Two biogas plants of WELtec have been in operation at Agrargesellschaft Kandelin GmbH in Neuendorf and Wüsteney, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, since 2007. The construction of the third biogas plant started in May 2010, and the plant was commissioned in July. The order for the fourth WELtec plant has already been placed, and the approvalprocedure is under way.

“Back then, we considered the operation of biogas plants to be an opportunity to develop a promising business field in addition to food and feed crop production, pig breeding, and milk and beef cattle production, and to secure jobs for qualified employees”, explains Torsten Zahn, Managing Director of the agricultural company. As the same is still true today, the power generation field is being expanded: “At present, biogas is our most profitable line of business, and we would be pitiful businessmen if we failed to boost this area”, says Zahn, explaining the reasons for the expansion investments.

The design of the new biogas plants that are integrated in a calf facility in Kandelin is almost identical to that of the existing ones: 500 kW output, a 6,780-ft storage tank, and two fermenters of 70,630 cu ft each. However, the gas-tight final storage unit with a capacity of approximately 158,900 cu ft is new.
“We have always been impressed by the overall concept of WELtec BioPower. While being reduced to the required minimum, the employed technology is of a high quality and installed in a highly functional way. A functional pump block, a sturdy, easy-to-use control, and two dual-fuel engines”, says Zahn. The responsible staff at Agrargesellschaft appreciated the support they received during the start-up phase. “In the start-up phase, we coordinated the increasing feeding (maize silage, pig and cattle manure) and heating of the plant together with the WELtec biologists.” Additionally, WELtec impressed with its use of stainless steel: large fermenters are made of stainless steel, dosing devices are lined with stainless steel, and the entire feed input section and a storage tank are made of stainless steel in order to automate the feeding process to the highest degree possible. By continually expanding the use of the combined heat and power, the plants are to become even more profitable. Last winter, the milking unit in Neuendorf was connected to the exhaust heat of the combined heat and power plants. About 10 percent of the heat is used there. Though the heat is not yet used in Wüsteney, the pigsty is to be connected soon. For the third plant, the heat pipes are currently being laid, and the office and workshop facilities are to be heated next winter.

The plant with a production capacity of 60,000 tons per year will be realised by Topell Nederland, a joint venture of RWE Innogy (49.9 %) and Topell Energy (50.1 %). It is due to be commissioned early in 2011. The investment in the plant will total some € 15 million. RWE Innogy had already taken a share in the young, Dutch technology company Topell Energy two years ago as part of its venture capital activities.

Dr. Leonhard Birnbaum, member of the Executive Board of RWE AG: “Our intention was to commercialise a new process for the production of efficient biocoal, which significantly improves and extends the potential applications of biomass. As a leading operator of coal-fired power plants, we consider it to be our responsibility to reduce the CO2 emissions of electricity generation as much as possible. The plant whose foundation stone we are laying today is another major step in this direction.”

The process developed by Topell enables the continuous production of biocoal pellets on an industrial scale. The manufacturing process is highly flexible in terms of raw material input. Biocoal is easily transported. When co-fired with conventional coal, no additional infrastructural measures are required, such as separate storage and pulverisation.

The DuPont Danisco Cellulosic Ethanol (DDCE) joint venture and the DuPont partnership with Bio Architecture Lab (BAL) to develop macroalgae to butanol capabilities placed first, while the Butamax Advanced Biofuels joint venture placed second in their respective categories. DuPont Applied BioSciences President Craig F. Binetti: “Each venture incorporates game-changing science and tailored business models that maximize our ability to deliver large volumes of biofuels to a global population that is increasingly more interested in alternatives to oil.”

The joint venture of DuPont and Danisco has made rapid progress since it was established in 2008. DDCE has started up a 250,000-gallon demonstration-scale biorefinery in Tennessee and brought the cost of production below $2 per gallon. DDCE expects to announce its first commercial plans this fall. “Cellulosic ethanol is ready for deployment,” DuPont Applied BioSciences President Craig Binetti said.

The Butamax Advanced Biofuels joint venture was voted a clear leader in the development of biobutanol technologies. “The strategic plan for Butamax is to give biorefineries the option to convert from ethanol to biobutanol in the future. The joint venture has started some preliminarily exploratory discussions with ethanol producers in the United States and Brazil.”

The U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) awarded funding to DuPont and its partner BAL last fall to develop a process to convert macroalgae to biobutanol. The DuPont-BAL partnership placed firstin the category: Transformative Technology: macro algae platforms. “Macroalgae to biobutanol could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 90 percent when compared to petroleum and diversify feedstock routes for advanced biofuels.”

The new plant, which belongs to the Rothwell Lodge Farm in the East Midlands, will convert 30,000 t of biowaste and manure of the farm‘s cattle herd into electricity. The substrate of close-by farms (pig manure, flotate fat) will be fed into the two fermenters of 106,000 cu ft each in order to supply about 2,000 homes with power and heat. Two tanks of 120,000 cu ft each serve as digestate storage units. A hygienisation unit heats the digestate to 70°C in order to make it fit for use as fertiliser.

The last three plant orders that WELtec received from Wales, England, and Scotland use industrial food waste as substrate.

The World Bioenergy Award was awarded for the first time at the inauguration of the World Bioenergy international conference and trade fair on 25 May in Jönköping, Sweden. Competition was stiff, with 90 nominees from around the world. Seven finalists had been selected from among the nominees. The jury chose Laércio Couto as the winner because thanks to his practically focused research he has proven that it is possible to combine consideration for the environment with energy production.

The basis of Couto’s work is the eucalyptus, a species of tree that was introduced to Brazil in 1904. Eucalyptus grows very quickly and soon became a raw material for the forest industry. Laércio Couto became interested in eucalyptus when he was a student, and realised it also has potential for energy production. “Eucalyptus provided the solution to a problem”, says the researcher. Extra land is now being used to cultivate eucalyptus. The result is that power plants can run 12 months a year on biomass without impacting sensitive environments.

Information: World Bioenergy

Especially in the field of biogas, the container represents an economic overall package consisting of a biogas genset, a standard container, and biogas processing. All components are tuned to each other in the best way possible and are perfectly aligned with the special requirements of biogas operation.
Moreover, the cooling water and exhaust gas heat exchanger are integrated in the heating circuit. The TA-Luft exhaust gas regulations are complied with, and the requirements for the emission reduction bonus (e.g. for Germany) for limiting formaldehyde by means of active carbon desulfurization, catalysis, gas cool drying and, if necessary, compression, are met. Depending on the application case, the engines can be adjusted for various natural gas and special gas qualities in addition to biogas. 

During the nomination process, 90 nominations have been submitted, representing all continents and 19 different countries. The nominees represent not only different places of origin, but also a broad range of professional areas. After a voting process seven of the nominees stood out as the main nominees.

The engine, which is designed for operation with natural gas, supersedes its predecessor of the same designation and the previous model TCG 2020 OLS and will also be built in a V12 and a V16 version. The development has resulted in a 10 percent performance increase and improved efficiency. The company states the electrical output at 1,125 kW for the V12 variant and 1,500 kW for the V16. With a 400 V generator, the electrical efficiency for both cylinder types is 41.0 percent.

“Among other things, a newly developed turbo charger and an optimized combustion chamber contributed to the increase in performance and efficiency, while retaining the load response and isolated operation capabilities of the predecessor model”, explains Armin Roeseler, Head of Product Management at MWM. Furthermore, the inlet and the spark plugs have been optimized.

1. Highly respected professionals from the field will speak.

2. Using the solutions to controversial subjects.

3. Network with key figures from the biomass industry.

4. Teach and learn more about the various technologies of biomass.

5. Create more understanding about the economic prospect of the biomass industry.

6. Get a better understanding how the biomass industry has developed internationally.

7. You will come across various industries such as research, production, industry, technology services, education and government.

8. Hear all about the latest developments in the biomass industry.

9. 10 Hours of face time with Industry leaders.

10. Promote your business, technologies, products, services and / or research of your business.

Torspyd technology innovative process is based on the ‘solid organics distillation principle’. This patented technology, designed and developed by Thermya, enables to fully dehydrate and then depolymerize the biomass in order to produce an absolutely hydrophobic and homogeneous solid fuel. It is characterized by the highest energy yields performance of all technologies known to date. Torrefaction by Torspyd allows converting all kinds of biomass into BioCoal. This BioCoal, which contains less than 1 percent moisture, retains 95 percent of the initial biomass energy and more than 90 percent of its initial dry mass. The BioCoal’s net calorific value is around 20500 kJ/kg; far greater than the one of non-torrefied biomass. BioCoal can be mixed to fossil coal and co-fired in thermal power stations without any modification of the facilities. Co-firing BioCoal, as a substitute for coal, eliminates mix-rate limitations, reduces CO2, SO4 and NOx emissions. On top of that, thanks to lower NOx emissions, co-firing BioCoal allows to achieve equivalent energy efficiency with reduced fuel consumption.

As a result of its hydrophobic properties BioCoal cannot incur any biological degradations and can therefore be stored and shipped safely without any risk linked to climate conditions. The Torspyd torrefaction column is energy self-sufficient: the re-injection of 4 percent of the BioCoal production into the torrefaction system allows complementing the process’s operational energy requirements. “Today, Thermya is the only company in Europe to offer an industrially proven, fully operational biomass torrefaction continuous process”, explains Jean-Sebastian Hery, Technical Vice-President and co-founder of Thermya. Thermya signed a first license agreement in 2009 with the Spanish company Idema, Group Lantec. Through this agreement Idema will build torrefaction units based on the Torspyd process.

“Main benefits of our Torspyd technology are unrivalled performance levels and low operating costs. Torspyd is the relevant response to the environmental and economical issues electricity producers, operating coal-fired power stations, are currently facing. It also opens up opportunities for manufacturers of classical wood pellets or forest operators, whose production could gain considerable value from torrefaction. Classical pellets are indeed commonly produced from sawdust or from co products of the primary wood processing industry. Our technology, however, is designed to produce premium quality biomass fuel (totally dry and hydrophobic) directly from forestry residues – hardly used at present. Besides all that, producing premium quality pellets from torrefied wood is less energy-consuming than producing classical wood pellets”, comments Hervé Chauvin, Managing Director and co-founder of Thermya.