International » Power station in Aarhus. Negotiations regarding heat contracts are ongoing and final decisions have yet to be made. “We expect that Studstrup will start in the autumn 2016 and Skaerbaeck in 2017,” reports Carsten Birkeland Kjaer, communication manager at Dong Energy. The 389 MW Unit 3 in Studstrup is using coal today with a blend of up to 15 percent straw, running until 2015 under a prolonged offset heat agreement with Affald Varme Aarhus. The plant will be converted to 100 percent pellets with a yearly expected consumption of 525,000 to 600,000 tons. Studstrup has its own port facilities with a depth of 11.2 meters. In Skaerbaek, a new wood chip-fed CHP unit will be built to replace the existing gas CHP plant. But first, a new agreement must be signed with a local energy distributing company. Additional investments will be required for a harbor upgrade, storage buildings, a new boiler and integration with the existing units. A decision for the investment is expected in June. In Odense, Denmark’s third-largest city, Vattenfall operates the coal-based CHP plant, Fynsverket. Unit 8, with an electric capacity of 35 MW and heating at 110 MW, is replacing 100,000 tons of coal per year with straw. But, the main Unit 7 still uses 650,000 tons of coal annually. Vattenfall has said it does not currently find further biomass conversions to be economical, but that will be re-evaluated in 2018. The CHP plants in Aalborg and Esbjerg owned by Vattenfall and Dong, respectively, have not been tapped for conversion to biomass. Not far away from Fynsverket, in Aabenraa close to the German border, Vattenfall acquired Dong’s remaining share in April to become the sole owner of the Ensted transit coal port. With a water depth of 18 meters, the port can receive the largest ocean freighters. Dong has activated a transit port located in Stigsnaes, where ocean freighters with coal or pellets can be transloaded to barges for further transport. Wood pellets are also used in smaller plants in cities such as Herning (70,000 tons per year), Lemvig and Skive. Since 2009 in Skive, pellets fuel a fluidized-bed gasifier to
be converted to electricity and heat in three gas engines, producing 11 MW thermal heat and 3.2 MW electrical power. In the city of Randers, Verdo Energi has a CHP plant, importing wood chips produced from old rubber trees in West Africa via the Aarhus port. The company also runs two pellet production mills in the UK. Biomass CHP isn’t the only renewable energy development gaining steam in Denmark. The Maabjerg energy concept is integrating big-scale biogas with CHP and second-generation cellulosic ethanol. So far, the biogas and CHP units have been built and
negotiations are underway for financing the ethanol plant. Dong Energy is part owner of Inbicon, which has a biorefinery at Kalundborg demonstrating its cellulosic ethanol process. In addition, Dong announced in February a new collaboration with Finnish Neste Oil to produce renewable diesel and aviation fuel from agricultural residues. Author: Lennart Ljungblom Bioenergy Writer, Stockholm, Sweden lennart.ljungblom@mac.com + 46 - 70 739 01 05
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