, 40% of the world’s paper is produced with Valmet’s machines.

‘This CO2 neutral energy production has helped to avoid 40 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions annually, corresponding to emissions from over 24 million cars,’ says Jyrki Holmala, president of Valmet’s pulp and energy business line. ‘This is possible thanks to our fluidised bed boiler and gasification technology and its ability to convert various renewable raw materials, such as forest residuals, non-food agro fuels and waste, into energy.’ l For more information:

This is based on the article ‘Value from renewable raw materials’, written by Marita Niemelä of Valmet. Visit: www.valmet.com

Examples of recent projects New revenue streams through lignin separation

VALMET’S LIGNOBOOST process separates and collects

lignin from the pulping liquor. The world’s first commercial installation of this technology was supplied to Domtar in Plymouth in the US state of North Carolina, where it was started up in 2013. The second will be supplied to Stora Enso’s Sunila mill near Kotka in the southeast of Finland; the startup is scheduled for the first quarter of 2015. The separation of a portion of the mill’s total lignin production allows an increase in pulp production capacity. It also provides the mill with a new and more profitable value stream from a product that was traditionally burned in a recovery boiler.

Lignin can be utilised as renewable fuel instead of fossil fuels and as a starting material for new bio-based products.

New revenue streams through bio-oil production

FORTUM’S FIRST industrial-scale bio-oil production plant was commissioned in Joensuu, eastern Finland, in November 2013. The plant, integrated with Fortum’s Joensuu combined heat and power plant (CHP), is unique in the world. It will annually produce 50,000 tonnes of bio-oil from wood-based fuels, in addition to electricity and district heat. The produced bio-oil can be used to replace heavy fuel oil, for example, in power plants and this annual production corresponds to the heating needs of around 10,000 households. In the future, bio-oil could be further processed into transportation fuels and raw material for the chemicals industry.

Valmet supplied the plant to Joensuu as a turnkey delivery, including the foundations and buildings, feedstock reception and pre-treatment, pyrolysis system, bio-oil storage tanks and loading equipment, as well as a Metso DNA automation system and electrification. The delivery also included installation, testing and training.

New valuable products from biomass

VALMET WILL supply a prehydrolysis system to Bioprocess

Pilot Facility BV’s (BPF) bio pilot plant in Delft, The Netherlands. BPF’s bio pilot plant is designed to handle different biomass raw materials and agricultural wastes like wheat straw and bagasse, and also wood. The key parts of the pilot plant are biomass feeding, hydrolysis reactors and equipment for the separation of liquid and residual solid biomass after hydrolysis.

Valmet’s delivery consists of a prehydrolysis system on a pilot scale that is designed for a capacity of 40kg of wheat straw (biomass) per hour. The start-up of the system is scheduled for August 2014. The prehydrolysis step prepares the biomass and renders the polysaccharides accessible, and is an important initial step in several biorefining processes.

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Port of partnerships xxxxxx Bioenergy

biomass meets

market

Bioenergy Insight

Welcome to the port of Amsterdam. Where biomass meets market. The port of Amsterdam has the ambition to grow in a sustainable way. As second-largest coal port of Europe we have all the facilities and experience to storage, tranship and process biomass. Amsterdam has a unique, logistical location within the world largest international, energy hub ARA (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Antwerp). Amsterdam has also excellent connections for transit to the hinterland.

The port of Amsterdam offers a dynamic international hub and achieves this by closely cooperating with partners in the business, city and region.

Want to know more about the port of Amsterdam where all kinds of biomass meets the market? Go to www.portofamsterdam.nl or contact Port of Amsterdam Commercial Division, Cluster Energy directly via lex.de.ridder@portofamsterdam.nl

May/June 2014 â&#x20AC;˘ 67

Bioenergy port infrastructure The Port of Halifax is ideally located to quench Europe’s thirst for industrial pellets

Harbouring new opportunities

I

n real estate, it is said that location is everything. If this is the case, Halifax Grain Elevator occupies a prime piece of real estate, ideally situated to support the growing biomass sector in Nova Scotia, Canada.

The elevator is a large

efficiently load it directly onto cargo vessels, trucks or rail either as bulk material or as containerised cargo thanks to our tip and load capabilities. This provides our customers with the options they need to get their product to market, wherever that Source: Steve Farmer

The exterior of the Halifax Grain Elevator

68 • May/June 2014

market happens to be.’

The grain elevator is directly connected to the piers through a system of galleries and conveyers. Biomass companies are able to store wood pellets at the elevator, and when there is enough material to fill either a shipping container or a bulk carrier, they can move the product directly onto the vessel. This is what Viridis Energy was looking to do when it started producing wood pellets in Nova Scotia last year.

‘In large-scale biomass operations, the wood pellets are typically stored for several months in order to accumulate sufficient volume to fill a large dry bulk vessel,’ comments

The facility has the capacity to produce between 120,000 and 150,000 tonnes per year of wood pellets.

‘If used exclusively for home heating, this amount would heat over 30,000 homes each winter,’ explains Rebiere. ‘As an alternative to coal, this amount would keep a single power generation station going for less than a month.’

Scotia Atlantic has a state-ofthe-art, fully automated scale for trucks to deliver and unload logs and sawdust/shavings along with five pellet mills and a dryer. The facility does whole log chipping onsite as well as processes sawdust and shavings from a number of sawmills and sustainable biomass sources from across the province.

In 2013 Viridis signed a contract with Sweden-based Ekman & Co. to distribute wood pellets throughout Europe for power generation, industrial heating and residential heating. Halifax is the closest full-service Source: Steve Farmer

storage facility located in the Port of Halifax, one of the largest natural ice-free harbours in the world. The elevator storage has capacity for over 138,000 tonnes — which can be used to store traditional agri-products like grain and lentils, but it can also be used to store wood pellets and other biomass products.

‘There are tremendous export opportunities for those in the biomass industry through this facility,’ says Jeff Brownlie, manager of finance and administration at Halifax Grain Elevator. ‘We have the ability to store a variety of bulk cargoes in a clean, dry environment and then very

Michele Rebiere, chief financial officer at Viridis Energy.

‘The storage method is very important as pellets cannot be exposed to the elements.

The storage location is also critical, and the most costeffective means of storing is at the Port of Halifax, where the ships are loaded.’

Viridis Energy owns and operates a wood pellet manufacturing facility in Middle Musquodoboit, Nova Scotia, located about an hour northeast of the Port of Halifax. ‘Our operation — Scotia Atlantic Biomass — is our largest manufacturing facility,’ Rebiere continues. ‘We process wood waste products and manufacture wood pellet biomass. These pellets are used as a clean alternative to coal by the power generation companies around the world.’

Scotia Atlantic is situated on over 130 acres of land with a unique structure that allows for each process of manufacturing to occur in its own building.

The conveyor belt system inside of the elevator

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Tanks port infrastructure Bioenergy

A vessel being loaded with wood pellets at the Port of Halifax in February

container port to northern Europe, two days closer than any other North American container port on the east coast. Rotterdam, the import hub for Europe, is just over

3,000km from Halifax. Such a strategic location enables Viridis to take advantage of the rapidly growing demand for pellets in Europe.

‘The market outlook for

the renewable energy sector and biomass in particular is staggering,’ Rebiere says.

‘Due to the legislation and mandates by the European Union and other regions

to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and generate at least 20% of power from renewable sources, we expect the wood pellet biomass market to reach 40 million tonnes of consumption by the year 2020.’

In early February, a bulk cargo vessel sailed into the Port of Halifax and was loaded with approximately 25,000 tonnes of wood pellets which had been stored at the Halifax Grain Elevator until enough had been accumulated to fill the vessel. The load was then shipped to Ghent, Belgium.

Viridis is now working toward the next similar-sized shipment, scheduled to depart the Port of Halifax sometime in the early part of summer. l For more information:

This article was written by Lane Farguson, communications advisor at Halifax Port Authority, www.portofhalifax.ca

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february 2014 | aD & biogas News

19

May/June 2014 • 69

Bioenergy port infrastructure With a strategic location and existing dry bulk handling capabilities, the Port of Amsterdam is well located for the integration of renewable energy

Energy specialist

A

msterdam, Europe’s largest petrol port and second largest coal port, has a unique logistical location within the world’s largest international energy hub ARA (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Antwerp) — three connecting seaports serving the European hinterland. It is one of the leading players in the fossil energy market and also an excellent hub for renewable energy and the bio-based economy.

The port has a sea-entrancedraft up to 13.7m, without lightering. With its lightering facility before the locks in IJmuiden, Amsterdam handles capsize bulk carriers up to a draft of 17.8m. In addition, it has hinterland connections for inland shipping to ARA ports and Germany, as well as the UK by sea. It is therefore indispensable for a reliable supply of Europe’s energy needs.

Coal handling facilities at Amsterdam are expected to grow from today’s 18 million tonnes a year to 20 million tonnes a year in 2020.

It wants to facilitate this growth in a sustainable way, by encompassing a range of activities such as covered belts to reducing dust emissions during transshipment, handling and transport, and dust systems for monitoring emissions.

Biomass: enormous opportunities In 2012 the port handled 200,000 tonnes of biomass and this is expected to grow to 2 million tonnes by 2020.

‘Biomass is on track,’ says Lex de Ridder from the commercial division, cluster energy at the Port of Amsterdam. We

70 • May/June 2014

The Port of Amsterdam expects to handle 2 million tonnes of biomass by 2020

have a strategic position for transit to the hinterland via the Amsterdam Rhine Canal and rail, as well as to the UK and Denmark by short sea.

We are ready to cooperate with biomass and energy companies in these countries.’

He continues: ‘We expect large coal terminals will grow to handle biomass. These terminals, like OBA Bulk Terminal, Rietlanden Terminals and Maja Stuwadoors, are already part of the existing energy chain. In addition, companies active in soft commodities such as cocoa, like CWT Europe, are interested in biomass as well.

They closely monitor every activity in biomass and see opportunities in handling renewables such as woodchips.’

One of the key reasons for this predicted growth is the planned investment in a 38MW dedicated biomass power plant, which will consume 100,000 tonnes of biomass annually. This

facility is scheduled to begin operations at the end of 2016.

‘Amsterdam is prepared for this expected rise in biomass handling,’ de Ridder assures.

‘The terminals are prepared and we are ready to facilitate.

Biomass suppliers, mainly in the US and Canada, are investing in the construction of new infrastructure for facilitate biomass exports to Europe. There are obvious opportunities for all partners.’

This breakthrough of biomass at the port also depends on decisions to be made by European authorities and the Dutch government at the end of 2014. ‘When they decide in favour of biomass, developments will speed up fast,’ explains de Ridder.

‘The expectation is that the Netherlands will import about 4 million tonnes in 2023. We see enormous opportunities.

When, for example, Vattenfall starts blending biomass in its power plants, biomass in

Amsterdam will grow with 500,000 tonnes a year.’

Port of partnerships In addition to biomass, the Port of Amsterdam is also adding to its storage and handling infrastructure for biogas and biofuels. With its various successful renewable energy activities and clustering of sustainable companies in the port area, it is increasingly contributing to the transition to a bio-based economy.

Its strong position in the fossil energy market is the base for integration of renewable energy, such as biomass. This is achieved through cooperations with international businesses, the local business community, the region and the municipality of Amsterdam. l

For more information:

www.portofamsterdam.com

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May/June 2014 • 71

Bioenergy conveyors One engineering firm is nearing completion of two multi-million pound contracts — Drax Power Station in Selby and E.ON’s Renewable Energy Plant in Sheffield

All systems go D rax Power Station in the UK, already the largest power station in the UK, is also set to become the UK’s largest single renewable energy generator through the operation of the new Biomass Eco Store Project.

This project involved the installation of 28 conveyors, totalling 3.5km in length, with a total belt length of 7.9km. The conveyors will transport fuel from trains into four special domes which can each hold up to 75,000 tonnes of biomass.

The domes themselves were built in a unique way — giant ‘balloons’ were blown up from the ground then each one was sprayed from the inside with concrete. Each one is 55m in diameter and 60m high.

The conveyor sections, designed and installed by UK mechanical handling engineers Geo Robson & Co. (Conveyors), were fitted within the gantries on the ground then lifted as a 140 tonne section using one of the largest cranes in the world. The rising height from the first conveyor below ground to the highest point is 80m. The conveyor system will enable 2,800 tonnes of biomass pellets to be transferred per hour.

Under the contract Robson, an established supplier of mechanical handling systems within the alternative fuel power generation markets, installed conveyors for a new biomass rail unloading and storage system.

Robson’s MD Kevin Mannion, says: ‘The production of alternative fuels is a growing challenge, one which we are meeting through the design,

72 • May/June 2014

The domes at Drax were built in a unique way

manufacture and installation of equipment that is precision engineered and capable of safely withstanding the long-term handling of tough materials. All of our biomass systems are ATEX rated, meaning they are suitable for use in explosive atmospheres.

‘For the build of the conveyor system we had over 60 employees on site so this was a big job. We have the equipment and expertise to design systems to suit customer needs and, as this project demonstrates, there is no limit to the size and height of an installation,’ Mannion adds.

The UK government targets dictate that, by 2030, 30% of the UK’s energy must come from renewable sources. ‘Now this project is complete,’ says Mannion, ‘Drax will be able to provide 10% of the government’s target by using biomass.’

Doubling up

Robson is also nearing completion of another multi-million pound contract at Blackburn Meadows in Sheffield, UK. The E.ON Biomass

system, ensuring the precise design criteria was met and that power consumption, dust and noise levels were strictly controlled.

The company designed the biomass system to optimise lorry unloading so fuel can be fed into the storage system at a continuous rate by a tripper conveyor. The conveyor has been installed into the roof space of a 4,000 tonne storage warehouse and moves the full length of the building to create an even stockpile ready for conveying to the firing process.

This system design enables the fuel to be screened for size, while inline magnet separators and reject chutes ensure it is free from contaminants and steel that may harm the firing process.

Sampling and weighing equipment provide a metered delivery to suit the boiler

Twenty-eight conveyors stretching 3.5km have been installed at Drax

Renewable Energy Plant is capable of producing enough power for up to 40,000 homes by burning waste wood.

Robson engineers worked with E.ON to design the biomass

requirement while also checking the material quality.

Up to 10 lorries per hour can be unloaded, enabling approximately 435 tonnes of biomass fuel to be delivered

Bioenergy Insight

conveyors Bioenergy into the system every hour.

The site was home to the original Blackburn Meadows 72MW power station, which was demolished in the early 1980s. The two cooling towers stood for a further 27 years until they were demolished in 2008.

Burning renewable fuel instead of traditional fossil fuels like coal and gas means the new plant will displace around 80,000 tonnes per year of carbon dioxide emissions, the equivalent of taking more than 20,000 cars off UK roads annually.

Robson’s project manager, Paul Fletcher, explains: ‘We were awarded the contract following the initial selection of preferred supplier at the tender stages and we have since worked closely with the E.ON project team to develop the bespoke biomass handling scheme.

‘We started the mechanical

The biomass handling system at E.ON was designed by Robson

build in 2012 at our headquarters in Sheffield, just a mile from the power station site. The scope of supply included the electrical installation, control system and the buildings. We have —

as far as possible — sourced and manufactured everything locally and have delivered on time, on budget and within the original project criteria.’

Throughout the length of the project Robson has

directly employed up to 100 people on site at any one time, providing jobs for the local community. l For more information:

Visit: www.robson.co.uk

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May/June 2014 • 73

Bioenergy pellet quality What must Canadian wood pellets be tested for before they are shipped across the Atlantic to Europe?

Quality control

S

ince its inception in 1998, the international market for wood pellets has grown from zero to 24 million tonnes and is expected to double again by 2020.

Wood pellets are shipped internationally, to be burnt as a coal substitute in thermal co-firing power plants and stand alone utilities. In a world increasingly conscious of the impact of human activity on the health of the planet, wood pellets are considered a clean and renewable energy source, increasingly replacing other non-renewable sources to produce power and heat. From its early days, supplying wood pellets for local domestic, commercial and institutional heating systems, this valuable market has extended beyond domestic borders and become a viable international trade.

Markets worldwide Domestic consumption is ever-popular in North America and Europe, as new equipment and systems are being developed allowing wood pellets to be used at home and in facilities to produce heat at prices competitive to gas or oil alternatives.

In addition, Japan, South Korea and China are three new growing industrial markets to be aware of.

As the wood pellet market has grown and matured, so the end product specification has been finessed. Driven by customer demands and technical developments, the improvements include: • Increased durability, so they do not emit dust during transport

74 • May/June 2014

• Smaller particle sizes within pellets for use in pulverised coal plants and standalone utilities, where the product is injected with air into boilers, much like a gas • Reduced chlorine content, to prevent corrosion • Low sulphur and nitrogen content, to keep emissions low • Low ash content, to reduce ‘clinker’ which is hard to dispose of.

Export industry sustainability Canada is a major wood pellet producer and expects to produce more than 2.1 million tonnes this year alone. More than 90% of that production will be exported, primarily to Europe, as well as emerging markets in Japan and Korea.

To compete with other suppliers and to ensure

the business retains its environmental credentials, independent service provider SGS supports producers to verify their compliance to a range of sustainability audit and certification schemes, including: • Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) • Customised audit verification • Sustainable Bio Fuel (SBF) • Green Gold Label.

Testing and analysis The precise specification for a consignment of wood pellets is agreed, in contracts, between pellet producers and their customers, to ensure they meet the requirements for their end use. The quality and specification of products are verified by comprehensive testing programmes.

Buyers require wood pellets

to have high calorific content and low moisture. Analysis by a third party laboratory determines whether a shipment will be accepted and, in the case of calorific value, forms the basis for payment. SGS provides analysis on wood pellet shipments globally for both buyer and seller.

Advanced testing capabilities In Canada, SGS operates from its Delta Lab in Vancouver, British Columbia. Its experts ensure that the end product is tested at the production plant, in its laboratory at the time of shipping, and again at the point of discharge. Serving the needs of British Columbia’s three main deep-water ports, this facility is equipped to analyse samples for: • Proximate • Ultimate

TEST

TEST METHOD

Moisture

EN 14774-2 / ASTM E871

Ash

EN 14775 / ASTM D 1102

Calorific value (net CV - ultimate required)

EN 14918 / ASTM D 5865

Volatile

CEN/TS 15148 / ASTM E872

ASTM D 4239/ISO 19579/EN

Sulphur 15289 Ultimate (M.A,S,CHN)

EN 15104

Particle size distribution

EN 15149-2

Ash fusion 4 point (reducing or oxidising)

ASTM D 1857 / EN15370-1

Ash fusion 8 point (reducing and oxidising)

ASTM D 1857 /. EN15370-1

Carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen

EN 15104

Chlorine

ASTM D 4208

Bulk density

EN 15103

Mechanical durability (tumbler test)

EN 15210-1

Length and diameter testing

EN 16127

Metals

EN 15297

Chlorine

ASTM D 6721

Capabilities for SGS analysis

Bioenergy Insight

pellet quality Bioenergy • Rheology • Sieve • Calorific value • HGI • Ash fusion.

The Vancouver lab analyses all wood pellet shipments from British Columbia’s two major wood pellet ports: Fiberco in northern Vancouver and the new Westview Terminal in Prince Rupert. It receives samples of wood pellets for analysis from producers throughout North America.

SGS became involved in Canada’s wood pellet market in order to help producers and sellers achieve a fair market value for wood derived fuels in the domestic marketplace.

As the market grew, the company developed its testing and analysis services and investigated additional, more effective methods of evaluation, especially how ASTM methods could be used to analyse wood samples. ASTM

testing methods were quickly superseded by ISO methods.

Today, the industry uses EN standards to analyse wood pellets exported to Europe.

In order to improve testing capabilities, meet market demand and support producers and exporters in Canada, SGS has invested significantly in new equipment, methodologies and developed its own laboratory information system. New calorimeters

and analysers are being used to reduce turnaround times, increase capacity and capability, including instruments to perform: • Carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen analysis • Pellet durability testing • Particle size reduction (Retsch vibratory screen device and Retsch knife mill).

Further purchases are planned for sulphur and chlorine analysis. Elsewhere, SGS has

also invested in ICP-MS and a microwave digestion system to provide trace mineral analysis on wood pellets.

As the market has developed, so the company’s experience and capabilities have grown to continue to meet the requirements of its customers in the wood pellet and biofuel sector. l For more information: www.sgs.com

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Bioenergy Insight

May/June 2014 • 75

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Bioenergy Insight

ADBA preview Bioenergy A look at what attendees of the upcoming UK AD & Biogas 2014 can look forward to hearing about when the conference and tradeshow returns to Birmingham on 2-3 July

In the spotlight

T

he debate around the sustainability of bioenergy feedstocks is extremely complex, especially compared to public perception that can see it as a simplistic question of ‘food versus fuel’.

For policy makers, though, the questions are about balance: how to create a system which regulates the sector without unduly restricting it; how to take account of differences between technologies, while keeping criteria as

simple as possible; and how to take into account wider, non-greenhouse gas (GHG) environmental impacts, and indeed benefits, of bioenergy technologies.

Anaerobic digestion (AD) is a good example of the complexity of the

sustainability issue. Growing crops for use in AD, such as maize, grass and rye silage, can lead to more effective crop rotations by giving break and cover crops an economic value to the farmer. Their use can help increase soil organic matter, improve soil structure

Imtech returns to ADBA as conference sponsors IMTECH WATER, Waste and Energy is an engineering and construction management contractor dedicated to providing value-added services on a wide range of water, biosolids, wasteto-energy and biomass projects.

The company is returning to UK AD & Biogas again this year, this time as both an exhibitor and conference sponsor.

On the morning of day one, Barry Oliver, Imtech technical director, will be providing listeners with a market outlook, before Oliver’s colleague, senior process engineer Adrian Jaques, partakes in a panel session about driving AD best practice on day two. Imtech will be exhibiting at stand E089, where it will be focusing on four principal aspects of waste and energy: biogas upgrading, AD of source segregated organic waste, AD of MSW and the digestion of sewage.

The company, which develops environmentally sustainable solutions, is a leading delivery partner for major AD projects in the UK. One of its most recent contract awards is with Tamar Energy to build a £14.5 million (€18 million) AD plant at Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire.

The plant will convert 66,000 tonnes per year of unavoidable food wastes to around 3MWe of renewable electricity — enough to power 6,000 homes. It will also produce 18,000 tonnes of renewable fertiliser material annually.

Another project part of Imtech’s established portfolio is that for company Shanks, which is a demonstration of AD from municipal waste (MSW). The AD facility forms part of a planned Bioenergy Insight

Visit Imtech at booth E089

waste treatment park at South Kirkby near Wakefield, which will receive and treat up to 230,000 tonnes per year of the authority’s waste. Once completed, the 65,000 tonnes a year AD plant will produce biogas for renewable energy generation, which is estimated to be able to power approximately 3,000 homes.

And with the imminent completion of a plant at Minworth, Severn Trent Water’s largest sewage treatment works, Imtech is able to demonstrate the benefits of biogas upgrading. The company is also taking advanced AD to the next level, with biomethane gas-to-grid. Once complete, the new plant will take approximately 1,200m³/ hour of the biogas and remove carbon

dioxide and trace contaminants, to produce biomethane (97-98% methane). The remaining biogas will be processed through the existing CHP units, to generate electricity and heat for use within the wastewater treatment process, with excesses exported off-site to the national grid.

Capital investment into this biomethane gas-to-grid plant was economically attractive. Following the recent introduction of the UK Government’s Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme, the project has an anticipated three year payback period.

When complete and combined with the existing CHP plant, it will ensure that the Minworth treatment site is energy self-sufficient, with increased income.

May/June 2014 • 77

Bioenergy ADBA preview The future of farms FORUM FOR the Future is an independent not-for-profit organisation based in London, UK, working globally with business, government and other organisations to solve complex sustainability challenges and find practical ways for public and private organisations to contribute to sustainable development.

Founded in 1996 by Paul Ekins, Sara Parkin and Jonathon Porritt — three prominent figures in the UK environmental movement — Forum for the Future is involved in a number of projects addressing sustainability challenges.

It is on the basis of one of these projects, known as Farm Power, that Forum for the Future’s principal and improve biodiversity, ultimately resulting in greater long term farm profitability as well as helping the wider environment.

AD also recycles the nutrients in food and other

sustainability advisor and Farm Power leader, Iain Watt, has been invited to chair a session on ‘the future of small scale anaerobic digestion (AD) on farms’ at ADBA this year. Watt and his colleagues are using the Farm Power project to raise the question of ‘what role could — and should — farms play in a sustainable energy system’.

The company has partnered with a number of organisations that work across the energy and food systems, including National Grid, Lely, NTU, Farmers Weekly and the Esmee Foundation to look at what is preventing farms from fulfilling their potential within the UK’s energy system.

The project will research and develop communication materials

biowastes back to the land, supports the management of nutrients between fields and contributes to food security. This is especially noteworthy given we are rapidly approaching peak

and support structures for farmers to guide them towards farm-based energy solutions through studies and community work. Using funding from the Ashden Trust, Forum for the Future partnered up with Farmers Weekly and Nottingham Trent University to run a three-month pilot study exploring the thoughts and frustrations of those involved in the industry.

‘Our hunch is that farms should be playing a much more central role in our energy system. Farm-based energy not only represents an opportunity to diversify our energy infrastructure, but also to build resilience in both the energy and food systems, all while helping to revitalise struggling rural communities,’ Watt said in a statement.

phosphorus production, expected to be reached in the 2030s. Phosphorus is a central ingredient in artificial fertiliser but a finite resource and, coupled with a sharply rising global population,

this could put significant pressure on food production.

Easing this pressure by supporting the growth of the digestate market, which replaces the need for artificial fertiliser, therefore

Dealing with degression BRITISH FIRM Biogen specialises in food waste anaerobic digestion (AD), working with local authorities and commercial customers across the UK. The company has over 30 years’ experience in the field, designing and developing anaerobic digesters with in-house engineers for other companies as well as owning and operating its own facilities.

Company CEO Julian O’Neill will be speaking at ADBA about how to deal with the effects of, and adapt to, degression in the industry.

‘In our business of AD we have two main revenue streams,’ says O’Neill, ‘the gate fee for food waste and what we get paid for producing energy — which comes from selling back to the grid or from government subsidies. Unfortunately, as 78 • May/June 2014

more plants come online and the industry becomes more efficient, the amount of subsidy you receive decreases leading to lower revenues.’

O’Neill will speak about why he thinks the degression mechanism is in place as well as providing a market overview. He himself acknowledges the fact that degression has been known about for some time, so why now?

‘This is the reality of the industry. Some businesses have been able to prepare but others have not. Many people across the industry are feeling the pinch,’ he says. ‘Companies looking to build out AD infrastructure need financial incentives, but if subsidies disappear then what can you do?

The AD business needs to focus on finding alternative

sources of revenue and ways to cut operating costs.’

The Biogen CEO is wellplaced to give advice on preparing to face degression — the company currently has three plants in operation which produce between 0.5 and 2.9MW of renewable electricity from thousands of tonnes of food waste annually.

Its Westwood plant in Northamptonshire processes 65,000 tonnes of food waste each year generating 2.9MW of renewable electricity, sufficient to power over 6,000 homes and producing enough biofertiliser to support 1,750 acres of growing crop.

Westwood has been awarded the PAS 110 certification for its biofertiliser meaning it is of consistent quality and fit for purpose.

Twinwoods, in Bedfordshire, processes 47,000 tonnes

of food waste per year generating 1.8MW of green electricity and produces 33,000 tonnes of biofertiliser.

GwyriAD in Gwynedd, Wales processes 11,500 tonnes of food waste per year generating 0.5MW of green electricity — enough for 700 houses annually, the size of the nearby village of Penygroes.

Two more facilities will come online later this year, the Waen plant in St Asaph, northeast Wales and the Bygrave plant in Hertfordshire.

Waen, scheduled for completion in July, will process 22,500 tonnes of food waste per year and will produce 1MW of renewable electricity. Bygrave, expected to come online in November, will process 45,000 tonnes of food waste per year and produce 2.2MW of renewable

Bioenergy Insight

ADBA preview Bioenergy has obvious benefits when considering food security.

Looking to the future, innovation in the AD sector could provide exciting opportunities in the wider bioeconomy. For example, could digestate be used to produce higher value chemicals or other products?

Exciting developments like this could improve plant profitability and emphasise that sustainability criteria also need to take account of the possible production of co-products alongside energy.

While it is important that we recognise the wider environmental benefits of technologies such as AD, it remains vital to ensure any adverse impacts are avoided.

With that in mind, the Anaerobic Digestion and Biogas Association (ADBA), alongside Defra and industry groups including NFU, CLA, NNFCC and REA, is set to publish a best practice guidance document on how crops can

best be grown sustainably for AD. The document will provide invaluable information to farmers and policymakers alike.

With sustainability criteria set to come into force in the next year under both the Renewables Obligation and Renewable Heat Incentive,

it is vital that we have an open debate around the true environmental impact of each form of bioenergy with criteria which assess the full lifecycle impact.

ADBA’s upcoming trade show UK AD & Biogas 2014, to be help on 2-3 July at the NEC in Birmingham, will focus

strongly on the farming sector and growing crops sustainably for AD. Seminar sessions on sustainability criteria and crop options are likely to be keenly attended, and delegates will also be keen to hear what the new NFU president, Meurig Raymond, has to say on AD’s role in sustainable farming. l

Biogen’s Bygrave plant in Hertfordshire will come online later this year

electricity. This is enough to power 4,500 homes, while the volume of biofertiliser is sufficient enough to grow 10,530 tonnes of crops.

Another two plants, Bryn Pica in South Wales and Merevale, Warwickshire, are due for completion

Bioenergy Insight

mid-2015, and the company is designing and building a plant for a customer in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Biogen is aiming to develop a national network of at least 10 AD plants by 2016 through a range of different opportunities, namely plants

developed on the basis of secure long term contracts to process local authority food waste and those developed to process food waste from a range of local and national commercial and industrial sources to deliver a lower risk diverse revenue model.

Partner-led opportunities built on the basis of strategic partnerships with key market players that can deliver a superior risk adjusted return and AD plant sales to customers wishing to own their own facilities complete Biogen’s strategy.

May/June 2014 • 79

Bioenergy events & advert index Bioenergy events Event Mon UK AD & Biogas 1Interforest

Venue Date

Tue 2

Wed 3

Fri

Thu Birmingham Germany 4

5

Sat UK 2-3 July 2014

Sun

16-20 6 July 2014

7

2014 Pellet Fuels Institute Annual Conference

Orlando, Florida, US

27-29 July 2014

Palmex

Thailand

21-22 August 2014

Guangzhou Int’l Biomass Energy Exhibition

China

26-28 August 2014

Nordic Biogas Conference

Reykjavik

Iceland 27-29 August 2014

International Conference: Progress in Biogas III

Germany

12

10-11 September 2014

Renewable Energy World Asia 2014

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

10-12 September 2014

PowerGEN Asia 2014

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia,

10-12 September 2014

Bioenergy From Forest

Helsinki, Finland

15-18 September 2014

The Renewables Event

Birmingham, UK

16-17 September 2014

8

9

Bio-Energy China Conference

15

16

World Bio Markets Brazil

10

17

11

Qingdao, China

18

São Paulo, Brazil

13

14

16-18 September 2014

19

20

21

17-18 September 2014

Biofuels International Conference 2014

Ghent, Belgium

24-25 September 2014

4th USIPA Pellet Export Conference

Miami, USA

1-3 October 2014

Conference of the European Biogas Association 2014 22

Alkmaar region, the Netherlands

30 September 2014 - 2 October 2014

Nordic District Heating

Jönköping, Sweden

30 September-2 October 2014

Nextgen/ebec

23

24

25

Stoneleigh Park, UK

26

27

28

8-9 October 2014

RENEXPO

Augsburg, Germany

9-12 October 2014

Expobiomasa 2014

Valladolid, Spain

23-23 October 2014

Int. Expo on Heating and Heat Power Technology

China

29-31 October 2014

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Advert index BTS Biogas Srl/GmbH 60 Chesterfield BioGas Limited 15 Detroit Stoker Company 5 Di Pui’ srl 9 Dreyer & Bosse Kraftwerke GmbH 27 Evonik Industries AG 29 Geotech 45 Hurst Boilers Inc Inside Front Cover Imerys 19 Imtech Water, Waste and Energy 75 Indeck Power Equipment Co 31 Jansen Combustion and Boiler Technologies, Inc

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80 • May/June 2014

Jenz GmbH Maschinen- und Fahrzeugbau

7 Kirk Environmental LTD Outside Back Cover Monostore LTD 69 Port of Amsterdam 67 Port of Sheet Harbour 73 Ruf Maschinenbau GmbH & Co. KG 25 Schmack Biogas GmbH (Viessmann Group) 13 TerraSource Global 11 Vermeer Corporation 21 Weltec Biopower GmbH

23 Xergi Limited 3

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