Bioenergy insight July/August 2016

JULY/AUGUST 2016 Volume 7 • Issue 4

First time in the ring

Family business knocks out Australia with new AD plant

The big green wolf

Scottish firm sees benefit of CHP system

Regional focus: bioenergy in Scandinavia

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contents Bioenergy

Issue 4 • Volume 7 July/August 2016 Woodcote Media Limited Marshall House 124 Middleton Road, Morden, Surrey SM4 6RW, UK www.bioenergy-news.com MANAGING DIRECTOR Peter Patterson Tel: +44 (0)208 648 7082 peter@woodcotemedia.com EDITOR Liz Gyekye Tel: +44 (0)20 8687 4183 liz@woodcotemedia.com DEPUTY EDITOR Ilari Kauppila Tel: +44 (0)20 8687 4146 ilari@woodcotemedia.com INTERNATIONAL SALES MANAGER George Doyle Tel: +44 (0) 203 551 5752 george@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 £160/$270/€225 for 6 issues per year.

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

Contents 1 Contents 3 News 17 Green page 19 Plant update 20 First time in the ring

24 Adding value to waste 26 All eyes on UK AD

ISSN 2046-2476

Bioenergy Insight

The state and sustainability of the UK AD sector

28 The big green wolf

When a Scottish based farm needed a renewable energy process for its operations, it turned to a German-based combined heat and power technology specialist to help it out

30 Precious steel

Biogas digesters made from stainless steel are taking over the world

32 The real work begins

The Nordic region delivers impressive bioenergy progress

34 Clarity and confidence

A comment piece from Finland Bioenergy Association’s CEO

36 Going for growth

An assessment of the EU’s Circular Economy Package on the waste-to-energy sector

38 Power next door

Join the discussion on the Bioenergy Insight LinkedIn page

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.

How an Australian family business became immersed in the AD business

Stockholm is moving towards completely renewable energy economy with a new biomass plant in a residential area

40 Future-proofing wood pellet plant designs

Incorporating ‘future-proof’ design concepts into the layout and operating principles of new wood pellet plants is vital if managers are to improve quality and maximise profits from their multi-million pound investments

43 Pyrolysis special

Plastics to power

44 Feedstock focus: corn stover

Building the value chain from corn stover to sugar

JULY/AUGUST 2016 Volume 7 • Issue 4

First time in the ring

Family business knocks out Australia with new AD plant

The big green wolf

Scottish firm sees benefit of CHP system

48 Company profile

A decade of progress

Regional focus: bioenergy in Scandinavia

Front cover image courtesy of Balmoral Tanks

July/August 2016 • 1

Bioenergy comment

Expect the unexpected

U Liz Gyekye Editor

nless you have been living under a rock these past few months, you will be well aware that the UK voted to exit the EU in June. The result came as a shock, even to those who voted for a Brexit. It’s not the result most expected and it’s not the outcome the majority of the UK’s environmental sector wanted either. The UK has not officially left the EU yet. The UK government will have to plan exit negotiations and trigger Article 50 of the Treaty of Lisbon to do that.

According to a UK cross-party environmental committee, Britain’s exit from the EU would be bad for the UK’s environment policy. The group says that EU membership has been a crucial factor in shaping UK environmental policy. There is going to be a lot of discussion and uncertainty in the next weeks and months over the two-year process towards exit and its eventual effects.

It is perhaps too early to say what long-term impact Brexit will have on the UK’s bioenergy sector and its world partners. At the UK AD & Biogas 2016 show in June, industry experts predicted that Brexit would have a negative effect on the anaerobic digestion (AD) sector.

Trade body Anaerobic Digestion and Bioresources Association (ADBA), which runs the show, hosted a debate on the topic.

ADBA’s strategic advisor Chris Huhne said

that the UK’s AD sector will lose support from the EU’s renewable energy target and the EU’s Waste Directive will be “up in the air”. Another industry expert went further and labelled Brexit “the perfect suicide”.

Trade group Bio-Based and Biodegradable Industries Association’s (BBIA) managing director, David Newman, said that Brexit will continue a trend to accelerate the end of incentives for the industry. He said the AD industry was already small and due to lack of subsidies it will see more consolidation.

He also said that research and innovation departments will lose EU research money, which will slow growth in the sector.

Nevertheless, the UK government has signalled its intention to continue the fight against climate change by committing to its fifth carbon budget. Paris COP21 climate targets will also have to be met.

During challenging times some individuals and companies redouble their innovation efforts. As Newman concluded, the UK has to have firm AD policies in place whether it is in or out of Europe.

Best wishes, Liz

Follow us on Twitter: @BioenergyInfo

2 • July/August 2016

Bioenergy Insight

xxxxxx Bioenergy

biomass news Scot Heat & Power reaches licensing technology deal with ElectraTherm Scot Heat & Power, a UK-based biomass heating specialist, has reached a licensing agreement with US-based ElectraTherm to license its technology in the UK. ElectraTherm — a waste heat-topower generation specialist — already has two installations in the UK, but the deal with Scot Heat & Power marks its first Scottish presence.

In recent months alone, ElectraTherm has announced new installations in Germany, Italy, Romania and Japan.

ElectraTherm’s Power+Generator is an electricity generator that can be used with standard biomass hot water boilers.

The Power+ can also produce fuel-free, emission-free electricity from low-grade waste heat, and is capable of reaching outputs of up to 110kWe power generation, according to Scot Heat & Power.

Scot Heat & Power is a large-scale biomass fuel supplier to many commercial biomass boiler installations, government organisations and public sector industry

Scot Heat & Power’s managing director, Malcolm Snowie, said: “We are pleased to be exhibiting once again at Scotland’s largest outdoor event, and to be unveiling some of the most innovative

Honduran Green Power opens ‘one of a kind’ biomass plant in Honduras Honduran Green Power Corp.

(HGPC), has inaugurated a “one of a kind” 43MW biomass plant Honduras’ Sula Valley.

Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez described the $130 million (€115.4m) plant as unique on the world scale during the opening ceremony.

Around 11,418 acres of king grass, together with weevil-affected pine wood, African palm tree rachis, and sugarcane bagasse, will be used as fuel for the biomass facility.

The plant is part of the Central American country’s 20/20 programme, under which it targets an 80% share of renewables in its energy mix and a 20% reduction in fossil fuel consumption. l

Bioenergy Insight

technological developments in our field.

“We are particularly proud to be partnering with ElectraTherm, bringing its leading power generation capabilities to Scotland for the first time.” l

Nokian Tyres joins JV for newly commissioned biomass plant in Finland Finnish tyre company Nokian Tyres has joined a joint venture for building the Nokianvirran Energia biomass power plant in order to ensure the supply of eco-friendly and cost-efficient energy.

The plan to transition to renewable fuels and the rising operating costs of natural gas boilers were other important factors in the decision.

With the new biomass power plant, renewable energy sources account for approximately 70% of energy consumption at the factory located in Nokia, Finland.

Esa Eronen, VP of supply operations at Nokian Tyres, said the company wanted to ensure long-term energy supply to its factories, but it also had the environment on the mind.

“We value environmental aspects and want to contribute to reducing the emissions from energy production. For Nokian Tyres, the investment will also reduce our expenses,” said Eronen.

The Nokianvirran Energia biomass power plant HK 16 was commissioned in June 2016, and the company is owned by Sähkö (40.3%), Nokian Tyres (32.3%), and SCA Hygiene Products (27.4%). l

July/August 2016 • 3

biomass news

Contender to become next UK PM not ‘green’, report claims The top contender to succeed UK Prime Minister David Cameron is not a vigorous renewable energy advocate, according to a report in the Financial Times.

Britons voted to leave the EU in a referendum by a margin of 17.4 million to 16.1 million on 23 June, a decision that has thrown the country’s economy and standing into a period of uncertainty, and triggered a leadership challenge in the governing Conservative Party after Cameron said he would step down in October to make way for someone else to lead the process of leaving the bloc.

Home Secretary Theresa May, who backed staying in the EU ahead of the historic vote, is set to become the UK’s next prime minister. Her main challenger was Andrea Leadsom, a minister in the department for energy and climate change.

Leadsom had a prominent role in the main group which campaigned to exit the EU, or Brexit.

However, she has now dropped out of the race.

The UK’s next prime minister, tasked with negotiating the country’s exit from the EU, will be chosen by 9 September following a vote of the ruling Conservative Party’s 150,000 grassroots members.

According to the FT, May is not a green advocate.

With the UK political landscape in a unpredictable state, it is unclear how the future government will behave. But the Leave victory raises questions about whether years of cross-party consensus on the need to combat global warming may fray.

The EU’s largest green energy companies have so far been careful to downplay concerns about the sector in the UK, which last year had a market value of £16bn (€18bn) and employed close to 117,000 people, according to the Renewable Energy Association.

Drax, owner of one of the world’s largest renewable power plants, told the FT that it has long-term hedging in place for its huge North Yorkshire coal and biomass electricity station, for which it imports large quantities of wood pellets from the US. However, Drax, like many other EU renewable generators, has shaped its business strategy around a series of existing UK government climate commitments, including biomass subsidies and phasing out coal power stations by 2025.

The Energy Secretary, Amber Rudd, a prominent Remain campaigner, told a climate change conference in late June that the existing government was still committed to all such policies, even if the Brexit vote made it “harder” for the UK to tackle global warming.

She said that the government will still work towards a low-carbon future. l

4 • July/August 2016

Bioenergy Insight

biomass news

EU funds Brazilian biomass mapping project The European Union (EU) has funded a project based in Brazil, which aims to harness the combined power of positioning and reflectometry technology in order to create a lowcost, unmanned aerial platform for biomass mapping of the Brazilian Amazon forest.

Much of Brazil is covered by the dense Amazon rainforest. In a statement on the European Commission (EC) website, the EC said: “Trying to manage such a rugged and isolated area using traditional mapping, surveying and land management tools is simply impossible.”

It said a new land management technology called Coregal will help biomass mapping in Brazil.

This platform is the first of its kind — combining GNSS technology with drone, or UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle), systems, the EC said.

Traditionally, this sort of work has been completed using a combination of various sensor technology and sources of information.

Coregal, however, disrupts this approach by bringing

Aerial shot of Amazon rainforest in Brazil, South America

a new sensor to the market, one capable of providing additional data to further improve upon existing products.

Therefore, on the one hand, Coregal’s UAVs are equipped with a Galileoenabled GNSS receiver that serves as the main sensor for positioning information and biomass estimation.

However, as Galileo signals are not always able to reach through the thick canopies of Brazil’s jungles, the Coregal platform combines this traditional receiver with reflected GNSS signals (GNSS-R) that are capable of cutting through the dense canopy environment.

Combined together, the

platform provides the end user with a high accuracy, lower costs solution for land management and biomass mapping.

System process In the Coregal system, the GNSS satellite in space serves as the transmitter and the UAV works as the receiver.

The transmitted signal from the satellite is reflected off the ground, acquiring information about the surface’s characteristics — including obstacles — along the way.

This reflected signal is then received by the UAV’s biomass sensor, which extracts the data about the reflected surface (i.e., the ground)

from the reflected signals.

Specific to its application to biomass mapping, as the signal is reflected back up through the tree canopies, branches and leaves, important biomass data is captured, and subsequently extracted by the UAV receiver.

“Integrating positioning and reflectometry in a single device within a UAV offers a unique value proposition,” said project coordinator Pedro Freire da Silva.

He added: “Furthermore, GNSS-R signal properties allow for a lower saturation level than traditional radar systems, providing the end user with greater sensitivity to a higher level of biomass density.” l

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July/August 2016 • 5

biomass news

BWSC begins building biomass plant in UK Danish power plant developer Burmeister & Wain Scandinavian Contractors (BWSC) has begun the construction of a £140 million biomass plant in the UK. BWSC took possession of the development site situated at Discovery Park near Sandwich, Kent, earlier this month, and the building is projected to be finished in two years.

The project is expected to create 300 jobs during the construction phase and 30 full time jobs once operational.

Biomass fuel will be sourced

from various wood types, including coppice grown locally in Kent and East Sussex, with the aim to reduce the site’s carbon footprint.

Paul Barber, managing director at Discovery Park, said: “Discovery Park has from the start been a place for innovation and we have been successful in building on that past success over the past four years.”

“The agreement to press ahead with the new biomass energy plant not only represents a major investment in the site, but puts the park in the unique position of being supplied with a reliable source of green energy.

“The new biomass plant is

Discovery Park biomass plant in Kent

a vital part of ensuring the site’s ongoing success — part of a number of investments and ongoing work that will

not only create jobs and prosperity for East Kent but increases its sustainability too,” Barber said. l

Lahti Energia secures €75m loan from EIB to build biomass plant in Finland Finnish regional power utility Lahti Energia has received a €75 million loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB) to construct a biomass-fired combined heat and power plant.

The new Kymijärvi III plant, to be located in the city of Lahti in southern Finland, will initially produce 150MW of district heat from certified forestry biomass.

The facility will also include a heat recovery plant, which cleans the resultant flue gases while improving the plant’s operating efficiency.

Eero Seesvaara, CEO of Lahti Energia, said he was pleased the energy producer and EIB had reached an agreement. ”The EIB offered cost-efficient funding for this project, which is important not only to Lahti Energia, but also to the City of Lahti,” Seesvaara said.

The new CHP plant is expected to come online in 2019, when it will replace the old Kymijärvi I coal plant at the same location.

While initially only used for heat production, there are plans to use the coal plant’s facilities to install 50MW worth of energy production capacity if the Finnish energy market recovers. ”Energy production is always a priority for the EIB”, said EIB’s VP for Finland Jan Vapaavuori.

“Developing renewable energy is key for reaching our climate change goals. The CHP plant will boost heat production in the Lahti area and allow its residents to reap the project’s benefits as well,” concluded Vapaavuori. l

6 • July/August 2016

Bioenergy Insight

biomass news

Chicken litter to power a biogas and fertiliser plant in Northern Ireland Ireland-based renewable energy developer Stream BioEnergy has commenced construction in Northern Ireland on a new biogas plant that will process large volumes of chicken litter.

The plant, to be located just outside the town of Ballymena, will generate 3MW of renewable electricity from up to 40,000 tonnes of chicken litter each year, enough to power 4,000 homes.

The capital cost of the plant will be approximately £20 million (€25.8m), financed partially by funds managed

by Foresight Group and Invest Northern Ireland.

Xergi, a specialist supplier of large scale biogas plants, will deliver the plant and will also be a shareholder in the project.

“The plant will convert the chicken litter into biogas, which will be used to produce green electricity. At the same time the nutrients become an environmentallyfriendly fertiliser that can replace chemical fertiliser for farmers,” said CEO Jørgen Ballermann from Xergi.

One of the intentions of the project is to handle chicken litter in a way that protects the environment and improves on the traditional practice of spreading the litter untreated on land.

Bioenergy Insight

“Nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen are easily absorbed by the plants in the field, once the litter has been through the biogas process. This minimises the risk of the nutrients washing out from the fields into watercourses and causing an adverse impact on the environment which is happening at the moment,” explained Ballermann.

Due to the specific combination of nutrients in chicken litter, it has until now been necessary to keep the amount of chicken litter processed in biogas plants at a low level and mixed with other feedstock types.

However, Xergi has created a process that makes it possible to run biogas plants fully on chicken litter as the only input feedstock.

“Our new process combines know-how and technology that has been developed over the last decade and it will provide a significant opportunity for the poultry industry not just in Northern Ireland but throughout the world,” Ballermann said.

The plant is due to become fully operational by early 2018. l

A new biogas plant based in Northern Ireland will process 40,000 tonnes of chicken litter each year and convert it into electricity

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July/August 2016 • 7

biogas news

Volkswagen showcases algae biogas-powered vehicle at green project in Spain

Lightning causes massive fireball at UK biogas plant

German carmaker Volkswagen has showcased its algae biogas-powered vehicle at a green project based in El Torno Chiclana, a town in south-west Spain.

A lightning strike caused a large fireball to flare out from a UK biogas plant in June as the facility’s storm protection systems were overwhelmed.

The vehicle’s engine generates zero emissions. It also includes an emergency fuel tank which can be used if a gas refuelling station is not nearby.

Chiclana city councilor responsible for the environment Joaquín Páez, and the director of the The presentation of the test delegation for Aqualia Francisco vehicle was unveiled at a biogas Jimenez welcomed delegates development named ‘All-gas to the plant, and introduced biogas project’, which is run by them to the All-gas project.

Aqualia, a water management Paez said he was “tremendously subsidiary of FCC Group. proud that Chiclana is now a The demonstration at the world leader in the research and wastewater treatment plant was development of fuels derived made in front of delegates from the from microalgae cultivation”.

World Water Congress (IWA LET), He added: “In fact, because of this which was held from 15-16 June. essential role, we have researchers from around the world visiting the ‘Clean fuel’ project, such as those involved in the World Water Congress”.

The primary aim of the He added: “These types of fuels development is to obtain a clean are emerging as one of the most fuel and other high value-added viable alternatives to fossil fuels, products from microalgae grown and the All-gas project is well placed with treated wastewater. to prove that obtaining commercialThe car, called Volkswagen Up, will scale clean and environmentallyuse biogas produced from algae. The friendly fuels is possible.” algae is obtained from the Chiclana The Volkswagen Up vehicle can wastewater treatment plant, also run on compressed natural through microalgae cultivation. The gas (CNG) as well as biogas. facility turns the algae into biogas Frank Rogalla, director of which is used to power the car. technology and innovation at Aqualia, The microalgae cultivation said: “For the first time in the history process also helps to purify water of humanity a car will be fuelled at the plant as the microalgae with a full batch of algae biogas. This feeds on organic wastewater sent is the culmination of five years of to the facility for treatment. hard work and a very proud moment for Aqualia.

“The way this Volkswagen’s biogaspowered car can also algae is cultivated run on compressed is twice as natural gas productive per hectare as other biofuels. This means it is a fuel with a positive energy balance, and therefore significant commercial viability.” l

8 • July/August 2016

Organic waste recycler Agrivert’s Wallingford plant in Oxfordshire became the target of nature’s wrath on 16 June when a lightning ignited methane gas stored in the facility’s waste digester.

The gas burst into the sky as massive flames, destroying the facility’s roof and causing damages running up to £250,000 (€323,000), but no personal injuries were reported.

The blaze lasted for about 30 minutes before the plant’s engines, which were kept running throughout the incident, managed to consume the gas and the fire was put out.

Harry Waters, commercial director at Agrivert, stressed the importance of getting the plant equipment up and running quickly to keep the gas circulating through the system and not feed the fire further.

The plant was back to normal operation in only 90 minutes due to the staff’s fast response, but Agrivert is nonetheless planning to review its safety systems despite having already recently done so.

“This was a key lesson for us. Any protection system is never 100% fool-proof, but we would be mad not to review what we got,” Waters told Bioenergy Insight.

“We’re very disappointed about being struck, of course, but there’s also a lot of positive about this. Our equipment and staff both performed as they should. We have tall chimneys and a 30-40m tall radio mast nearby, and we’re in a low lightning area. Four other installations nearby were also struck, so this was really an off-chance incident,” he said.

As part of its review process, Agrivert is planning to invite representatives of the local fire services to attend a tour to properly familiarise themselves with the plant’s safety protocol.

Four fire crews, equipped with breathing apparatus, also helped tackle the flames and stayed on the site for several hours after the fire was out to ensure the plant’s safety.

Agrivert uses the 2.4MW Wallingford plant to process 37,000 tonnes of locally-sourced food waste annually into biogas in two digesters. l

Bioenergy Insight

biogas news

UK AD industry to focus on boosting performance to drive sector forward The UK’s anaerobic digestion (AD) industry will concentrate on improving its environmental, operational and safety performance in an effort to move the sector forward, Anaerobic Digestion and Bioresources Association’s (ADBA) CEO Charlotte Morton told Bioenergy Insight.

Morton’s comments came as she officially launched ADBA’s Best Practice Scheme for the AD sector at the UK AD & Biogas 2016 conference in Birmingham, which took place from 6-7 July.

The scheme is an industryled certification scheme, involving stakeholders from across the sector.

The project aims to help the industry improve its environmental, safety and operational performance.

In-house performance Speaking to Bioenergy Insight, Morton said: “The more we can do to improve performance the less reliant we are on government incentives. So, that’s what we have to continue to do. The launch of the best practice scheme is something that should contribute to that.

Improving performance through whatever means, whether that is through improving best practice, research and innovation or investment, is probably the one single thing that we can do on our own.

“There is so much that can be achieved. If you look

Bioenergy Insight

at my lifetime in AD we have tripled the potential of the industry through looking at things like what research and development can offer, for example.

This includes analyses of feedstock and improved performance, for example.”

Almost a third more biogas energy is being produced in the UK today compared to the same period last year, ADBA revealed at the UK AD & Biogas 2016 conference.

The AD Market Report, published at the event, shows that the UK now has 617MWe of biogas capacity, enough to power the equivalent of 800,000 homes.

Government subsidy cuts The news of the sector’s development has been welcomed by the industry during a period where it has recently faced government subsidy cuts and investment uncertainty. The industry’s growth has also recently slowed and will slow further

in the next few years due to the latter issues, ADBA’s Market Report stated.

Although Morton said that the industry will have to look in-house to boost performance, she also said: “For the rest of it, we have to be dependent on government policy realising that the AD industry has a positive contribution to make to help meet global challenges.

“We just need the policies in place that will support it.”

The UK government has recently cut subsidies to small-scale on-farm AD. However, it has also recently committed to tackling climate change by launching its fifth carbon budget.

Morton said the government pledging to sign up to its fifth carbon budget whilst cutting subsidies for on-farm AD was a “complete contradiction on what they (government) say they are going to do and what they actually do”.

Elsewhere, Morton said

that the UK AD industry still faced very big challenges around feedstock supply, financial incentives and sustainability criteria.

The availability of food waste is a key determinant of potential growth in AD. She said improved source-segregated food waste collections would enable the UK AD market to grow due to improved access to food waste.

Her comments come as waste agency WRAP has recently unveiled England’s first comprehensive action plan for tackling food waste across the country.

The strategy, launched at the conference, contains a five-point plan for improving the collection and use of food waste. Every year the UK produces 10 million tonnes of “post-farm gate” food waste, but currently just 1.8 million tonnes is recycled.

WRAP aims to substantially increase the level of food waste recycling through the new action plan. l

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July/August 2016 • 9

biogas news

JFS and Iona open £18m AD plant in North Yorkshire Anaerobic digestion (AD) plant developer JFS & Associates and fund manager Iona Capital have launched an AD plant in the UK. The Leeming Biogas facility in North Yorkshire is one of the largest AD plants in the country to feed gas directly into the National Grid, according to JFS. The £18 million (€21.4m) investment

will see food waste from local businesses including R&R Ice Cream, the world’s third largest ice cream manufacturer, converted into green energy rather than being sent to landfill.

The plant will contribute towards the UK government’s targets for reducing landfill and generating sustainable energy by 2020.

It will consume up to 80,000 tonnes of waste annually and generate enough gas to supply nearly 4,000 homes a year, while processing byproducts into agricultural fertiliser.

Matt Flint, director at JFS, said: “The development of this AD plant is

the biggest project JFS & Associates has undertaken. The project is a real example of how renewable technology, local resources, and businesses can collaborate with city investors to develop a sustainable and environmentallyfriendly commercial enterprise.”

“The plant has helped local businesses cut costs and boost their environmental credentials by partnering with us, and we look forward to exploring further opportunities to increase sustainable energy production in North Yorkshire,” said Mike Dunn, managing partner at Iona Capital. l

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Local authority opposes Raw Biogas plant near historic country house

Raw Biogas, a UK anaerobic digestion (AD) plant developer, has submitted a planning application for an £8 million biogas plant in Northamptonshire.

But the project, to be located at Wormslade Farm and projected to process 46,000 tonnes of manure and crops annually to power 2,500 homes, is facing local resistance, the BBC reports.

Clipston Parish Council — the smallest local authority unit in Britain — is objecting to the facility together with three other parish councils, stating that it is too close to the protected Kelmarsh Hall, a historic country house built in 1732.

10 • July/August 2016

Yet Northamptonshire County Council, which manages the greater local area, is expected to approve the scheme, as there have been no objections from the UK Environment Agency.

Stuart Homewood, director at Raw Biogas, said the plant on the five acre site aims to provide a more environmentally friendly way of producing the energy needs of the country.

“We will be using farm waste and crops such as grassland, maize and rye. We have been listening to the community and our traffic management plan avoids any additional agricultural vehicles through nearby villages,” said Homewood.

Bioenergy Insight was unable to reach Clipston Parish Council for comment. l

Bioenergy Insight

biogas news

Novozymes and Dong Energy enter into enzyme agreement for UK bioplant Novozymes, a Denmarkbased biotechnology company, has announced that it will deliver the enzymes for Dong Energy’s enzyme-enabled bioplant in the UK. The plant, which is in the process of being built by Danish energy firm Dong Energy, is based in Northwich in the north west of England and is called REnescience.

According to Dong Energy, it will be the first full-scale bioplant in the world capable of handling household waste by means of enzymes.

Thomas Dalsgaard, executive VP at Dong Energy, said: “It’s important to extract as many

resources as possible from waste, and the enzymes are an important part of the process where we convert waste into green energy and recyclable material. We’re pleased to enter into a partnership with Novozymes on setting up this type of plant.”

According to Dong Energy, its plant will avoid the need to send waste to landfill. In a statement, Dong Energy said that its REnescience plant in Northwich will ensure that as much of the waste as possible is recycled and converted into biogas, which can again be converted into green power.

The REnescience plant can sort 15 tonnes of waste per hour or 120,000 tonnes per year. This corresponds to the waste from almost 110,000 UK homes.

Novozymes’ diagram explaining the role that enzymes will play in Dong’s REnescience bioplant

Thomas Schrøder, VP at Novozymes, said: “Waste is a major problem for many urban areas around the world, but this technology turns the problem

into a resource. Biorefineries like this, where trash is transformed into value, is an excellent example of circular economy in practice.” l

UK government proposal ‘could’ signal death knell for new AD plants The UK government has proposed cuts to incentives for new anaerobic digestion (AD) plants from January 2017.

The Renewable Energy Association (REA), a UK-based trade body, said this measure is likely to end many new AD projects planned in the UK. The Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) plans to cut the feed-in tariffs (FiT) for large plants over 500kW by 100% and reduce those for smaller facilities by 27%, compared with current rates.

The proposed rates for small and medium scale plants are 46% and 35% lower, respectively, than the minimum viable levels recommended by the REA in the 2015 tariff review.

‘A huge blow’ “This is a huge blow to the rural economy, circular economy, and to the growth of this source of

Bioenergy Insight

low-carbon energy,” said REA head of policy James Court.

He added: “Biogas is a domestic source of low-carbon energy, is delivering new electricity and heat capacity now, and has strong public support, yet faces drastic cuts.”

Kiara Zennaro, head of biogas at the REA, said: “It is disappointing that the government is taking little notice of the concerns raised by industry in the FiT consultation last year.

“In all likelihood, if these proposals are adopted we will see the end for many of the new AD projects planned in the UK. Correspondingly, we will miss a significant opportunity to decarbonise the agricultural and waste sectors whilst supporting the rural and circular economies.”

Charlotte Morton, chief executive at Anaerobic Digestion and Bioresources Association (ADBA), also criticised DECC. She explained: “This consultation does nothing to address DECC’s fundamental lack of ambition for AD and community scale renewables.

“Instead, it proposes restrictions

to plant sizes and feedstocks that will make it even harder to deploy viable AD plants using waste, crops or agricultural residues. Removing support for new plants above 500kW is completely unjustified and will kill off projects which could otherwise have delivered DECC’s objectives while representing good value for money.

“The government needs baseload electricity to ensure energy security, and technologies that reduce emissions from agriculture and waste to meet our carbon budgets. AD can deliver all of that, at scale, now ¬- but only with the right support.

“We will be working with our members to put together a strong response to this consultation, and making the wider case for supporting anaerobic digestion to cut carbon, deliver energy security and recycle critical nutrients.”

This DECC consultation looks at the generation tariffs for AD and micro-combined heat and power (mCHP) and sustainability criteria and feedstock restrictions for AD, and closed in early July. l

July/August 2016 • 11

wood pellet news Spencer Group wins contract to build wood pellet facilities in UK Spencer Group, a UK engineering business, has won a significant contract to design and build wood pellet facilities at the UK-based Port of Tyne.

The facilities being designed and built by Spencer are at Tyne Dock, South Shields, where the Port of Tyne recently invested £25 million (€29.5m) in extending Riverside Quay to support the project.

The new facilities will handle up to an annual 1.8 million tonnes of wood pellets, meeting the full requirements of Lynemouth Power Station, the commissioner of the expansion project.

Charlie Spencer, the company’s founder and chairman, said the Port of Tyne is the largest single contract Spencer has secured and is “great news for everyone within the business”.

The fully integrated and automated Spencer system will enable wood pellets to be conveyed mechanically to one of three newly-built silos, each capable of storing 25,000 tonnes of material.

The pellets will then be discharged from the silos via two conveying streams to a rail-loading facility to take the material to Lynemouth.

Industry-leading particle controls will be in place throughout the system, as well as sophisticated measures to monitor and manage the condition of the wood pellets.

The Spencer project also includes construction of a control room, workshops, stores, and welfare facilities, creating a standalone facility at the port.

In addition, the company will carry out modifications to the existing rail infrastructure to provide dedicated rail lines to serve Lynemouth Power Station and connect the new facilities to the 11,000V mains supply.

Energetický, a Central European energy group, acquired Lynemouth Power Station from German energy giant RWE in January, and in May EPH confirmed that plans to convert the power station to biomass were proceeding according to schedule. l

12 • July/August 2016

Spencer Port of Tyne facility on site

Spencer Port of Tyne silo works

Bioenergy Insight

wood pellet news

PHI Group to acquire US wood pellet maker PHI Group, a US public company focused on conventional energy and renewables, has signed a letter of intent to acquire a wood pellet manufacturing company based in southeastern US. The identity of the target company and certain details will be kept confidential until closing, PHI Group said in a statement.

The total purchase price for 100% of the operation, excluding liabilities and cash and cash equivalents, is approximately $9m (€8.17m).

The transaction is subject to entering into a definitive sale and purchase agreement, customary conditions, due diligence and financing commitments, the group said.

The 36,000ft2 manufacturing plant and storage facility, located on 18 acres, were constructed in 2009 and went into production in 2010. Annual production was approximately 100,000tpy. Revenues

were $19.2 million and $12.4 million for full years 2014 and 2015, respectively.

As Bioenergy Insight went to press, the company was expected to sign the definitive sale and purchase agreement in June and will continue to complete due diligence and secure the required purchase and operating capital in order to close the transaction.

PHI Group is investigating options for production and sales and

AD & bioGAs FeeD tecHnoloGy

PHI Group will buy a wood pellet facility based in the south of the US for $9m

biG-Mix Container capacity from 35 to 210 m3

Pinnacle temporarily halts operations at Canadian pellet facility Pinnacle Renewable Energy, a Canadian wood pellet producer, said it will curtail operations at its British Colombia-based pellet plant with immediate effect.

According to reports in Canadian Biomass, the company was finding it difficult to source dry residuals from local sawmills for the plant, which is called Quesnel.

“That source of fibre is no longer available,” said Leroy Reitsma, president of Pinnacle.

“As a result, there is currently no secure, sustainable, economically available fibre to support the operation of the Quesnel mill.”

The Mountain Pine Beetle (a native insect that attacks pines in western North American forests) infestation has created an inventory of standing timber that, while

Bioenergy Insight

marketing, including adding new product lines following the closing.

Henry Fahman, CEO of PHI Group, said: “We believe we could increase revenue level to between $37 million to $44 million per year if our strategies are successful. We feel confident that a closing of the acquisition of either this wood pellet plant or the Vietnambased Pacific Petro LPG company will qualify PHI Group for uplisting to the Nasdaq Stock Market.” l

useless as sawlogs, is suitable for wood pellet manufacturing.

Pinnacle will continue to work with tenure holders and the provincial government to determine whether secure access to non-sawlog standing timber can be achieved within an economically viable framework.

However, significant capital upgrades are also necessary at the Quesnel plant in order to be able to economically, efficiently and safely process this new fibre source into wood pellets, Pinnacle said in a statement.

“We believe it makes sense right now to take the time to do the analysis required to determine the scope and feasibility of making those upgrades.

This period of curtailment is necessary to do that work,” said Reitsma.

“We share our employees’ desire for certainty,” he added. “We have not come to this decision lightly and will be working to minimise the duration of this decision to nine to ten months.” l

Effective feed rate at very low energy consumption Designed for 100% farm yard waste, grass silage, straw, green and food waste Including mixing and processing equipment All wetted areas are made of stainless steel Innovative hydraulically driven stainless steel push strip system Processing area is controlled by a level measurement sensor Feed rate capacity up to 22 m³ / hour

bioMiXeR Mixer capacity from 12 to 80 m3

Designed for 100% farm yard waste, grass silage, straw, green and food waste Including massive stainless steel processing and mixing equipment Complete unit in stainless steel on request Proven technology with excellent mixing results Feed rate capacity up to 22 m³ / hour Control cabinet on request

Konrad Pumpe GmbH Schörmelweg 24 | 48324 Sendenhorst | Germany Fon +49 2526 93290 | Fax +49 2526 932925 info@pumpegmbh.de | www.pumpegmbh.de

July/August 2016 • 13

160178 PUM_AZ_Einbringetechnik_EN_01.indd 1

04.07.16 09:39

wood pellet news

Enviva signs long-term offtake wood pellet contract Enviva Partners, a US-headquartered wood pellet producer, announced the execution of a new takeor-pay off-take contract to supply wood pellets to Lynemouth Power, a subsidiary of Energetický a průmyslový holding (EPH).

Lynemouth Power plans to convert its 420MW coal facility in the UK to wood pellet fuel by the end of 2017. Deliveries under this contract are expected to commence in the third quarter of 2017, ramp to full supply

of 800,000 tonnes per year in 2018, and continue through the first quarter of 2027.

“Our strategy is to fully contract our production capacity, and this contract provides additional length and diversification to our sales book,” said John Keppler, chairman and CEO. He added: “We are proud that a world-class energy group like EPH selected Enviva to supply more than half of the wood pellets required annually by its Lynemouth facility, further reinforcing our position as a preferred supplier to toptier biomass projects.” l

Tangshan Steel begins biomass pellet production in China Tangshan Steel Co. (Tanggang), a subsidiary of the Chinese Hebei Iron & Steel Co., has started producing biomass fuel at its northern Chinese facility.

Located in the Hebei Province, the facility will, according to Tanggang, produce 100,000 tonnes of biomass fuel a year to boost environmental standards across the Hebei steel industry.

The production line was built by Tanggang and Citic Group’s Citic Environment Investment Co. It will produce 10-12 tonnes per hour of combustible pellets from wood chips and agricultural waste, which can replace coal used in Tanggang’s power plants. l

Your global technology process supplier for the biomass industry ANDRITZ is one of the world’s leading suppliers of technologies, systems, and services relating to advanced industrial equipment for the biomass pelleting industry.

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14 • July/August 2016

www.andritz.com/ft

Bioenergy Insight

chipper news Wood chipping specialist expands production across Europe Mus-Max, an Austria-based wood chip machine specialist, has announced that it has seen strong demand for its chipper and is now exporting its technology to 24 countries across Europe.

The company said its ‘Wood Terminator’ is being used in countries such as Germany, France, Spain and the UK. When the company was first established 12 years ago, it only exported to six European countries.

Managing director Erich Urch said: “Our development work puts the focus on having solid technology in each of our machines. Our mobile chippers are robust, hard-wearing, and easy to handle.”

Sales director Robert Urch added that the firm has built-up a perfect network of dealers over the years and receives strong interest for its product when demonstrating it at local trade fairs. l

Bruks supplies chipping line to BWSC

Bruks Group has been awarded a contract

by Burmeister & Wain Scandinavian Contractor (BWSC) for the supply of a wood chip handling system for the Cramlington Estover renewable energy plant in the UK.

The Cramlington plant is a biomass plant located in Northumberland. The purpose of the plant is to produce electricity on the basis of biomass fuel in the form of logs, imported wood chips and waste wood.

The scope of supply is engineering, supplying and installation of a complete chipping line including log handling and a

complete fuel handling system with screening and metal separation.

Capacity to the boiler will be 180 m3 of wood chips per hour.

The fuel handling will be managed and coordinated by the Swedish division of Bruks.

The company’s German division, Bruks Klöckner, will supply the complete chipping line.

The total contract value is worth €4.5 million. Delivery of the equipment will start in October 2016 and startup and commissioning is expected to be late 2017.

Bruks Group is currently supplying equipment to the BWSC waste wood/SRF biomass plant, located at Tilbury docks, based in Tilbury, UK. The delivery of the equipment started in June and startup. Commissioning of the plant will begin in 2017. l

Tamar Energy streamlines production with TEE shredder Organic waste management company Tamar Energy has purchased a Terex Environmental Equipment (TEE) TDS 820 slow speed shredder.

As part of the company’s machinery replacement programme, it was looking for a machine to shred incoming green waste at its Open Windrow Composting site in Ongar, Essex, UK, with the key requirements being ease of operation, production throughput, and cost of operation.

The TDS 820 is an aggressive, slow speed shredder suitable for all types of applications featuring independent shaft drives

Bioenergy Insight

and an easily customised control system, allowing the shaft directions and speeds to be configured to optimise production.

Having the ability to run the shafts in reverse removes difficult wrapped material, helping to reduce downtime.

The 2m long shafts’ tooth design can shred even contaminated material, and the advanced hydraulic control protects the machine from damage, the company said in a statement.

A replaceable breaker bar controls the end product sizing, and other breaker bar options allow Tamar Energy to produce a finer or coarser product depending on given requirements, Terex Environmental said. l

July/August 2016 • 15

technology news

xx Bioenergy

Veolia attains R1 status for ten UK-based EfW plants Waste management firm Veolia has achieved the ‘R1’ efficiency status across its portfolio of energyfrom-waste (EfW) plants in the UK, both operational and in development.

By generating energy from municipal waste, the plants have demonstrated a high level of energy efficiency according to EU regulations, and have increased the UK’s landfill diversion rates.

Veolia currently operates ten plants in the UK that take around two million tonnes of non-recyclable

Triumphant the second time around!

For the second time in a row, our plants hold the first three positions among the top food waste AD facilities.

Electrical load factor of AD waste treatment plants in the UK in 2015.

The ranking was made based on the ratio between the gross electricial production of the plant during 2015 and the registered capacity of the plant under REGO scheme.

BWE* has been supplying the most efficient AD technology for waste treatment since 7 years. BWE waste treatment plants, built in cooperation with Agrivert Ltd, are ranked to have the highest electrical capacity factor in the UK. BWE plants' reliability grants our clients a secure cash flow through continious electricity sale and steady revenue via gate fee. Currently there are three BWE projects under construction in the UK: two plants with the installed capacity of 3 MWel each and gas to grid project with 550 m³/h biomethane

waste and transform this into electricity for more than 300,000 homes. This combined generating capacity of 240MWe takes pressure off the stretched UK electrical grid and effectively avoids using fossil fuels for generation.

Some of these facilities also produce heating for communities through district heating networks, by using combined heat and power technology.

As an estimated 20% of the nation’s carbon emissions are generated by domestic heating, due to a low standard of energy efficiency, using this type of non-fossil fuel heating lowers carbon emissions and can help reduce cost, and fuel poverty, in vulnerable groups.

Richard Kirkman, technical director, Veolia UK and Ireland, said: “Access to affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy has a direct impact on modern life, and is linked to fuel poverty and carbon emissions. To virtually eliminate waste and produce energy in its place is a win-win situation.

“By generating green electricity and heat from resources such as nonrecyclable residual waste we improve resource efficiency, reduce landfill and achieve greater sustainability as part of the circular economy.”

Designed to improve energy recovery performance, the R1 formula is set out in the EU Waste Framework Directive and is a performance indicator for the level of energy recovered from waste.

The assessment factors include the energy produced by the plant, and the energy contained in the waste, and effectively places it higher up the waste hierarchy. l

*bwe biogas weser-ems GmbH & Co. KG was founded in 2000 in Friesoythe, Germany. Since 2016, in order to reflect the expansion of the service package, the full name of BWE is bwe Energiesysteme GmbH & KG.

bwe Energiesysteme GmbH & Co. KG Zeppelinring 12-16 I 26169 Friesoythe

16 • July/August 2016

Tel. +49 (4491) 93800 0 Fax +49 (4491) 93800 44

www.bwe-energie.de

All operational Veolia plants are now R1 accredited, including those in development

Bioenergy Insight

green page The art of poop Step into a miracle of modern art and do your business in it. You’ll help bioenergy research move forward

by Ilari Kauppila The UNIST university, located at the heart of South Korea’s largest industrial City Ulsan, has opened a brand new outdoor research laboratory on its grounds. Located in the centre of the UNIST campus, this marvel of modern science consists of two floors with a total area of 122.25m2, featuring walls of translucent polycarbonate to allow visual connection between the inside and outside. Called the Science Walden Pavilion and designed by artist Seung-Hyun Ko, the laboratory is intended to bind art and science in loving matrimony.

“Science Walden Pavilion not only stands for a playground for both scientists and artist, but also the medium that connects arts and science,” says Jaeweon Cho, professor at the School of Urban and Environmental Engineering at UNIST and director of the Science Walden Pavilion. “The pavilion is a unique blending of creative studio and research lab, bringing arts and science together.”

And it processes human poop.

bunch of research facilities into unlocking the power of poop, such as the delightfully clinically named Waterless Energy-producing Toilet System (WETS) and Microbial Energy Production System (MEPS).

The thing about WETS is that, unlike its acronym might imply, it doesn’t wet. The toilet is entirely waterless, and once you’ve done your business, it gets down to business by using a “natural biological process” to break waste into a dehydrated odourless compostlike material. The toilets include a grinding system inside it that chews up whatever goes in it. This material is then moved into the MEPS and transferred into a digestion tank, where a cocktail of thousands of different microbes transform the waste into carbon dioxide and methane.

These can then be turned into biofuel and heat.

Dirty money The project’s goal, according to Cho, is to reduce

The Science Walden Pavilion at UNIST University, South Korea urbanisation’s impact on global ecosystems by converting potentially harmful human waste into clean, renewable energy. At the same time, he seeks to harness the possible filthy amounts of money in poop.

“Our ultimate goal is not only for the new toilet system to save water and operational costs for wastewater treatment plants, but for us to establish an ecosystem that supports technology innovation and drives economic diversification where human waste literally has a financial value,” Cho says.

Separately from the Pavilion project, Cho has developed a

Cutting-edge toilet technology Poop power is nothing new in the bioenergy scene. Animal waste has been used in biogas production since who knows when, and this same section of our January issue covered a UN report on the financial potential of human leavings.

So what makes this Korean project remarkable, then?

Well, it includes a whole

Bioenergy Insight

This is the future of renewable waste energy

smartphone app, with which anybody can determine just how much their droppings are worth. In Cho’s vision, people can soon use the app to trade their waste for virtual or digital currency. To encourage the idea, his research team is planning to open a salad bar at the Pavilion that only accepts poop-derived cash as payment.

As for the reason why this technological pioneer is wrapped in latest modern art, it’s quite simply to make it more presentable. Some people might, after all, not be entirely comfortable with the idea of getting their houses heated with what they left after themselves the day before. Cho believes that providing a comfortable environment for the groundbreaking toilet-goers will help them accept the fact that this is indeed just another toilet at its heart.

“This is a very exciting project for us,” says Cho. “We expect that this will become a pivotal stepping stone in the developing future of many countries facing dangerous sanitation issues and a lack of reliable, affordable energy.”

What a toilet. l

July/August 2016 • 17

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

Location

Company

Incident information

30/6/2016

Wisconsin, US

Domtar Corp.

Fire crews quickly extinguished a fire that broke out in Domtar’s Rothschild paper mill biomass plant.

The blaze started in the $250 million plant’s conveyor system, but was brought under control shortly and no injuries were reported.

17/6/2016

Oxforshire, UK

Agrivert

A lightning strike ignited methane gas at Agrivert’s food waste plant in Wallingford, sending a huge fireball into the sky.

A storm overwhelmed the facility’s lightning protection systems, but no injuries were reported and the plant remained functional.

24/5/2016

Connecticut, US

Wheelabrator

A fierce fire broke out at Wheelabrator’s Bridgeport waste-to-energy plant after hydraulic fluid and debris caught ablaze.

The fire forced one of the plant’s three boilers offline, but the two remaining boilers remained functional.

No injuries were reported and the plant resumed operation the following day.

Greening gas September 27-29, 2016 Ghent, Belgium

Conference of the European Biogas Association ▪ Anaerobic digestion and gasification ▪ Study tour, exhibition, poster session ▪ NEW: TransBio Summer School ▪ High level speakers including Jyrki Katainen, VP European Commission ▪ 300+ attendees from 25+ countries ▪ Excellent networking opportunities

www.BiogasConference.eu 18 • July/August 2016

Bioenergy Insight

plant update Bioenergy

Plant update – Scandinavia Dong Energy

Porvoo Energy

Location Avedøre, Copenhagen, Denmark Alternative fuel CHP Feedstock Wood pellets, straw Construction / expansion / Dong Energy is converting the last acquisition CHP unit at its Avedøre Power Station from coal to wood pellets Project start date April 2015 Completion date Q3 2016 Helsingør Utilities Location Helsingør, Denmark Alternative fuel CHP Capacity 70MW Construction / expansion / Helsingør Utilities is converting acquisition its CHP plant from natural gas to biomass Designer/builder Grontmij Project start date June 2015 Kotkan Energia Location Alternative fuel Capacity Feedstock

Kotka, Finland Combined heat and power 37MW heat, 15MW electricity Industrial byproducts, forest residues, recycled fuels and peat Construction / expansion / Kotkan Energia is modernising its acquisition Hovinsaari biomass plant with new turbine automation and controller Designer/builder Valmet Project start date June 2016 Completion date September 2016 Lahti Energia

Location Alternative fuel Capacity Feedstock Construction / expansion / acquisition Project start date Completion date Investment Comment

Lahti, Finland Combined heat and power 150MW Certified forestry biomass Finnish power utility Lahti Energia is building a new biomass plant to replace the old Kymijärvi I coal power plant June 2016 2019 €75 million Lahti Energia has received a loan for the plant from the European Investment Bank

Nokianvirran Energia Location Alternative fuel Capacity Feedstock Construction / expansion / acquisition

Nokia, Finland Renewable heat 68MW Wood chips Nokianvirran Energia is constructing a new steam heat station in Nokia, Finland Designer/builder Valmet Project start date November 2014 Completion date Early 2016 Investment €45 million

Location Norway Alternative fuel Biogas Feedstock Bio-waste from paper production Construction / expansion / Norske Skog is planning to build a acquisition biogas plant at the site of one of its mills in Norway Investment NOK150 million (€17 million) Purac Puregas Location Alternative fuel Capacity Feedstock Construction / expansion / acquisition Designer/builder Project start date Completion date

Kalmar, Sweden Liquefied biogas 25 tonnes/day Fishery waste, residual paper mill slurry Purac Biogas has contracted Wärtsilä to construct the Nordic countries’ largest biogas liquefaction plant Wärtsilä March 2016 Projected for mid-2017

Stockholm Vatten Location Stockholm, Sweden Alternative fuel Biomethane Capacity 180 million kWh Feedstock Sewage and wastewater Construction / expansion / Stockholm Vatten has acquisition commissioned a biogas upgrading plant at one of the world’s largest underground wastewater treatment plants Designer/builder Schmack Carbotech Project start date Contract for building the plant was signed in October 2015 Struer Forsyning Fjenvarme/Vestforsyning Varme Location Måbjerg, Denmark Alternative fuel CHP Feedstock Waste Construction / expansion / Struer Forsyning Fjenvarme and acquisition Vestforsyning Varme have acquired Dong Energy’s last local CHP plant Project start date May 2015 Completion date Mid 2015 Waggeryd Cell Location Alternative fuel Capacity Feedstock Construction / expansion / acquisition Designer/builder Project start date Completion date Investment

Vaggeryd, Sweden Renewable heat 12MW Sawdust, oversized wood chips, fibre residuals, bark, and fuel wood Pulp company Waggeryd Cell is replacing liquefied petroleum gas with a biomass boiler to power its flash dryer Urbas September 2015 September 2016 SEK60 million (€6.3m)

*This list is based on information made available to Bioenergy Insight at the time of printing. If you would like to update the list with additional plants for future issues, email liz@woodcotemedia.com

Bioenergy Insight

July/August 2016 • 19

Bioenergy anaerobic digestion How an Australian family business became immersed in the AD business

First time in the ring

A

t the official opening in March of Richgro’s new anaerobic digestion (AD) plant in Western Australia, managing director Geoff Richards looked out with immense pride and satisfaction. In the company’s centenary year, the new £3.5 million (€4.5m) AD plant represents a true cornerstone — not just for the family-owned and-run Richgro, but for Australia as a whole. Geoff’s grandfather, Arthur Richards had arrived in Perth 100 years ago with just £5 in his pocket, but soon set up a thriving grocers and general merchant’s store.

“Our AD plant sends out a clear message,” says Richards, “that we can keep our country clean, green and forever the lucky country.”

For many Australians, this is a phrase that has a very special resonance. Prior to the creation of the UK AD & Biogas event, Geoff Richards had visited some waste and recycling trade shows in Europe, realising very early on that with Jandakot’s (based in southern suburb of Perth)

isolated location, the so-called “black box” package (all in one package) solution was not going to be right for Richgro.

Natural solutions

“We believed in using food waste and not growing crops to be used as fuel,” adds Richards.

He says: “For me it is very important that we find as many natural solutions as possible to the problems that confront the world, and the production

where we didn’t have spare parts and backup. We had to have a very robust plant.”

Wanting to form a closed loop, with potential to utilise heat and CO2 produced on site, Richgro (with annual electricity costs in excess of £200,000 (€230,000)) also wanted to use digestate to blend in with existing Richgro product to improve nutritional and breakdown characteristics, and market the new by-product as a biofertiliser. It was only when he came to ADBA’s show

‘For me it is very important that we find as many natural solutions as possible to the problems that confront the world’ Geoff Richards, managing director at Richgro

of food is one of the biggest.

“I also wanted to steer well clear of a boxed solution because I needed to know what would be going on inside our AD plant, to understand it and be able to operate it in our part of the world.

There was no way I was going to put us in a situation

in Birmingham that Richards said he could meet those at the very heart of AD industry.

“Unlike other exhibitions, it was extremely focused with a very good structure and I really enjoyed the opportunity to discuss my ideas with those in the know. What was pleasantly surprising when I met Hugh

Vaughan from Landia is that I wasn’t really sold to. Some companies want to sell you everything in their product range, even if they know it’s not the best solution, but I was given straight, honest answers to my questions.”

One of the original directors of ADBA, Landia’s Hugh Vaughan recalls: “I thought it was quite novel to have somebody all the way from Australia visit our stand in Birmingham, and I could see straight away that this was a special opportunity for us and our fellow ADBA members to help make this project happen by working together.”

Landia was already working with Biodome Asia in Malaysia (the regional headquarters of UK-based Kirk Group), where 20 of its GasMix systems had been installed. So, five months later, a meeting was set up with Richgro at what was not too far off a halfway point.

Geoff Richards and Hamish Jolly (director of Biogass Renewables, also based in Jandakot) met Matthew Dickinson from Biodome Asia, plus Hugh Vaughan and Steen Larsen from Landia,

Richgro’s anaerobic digestion system based in Perth, Australia

20 • July/August 2016

Bioenergy Insight

anaerobic digestion Bioenergy

Part of team at Richgro’s new AD plant

–

Tony Fenton of Edina (left), Hugh Vaugh from Landia (right) and Richgro’s Matt Richards

to examine the best possible options as they drew up a draft design for the Richgro plant.

Geoff Richards continues: “First in Europe and then in Malaysia, we saw how the UK technology could survive in very harsh environments, from snow to extreme heat. We also had to be mindful of the fact that here in Perth, we have previously had earthquakes.

I returned to the next UK AD & Biogas with Hamish Jolly where we split up at the start of exhibition, then met at the end to compare notes. We then drew up our final list of those companies we believed we could move forward with as long-term trusted suppliers.”

Both Richards and Jolly had identified founder ADBA members Landia (digester pumps and mixers), Edina (gas generators), and Kirk Group (tanks/storage), as well as Uniflare (flare stacks).

Determined to consider all options, Richards also visited AD plants in North America, but felt overall that the industry there was not moving forward with same innovation that would have complemented Richgro’s strongly held ethos of continuous improvement.

and adapting technology,” continues Richards, “so it amazed me in the US and Canada that they were still producing concrete plants half-buried in the ground and were largely using unreliable mixing systems that regularly failed. This model wasn’t for us at all. We needed a far more modern, cost-effective, and practical plant that we could easily maintain, which is one of the main reasons we chose Landia’s GasMix.” “For access it is like an outboard motor — very easy to get at. Our second visit to

England was the real turning point. The English tell it like it is, which we really like. We knew we were on the right path. The ADBA members in the UK understood the reasons why, for example, we wanted ownership of our plant dedicated software — and that they as a group of companies could make their equipment combine to produce the results we needed. We were also determined to create a clean input process, with a clean output and a fully closed loop,” Richards says.

With a team now in place,

Biogass Renewables assisted Richgro in gaining approval for the AD plant from Western Australia’s Department of Environment Regulation, before securing £1.1 million for the project under a debt funding arrangement from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and a further £800,000 in grants from the Australian government’s Clean Technology Investment Program and the Western Australia State Government. Payback (before grants) on capital is expected within four years.

As agreed, ADBA members Landia, Biodome Asia, Edina, and Uniflare all worked very closely together to coordinate delivery and installation for Biogass Renewables — although first a low voltage grid connection had to be overcome. A major upgrade to high voltage was required so that Richgro could import sufficient energy as well as export up to 2MW of power.

Operational now since January, Richgro has begun generating income from the gate fee for diverting waste from landfill, as well as from the digestate as a biofertiliser by-product. Around 100 tonnes of food and liquid waste (approximately 35% dry solids) is trucked in each day

Making the choice “We’ve always taken the pathway of innovation

Bioenergy Insight

Geoff Richards, managing director at Richgro

July/August 2016 • 21

Bioenergy anaerobic digestion to the Jandakot plant from supermarkets, abattoirs, fast food chains, breweries, and soft drink manufacturers.

The facility has a depackaging system to remove contaminants in order to enhance the digestion process with a pumpable feedstock.

Where possible, leftover packaging is sent for recycling, even to the extent of waste plastics being reused. The feedstock is then put into a blending tank to ensure that the pH balance, proteins, fats, and other organics are in a good ratio to aid digestion, which is checked by the onsite laboratory before being placed into a buffer tank. The buffer tank acts as a store for the organic matter for the intermittent feeding of the digesters throughout the day.

This organic matter is then fed into two 2,500m3 capacity glass-fused-to-steel digesters, which have Biodome double membrane gasholders on the top, supplied and constructed

by Biodome Asia. In addition, Biodome Asia also supplied the 350m³ open-topped blending tank, a 350m³ feeding tank with a steel roof, and a 500m³ digestate storage tank, also with steel roof.

The feedstock that has passed into the primary digester has its own external heating system to maintain the temperature of the digesters, which utilises the co-generated surplus heat from the Edina gas engine to maintain a temperature of approximately 36°C. Digester mixing is with Landia’s externally-mounted GasMix system, which Richgro brought in not only for it being easy to service, but for its enhanced gas yields and reduction in volatile solids.

For pre-treatment, GasMix also reduces viscosity by 30% (as tested by the University of Aarhus in Denmark) and is energy-efficient, usually only needing to run for 7-10 minutes in the hour, so the consumed power is just onesixth of the installed power.

The gas is then cleaned

22 • July/August 2016

the site’s equipment, with the surplus exported into the Western Australian electricity grid. Over a 20-year lifespan, the plant is also expected to save 142,722 tonnes of CO2 emissions, as well as having eliminated its hefty electricity costs.

All’s well that ends well

Landia’s digester mixing system – ‘GasMix’

up utilising a Uniflare flare stack before being turned into energy via an Edina CHP engine with electricity being consumed on site as well as exported to the grid. The heat is used in new on-site greenhouses for helping to grow blueberries (a brand new revenue stream for Richgro), as well as maintaining the plant’s temperature. Water and digestate are used within the composting facility, making considerable savings and massively reducing Richgro’s carbon footprint.

Setting an example Speaking for Biodome Asia, Matt Dickinson, operations director (at the time of the build) adds: “I feel privileged to have been part of helping bring this extraordinary plant together. It is so much more than a typical AD plant - and with its emphasis on zero waste, the Richgro site sets a great example for future projects in Australia and for the rest of the world.

“From utilising heat for greenhouses as well as waste plastics, recycling metals, digestate and precious water for the composting plant, this Richgro plant

ticks all the boxes for zero waste. It’s brilliant.”

Edina supplied Richgro with the MWM TCG 2020 V12 1.2MWe biogas CHP engine, which was containerised at the company’s manufacturing facility in Lisburn, Northern Ireland, before being transported directly to site.

Edina commissioned and currently maintains the biogas CHP over a long-term service, operation, and maintenance package.

Following the success of the installation and performance of the MWM biogas CHP, Richgro has since placed an additional order for a second MWM TCG 2020 V12 biogas CHP engine, due to be commissioned in December 2016. Everything is managed from a Biogass Renewables control room, which can be operated remotely and allows full automation of the facility.

Biogas is captured from the digester, chilled down to its dew point to remove moisture, before boosting to a containerised Edina cogenerator, which produces heat and power through a reciprocating high-efficiency engine. Energy is now being harnessed by Richgro’s operations to power all of

Less than two months since commissioning, the Richgro facility’s processing of mixed commercial and industrial food waste was giving a biogas yield of 138m3/ tonne. The process capture efficiency was recorded at 91%, with one tonne of food waste generating 415kWe and 435kWth from the single onsite CHP, which is running at 100%, producing up to 1.2MW. Landia’s Hugh Vaughan says: “From my first meeting with Geoff at UK AD & Biogas, to the first drawing — then seeing this immaculate plant up and running on the other side of the world with UK technology is the best feeling in my entire career.

“Landia, Biodome Asia, Edina, and Uniflare have proved just what can be achieved with our technical skills, knowledge and enthusiasm to bring about such a shining example of an AD plant.”

Geoff Richards concludes: “In our centenary year, creating this first for Australia is something that we are extremely proud of. Together with the Australian Organics Recycling Association (AORA) and the Australian government we are very pleased that we took on this major project.

For the long-term good of our country we feel it is right to diversify, with a robust AD plant built from the very best UK technology that offers a real, joined-up environmental solution.” l For more information:

This article was written by Chris French, a freelance writer specialising in environmental topics.

Visit: www.landiaworld.com

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Have you done your homework? xxxxxx Bioenergy

Research gives you a clear advantage over your competitors. You can get the very latest information on new plants, projects, innovations and legislative updates all from one source‌www.biofuels-news.com Get an A* and get online today.

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July/August 2016 • 23

Bioenergy anaerobic digestion A profitable and climate-friendly technology for processing of food residues stands and falls with the purity of the final product

Adding value to waste

A

naerobic digestion is a proven technology which can help play an important role in diverting waste from landfill. The renewable energy and recycling company Agrivert will deliver its seventh food waste AD plant in the UK this year, and the company has selected BWE Energiesysteme to provide the plant’s technology. BWE, located in the rural village of Friesoythe in northwest Germany, was chosen for the expertise of its team of experienced specialists working on innovations in clean energy generation.

BWE has developed a technology for Agrivert that makes it possible to transform packaged food residues and source separated waste into valuable biogas and nutritious agricultural fertilisers. Producing renewable energy from food waste not only reduces the burden on taxpayers, but generates a healthy return for investors.

In addition to this, recycling plants are not hungry for land.

But that’s not all. At the same time, BWE biogas technology prevents climate damaging methane from being released into the environment. According to the UN International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), methane (CH4) is 27 times more harmful to the climate than carbon dioxide (CO2). If it finds its way into the atmosphere, it has the potential to greatly accelerate global warming.

For a long time, it was a common practice in the UK to dump food waste into landfills. The gases formed during decomposition escaped unfiltered into the air — including large quantities

24 • July/August 2016

Bwe’s anaerobic digestion site in South Wales

of methane. But, in the meantime, new and ambitious climate protection goals have led to a change in thinking.

The UK government has chosen AD as the recommended treatment technology for organic waste and has supported this decision over the years with positive economic stimuli — as in the case of the biowaste recycling plants of Agrivert and BWE. In contrast to Germany, organic and garden waste are collected separately in the UK. This allows for efficient and cheaper waste treatment with energy generation.

The technology BWE biogas plants are equipped with efficient depackaging technology, reliable pumping systems, and robust digesters, which enable them to produce valuable fertiliser. However, for fertiliser production, hygienisation of the waste stream is important. The waste is heated to 72˚C for an hour, which is the only way to meet the legal requirements of animal by-products regulations and to also qualify for PAS 110, which certifies the fertiliser is

suitable for application to land.

With an installed power of 18MWel, the BWE waste plants are now proven installations in the UK after the first successes in 2010, with a then 2.1MW total power output and an annual waste intake of approximately 40,000 tonnes. The Agrivert waste plants are located in Oxfordshire, Wallingford, West London, and Coleshill, and three further plants are currently under construction near Birmingham, outside London, and in South Wales.

Today, a single plant processes up to 100,000 tonnes of waste per year, and the capacity is continuously expanded. The BWE/Agrivert technology has proven to be remarkably efficient, operating at an average 95% base-load capacity. This compares favourably with an industry sector average of 71% Political landscape The current legal situation in the UK creates favourable conditions for generating electrical power and heat from food waste. But it is not only in the UK where

political frameworks offer opportunities for waste recycling. Since 2001, BWE has also been developing food waste projects in Germany, where it has been supplying its AD technology for 17 years.

In agribusiness, BWE has acquired a pool of experience, which goes back a number of years of innovative development. In particular, the nutrition industry and the meat processing industry, slaughterhouses, heatintensive industry branches, and efficient farmers make use of the company’s expertise in Oldenburger Münsterland, the German stronghold of food manufacturers.

BWE’s secret lies in its “everything from a single source” philosophy. BWE builds entire plants on a turnkey basis or provides individual components, plans, support, and maintenance — individually tailored to the requirements of operators and investors in Germany and the UK as well as in Asia and the US. l For more information:

This article was written Timo Vaske, head of international sales at BWE Energiesysteme.

Visit:www.bwe-energie.de

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xxxxxx Bioenergy

Bioenergy Insight

July/August 2016 • 25

Bioenergy anaerobic digestion The state and sustainability of the UK AD sector

All eyes on UK AD

T

he anaerobic digestion (AD) sector has gone from strength to strength in recent years. Growth has ultimately been driven by renewable energy incentives, making the investment into AD economical and financially secure for the long term.

There are now 316 operational AD plants outside the water sector, which is a marked improvement on last year, when there were 234 plants.

Ten years ago there were only 14 plants. Furthermore, 50 plants are upgrading biogas to biomethane for injection to the gas grid and growth in this sector has been astounding, growing from no commercial plants in 2012, to 27 by 2015, and almost doubling in the past 12 months.

The UK government continues to support AD through a number of financial incentive schemes, but it is evident priorities lie in the most carbon costeffective technologies, which ultimately means a favouring of wastes and residues over crops as feedstocks.

Sustainability criteria AD operators receiving support under the Renewables Obligation (RO) or Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) have been required to comply with sustainability criteria for all non-waste feedstocks since 5 October, 2015, in order to claim payments. Requirements have included land criteria, restricting use of biomass from land with high carbon stock or biodiversity value (including

26 • July/August 2016

Office of Gas and Electricity Markets’ (Ofgem) Biomass and Biogas Carbon Calculator (B2C2 available as an alternative for industry to use. However, it was originally designed for large generators with more straightforward, potentially single input, single output biomass supp in mind. This has led to AD users facing issues building multi-feedstock chains as well as str comply with the 60% saving due to use of “conservative” default values. B2C2 overestimat emissions by 40% at each processing step of the supply chain, as a conservative factor, to e inputting of actual values. Relying on default values can push many supply chains over the making them ineligible for RHI (Figure 1) and causing much concern in the industry.

peatland, wetland, and primary forest), and demonstrating a minimum greenhouse gas (GHG) saving of 60% compared to the appropriate fossil fuel comparator.

Sustainability criteria for AD could be getting even stricter. The Department on Environment and Climate Change’s (DECC) recent RHI consultation for A reformed and refocused scheme published in March 2016 lays out their plans to limit or remove payments for cropderived biogas from AD, in favour of wastes and residues, further intensifying the focus on these feedstocks.

Sustainability requirements for renewable energy schemes are increasingly aligning.

Despite not currently being included, it is likely the Feed-In-Tariff (FIT) scheme will follow suit and require similar demonstration of sustainability to be eligible for support in the not too distant future. The government’s review of the FIT scheme in December 2015 stated that the DECC would investigate and publish a decision on sustainability requirements for FITs in 2016 alongside a review of tariff levels, which is expected imminently.

Silage grass Cultivation

Sugar beet

Harvesting Silaging

Wholecrop wheat

Transport

Wholecrop rye

Digestion

Wholecrop maize

Upgrading

34.8

0

10

20

30

Injection

40

50

Pathway emissions (gCO2eq/MJ) Figure 1: Emission profiles for default biomethane supply chains in B2C2

Figure 1: Emission profiles for default biomethane supply chains in B2C2 company has recently launched

Emissions calculator

“conservative” default values. a bespoke user friendly B2C2 overestimates emissions NNFCC’s calculator deals with the complexities of multi-feedstock systems, is Excel-based a carbon calculator to support by 40% at each processing flexible, making it easy to use, robust, and transparent. With NNFCC’s calculator, actual val AD operators in developing step of the supply chain, easy to input and results can be viewed in graphic form. This highlights where weaknesses feedstock strategies and to as a conservative factor, to supply chains and where to focus efforts on reducing emissions, to comply with regulation help biomethane, heat, and encourage inputting of actual power producers demonstrate values. Relying on default compliance with the criteria, to values can push many supply remain eligible for payments. chains over the threshold, Office of Gas and Electricity making them ineligible for Markets’ (Ofgem) Biomass RHI (Figure 1) and causing and Biogas Carbon Calculator much concern in the industry.

(B2C2) is available as an NNFCC’s calculator deals alternative for industry with the complexities of to use. However, it was multi-feedstock systems, is originally designed for large Excel-based and flexible, power-generators with more making it easy to use, robust, Figure 2: Emission profiles for actual values from biomethane supply chains straightforward, potentially and transparent. With single input, single output NNFCC’s calculator, actual

biomass supply chains in values are easy to input and mind. This has led to AD users results can be viewed in facing issues building multigraphic form. This highlights feedstock chains as well as where weaknesses lie in struggling to comply with supply chains and where to the 60% saving due to use of focus efforts on reducing

Through these recent changes and uncertainty, NNFCC bioeconomy consultants have been helping clients understand what this means for their business and working with them to identify options for strengthening their supply chain to be resilient to sustainability policy. The

Figure 2: Emission profiles for actual values from biomethane supply chains

Bioenergy Insight

anaerobic digestion Bioenergy Feedstock Volumes (ktpa)

7,000 6,000 5,000 4,000 3,000 2,000 1,000 0

pre 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2006

Manure/Slurry Crop waste Crop (Cum.)

Crop Other Food Waste (Cum.)

Food Waste Manure/Slurry (Cum.) Crop waste (Cum.)

Figure 3: Feedstock requirements for operational and planned AD facilities in the UK, to 2019

emissions, to comply with regulation (Figure 2).

Waste feedstocks It is evident from the policy direction that wastes and residues remain the feedstocks of choice due to greater carbon cost-effectiveness in terms of delivering maximum carbon savings for least public support.

Currently, wastes represent 72% of operational capacity in UK AD facilities, with the largest feedstock being food waste and residues (53.2%), followed by crops (28%), manure (14.3%), and crop waste (4.5%). This trend looks set to continue (Figure 3). A full breakdown of the feedstocks and outputs, of operational and planned future capacity can be found in NNFCC’s 2016 AD Deployment in the UK report1.

There are large waste resources in the UK, including 15-20 million tonnes of food waste. However, getting hold of waste is a major limiting factor for the AD sector, due to regulatory, political, and financial obstacles. Only 1% of domestic food waste is collected separately in England, due to shrinking local authority budgets and long-term waste contracts (around 20 years) already being in place, letting slip a massive resource for nutrient and energy recovery if treated through AD. There are also competing markets for organic waste, particularly composting. In

Bioenergy Insight

the UK, around 6 million tonnes of local authority organic waste was sent for composting in 2014, compared to 300,000 tonnes which went to AD. Although approximately 65% of composting material is green waste and less suitable for AD, the remaining 2 million tonnes could be suitable, including food wastes, manure, agricultural residues, and liquids.

Slurry Another important waste feedstock for AD is slurry. Over 90 million tonnes of slurry is produced every year, but only 1.2 million tonnes are currently processed through AD. The remainder is mostly applied to land or composted, emitting potent GHG’s such as methane if not effectively managed, which could be captured through AD. Slurries, as animal waste which has already had most of the energy removed, produce low biogas yields and are therefore often supplemented with crops to increase plant yields and to achieve necessary economies of scale. Crops are also often needed as a supplementary feedstock in waste plants to balance the food for the microbes digesting the organic materials, as they are more productive with a mix of feedstocks.

If the policy focus for AD remains on energy production, then AD operators are likely to

continue to maximise biogas yields using crops. A refocus on carbon cost-effectiveness will lead to food waste being prioritised, as was proposed in the recent RHI Consultation, but a switch to effective resource (nutrient, soil, water, and energy) management would likely lead to slurry being prioritised.

The European Commission (EC) has proposed a change to Renewable Energy Directive (RED) sustainability criteria, to allow averaging of emissions across feedstocks rather than reporting individual consignments.

Livestock wastes demonstrate a very significant GHG credit of -45.05gCO2eq/MJ due to mitigated CH4 and N2O emissions. If, therefore, the EC proposals are approved, it would have a big impact on the calculation of lifecycle emissions and likely promote increased co-generation of slurry with crops.

Future of UK AD and global context With over 450 AD facilities in development, the AD deployment pipeline remains strong and the sector is growing. The UK is one of the fastest growing AD markets in Europe, along with Italy and France. However, the UK is still behind countries such as Germany and Sweden.

The number of AD facilities reached 9,035 in Germany and 1,391 in Sweden in 2013, according to the European Biogas Association (EBA).

Germany’s expansion of AD was driven by the goal to be energy secure and sustainable, using renewable energy incentives as the main policy tool. However, the German government has started to backtrack, restricting new capacity and removing subsidies for crop-based AD. Conversely, Sweden’s success was based on utilising wastes, as waste treatment is owned and controlled

by the state, unlike the UK. There was also large social and political will to become energy secure after the oil crisis in the 1970’s, and the Swedes are proud to lead the world in environmental innovation.

With many established AD industries abroad to learn from, it is clear policy and social awareness are linked to success of the industry.

Through political support, education, and high-value market development, the UK AD industry can continue to flourish. However, recent policy changes and tariff reductions have led to a decline in activity and developers questioning what the future development landscape looks like in the UK. Whether this decline will be terminal depends on whether the continued cost reductions experienced by the industry and increased investor confidence in the technology will be sufficient to offset the reduced incentives, increased policy uncertainty, and growing competition for waste feedstock. In addition to challenges around accessing waste feedstock, proposals in the current RHI consultation to cap or remove support for biogas derived from crop feedstocks leaves developers wondering where the focus should be and what the future holds. l

For more information:

This article was written by Lucy Hopwood, lead consultant for bioenergy and AD at NNFCC. Visit: www.nnfcc.co.uk

References:

1)http://www.nnfcc.co.uk/bioenergy/ ad-deployment-report/view

July/August 2016 • 27

Bioenergy CHP production When a Scotland-based farm needed a renewable energy process for its operations, it turned to a German combined heat and power technology specialist to help it out

The big green wolf

G

ask Farm Biogas Plant, near Turriff in Aberdeenshire, UK, is an arable and pig farm run by John Rennie & Sons (Farmers), one of the few UK companies using an anaerobic digestion (AD) system to dispose of manufacturing food waste and slurries. The Rennie family have been involved in agricultural contracting and farming in the Turriff area in Aberdeenshire for four generations. The contracting side of the business covers all aspects of agricultural work and crops spraying. The farming enterprise consists of 800 acres of arable crops and a pig herd of 280 sows with all progeny fattened on the farm.

AD produces many valuable and useful products, including biogas (which can then be turned into heat, electricity or biomethane gas) and digestate, a biofertiliser rich in nutrients and organic matter. The treatment process uses bacteria to break down organic material over a period of 50 days.

Gask Farm has been operating an AD plant for ten years, using about 15,000 tonnes of feedstock annually to feed it. This consists mostly of food waste and abattoir material, with some of the farm’s own pig slurry used as well. The AD process produces 67% methane and 32% carbon dioxide. The methane is used to power two 230kW engines and one 110kW CHP plant.

In 2015, John Rennie & Sons decided to add a new combined heat and power (CHP) plant in order to utilise the biogas to generate renewable electricity via cogeneration.

The CHP plant was supplied and assembled by Dreyer & Bosse, part of Wolf Power

28 • July/August 2016

Systems, a specialist in combining heat and power generation. Work started in January 2016, and the first CHP unit was delivered in the first week of March 2016 and — despite heavy snow — commissioned between 14 and 18 March, including testing and approval by National Grid.

Running off biogas from the existing AD plant, the expected output is 550kW, of which 500kW will be exported to the national grid. The rest is used to run the facility. This drives down both energy and waste management costs.

Using AD with CHP units ensures the effective use of biogas. The methane is converted into electricity, but the CHP also produces a lot of hot water, which is

Wolf Power Systems’ CHP plant

any pathogens, which may have been in the animal by-products or food waste. The digestate can then replace mineral fertilisers — another win for the environment, substituting fossil fuel derived-fertilisers.

In Wolf Power Systems’

By using this we have managed to reduce our fertiliser bill by 90%’ Andrew Rennie, MD at John Rennie & Sons used to keep the digester at a constant 40°C. Some of the hot water is also used by an on-site pasteurisation plant, which heats up the digestate to over 70°C and thereby kills

CHP units, a biogas engine drives a generator. The power generated by this can be used on site by the plant operator or exported to the grid for appropriate remuneration.

The waste heat generated by the process (from the engine coolant and exhaust gas) can be extracted by heat exchangers, making it available for heating purposes, heating DHW (domestic hot water), or as process heat.

CHP generation makes the best use of the energy contained in biogas, achieving high overall efficiency levels. This not only reduces the plant operator’s energy costs, it also protects the environment and reduces need for fossil fuels, which in turn reduces the emission of noxious gases and CO2.

“I think it is great that we can take the energy out of the waste streams, put it through the CHP and clean the digestate up again with its own energy and still be left with a good, clean, and nutritious fertiliser to grow next year’s crops. By doing this we have managed to reduce our fertiliser bill by 90%. This has saved us £28,000 (€33,000) in today’s prices.

We have also gone carbon neutral,” says Andrew Rennie, MD at John Rennie & Sons. l For more information:

CHP installation at John Rennie & Sons

This article was written by Jacob de Mol, sales international manager at Wolf Power Systems. Visit: http://en.wolf-heiztechnik.de/

Bioenergy Insight

xxxxxx Bioenergy Can the biofuels market be both profitable and sustainable?

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Bioenergy digester design Biogas digesters made from stainless steel are taking over the world

Precious steel

T

he city of Vechta in Germany is separated from Melbourne in Australia by around 16,000 kilometres.

Currently one of the largest anaerobic digestion (AD) biogas plants using organic waste is being built down under. But in our global world large distances are no obstacle, and so it is not surprising that the entire tank and plant technology for the 1MW project comes from Germany. Together with the project partner Aquatec Maxcon, the German biogas plant manufacturer Weltec Biopower is building this flagship plant using its stainless steel digester technology.

From the end of 2016, the Australian AD plant will be fed 100 tonnes of organic waste a day, more than half of which will come from cafeterias and restaurants.

The rest will comprise fats and oils, brewery and dairy leftovers, fruit and vegetable waste, and sludge pumped from the adjacent wastewater treatment plant. A customtailored input process will be set up to ensure uninterrupted

Digester and storage tanks made from stainless steel are resistant to chemical attack and has a long life span

supply of the biogas plant.

At the delivery area, the substrates will first be loaded into two 35m³ solid matter input systems made from stainless steel. A part of the substrates, such as melon peels, will first be shredded and then further chopped up with other raw materials and mixed with recirculation fluid in the MultiMix system. After this preliminary treatment, the mixture will be pumped into one of the five stainless steel pre-storage tanks with a total volume of nearly 700m³.

The digester is isolated and is cladded with trapezoidal sheet

30 • July/August 2016

After the digestion process in one of the two 3,573m³ large stainless steel digesters, the feedstock will first be sanitised and then buffered in a 4,531m³ stainless steel tank.

Advantages of stainless steel Stainless steel is a smart material choice for biogas digesters. That is one of the reasons why Yarra Valley Water, one of Australia’s largest enterprises providing water supply and sewerage services, opted for this technology. The eight stainless steel tanks are built in a segmental method with profile stiffened stainless jacket sheets. This allows for a tailored and individual design of the tanks and a short construction time.

In the liquid zone, stainless steel 1.4301 (V2A) is used, while stainless steel 1.4571 (V4A) can be found in the gas zone. Several of the pre-storage tanks also have a stainless steel base, as some substrate compositions may attack a concrete floor.

Without a protective coating, concretes are exposed to aggressive substances,

and therefore they must be treated to make them resistant to chemical attack.

Stainless steel, however, does not require additional treatment. The resistant material is of high quality, has a long lifetime, and can be used in all climate zones. In addition, stainless steel tanks are virtually maintenance free, which keeps the costs low.

Component technology is crucial In addition to the used material, the choice and composition of the components is an important element of plant design. Thorough preparation of the feedstock by sorting, shredding, and mashing ensures a maximum gas yield in the digester, but this is only possible with a sophisticated and optimally adjusted mixing technology that ensures reliable and efficient mixing of the substrates and serves as basis for a consistent gas yield. Intelligent use of agitators can prevent sedimentation and guarantee low energy consumption.

The number and type

Bioenergy Insight

digester design Bioenergy of agitators is determined depending on the size of the tank and the types of substrates. Other parts of digester and tank technology, like a sufficiently large gas storage roof of tearresistant and high-quality fabric foil, should also be taken into account to ensure the produced biogas can be stored. In some countries, the current feed-in tariffs are linked to the time of day and clever gas storage and CHP management can easily increase income.

Last but not least, there are also other technical details of maintenance and safety concerns to consider when planning tanks.

Biogas made portable The entire Weltec biogas plant will be taken to Australia by ship. The validity of this

shipping method has already been proven in practice, as there are Weltec plants in 25 countries around the world, including Uruguay, Japan, and the US. The plant modules, such as the ready-to-operate CHP, the pre-installed pump and control technology, the feeding systems, and the stainless steel sheets for the tanks, come in sea containers from Germany to the plant site.

The simple transport of the tanks can be explained by their structure: the Weltec tanks are made from single stainless steel plates.

These are prefabricated, including the holes for the screws and connections like the manhole, the substrate in- and outflow, and sight glasses.On site the plates only have to be screwed together. The assembly takes just a few days.

There are various reasons

Inner view of a digester with a long axis agitator

for choosing a stainless steel digester. The main reason is certainly the material resistance, but especially overseas projects benefit from easy-to-transport materials that provide the same quality standard all over the world.

In some regions there are also tax benefits to be gained from using stainless steel tanks. In

parts of eastern France bolted stainless steel tanks are not included in the calculations of the built area. This reduces the tax base for property tax, which is a clear advantage. l For more information:

This article was written by Ann Börries, spokeswoman at Weltec Biopower.

Visit: www.weltec-biopower.de

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Handling a World of Materials

July/August 2016 • 31

Bioenergy regional focus The Nordic region delivers impressive bioenergy progress

The real work begins

B

By Colin Ley

ioenergy progress across Scandinavia continues to be impressive as the different Nordic countries set increasingly ambitious targets for reducing their dependence on fossil fuels in their desire to limit future greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Denmark, Finland and Sweden have all increased their commitment to bioenergy in recent years. They have, for example, enabled the sector to become a substantial supplier of total gross energy requirements in each country.

The whole region, including Norway, Iceland and the Faroe Islands, is also united in its support of the COP21 outcomes. Nordic environment and climate ministers recently declared their commitment to carry out a “strong implementation” of the agreements reached by world leaders in the French capital last year.

“The Paris Agreement set out the framework for a global course towards green growth and decreasing climate emissions,” said the Finnish Minister of Agriculture and the Environment Kimmo Tiilikainen, speaking as chair of the Nordic Council of Ministers.

His key message came next, however, when he added: “Now the real work begins.”

Tiilikainen further promised that a number of initiatives, focusing on Nordic experiences on low emission solutions, will be launched over the coming months with special attention being given to “mobilising private climate financing”, as well as increasing awareness about climate change and its effects in the Artic region. Looking at developments on a country-by-country basis, however, strong progress is already being achieved in each country, often backed by extremely bold 2020, 2030, and even 2050 energy sourcing projections by the relevant governments.

Sweden Sweden’s success in becoming the first country in Europe to meet the EU’s

32 • July/August 2016

renewable energy targets for 2020, beating the EU deadline by several years, has certainly put the country well ahead in terms of many other EU member states. Originally given an overall renewables share target of 49% by the EU (to be achieved by 2020), Sweden had already reached 53% in 2014. Similar success has been achieved in relation the country’s transport sector, where the renewables share reached in 2014 was 19%, almost twice the 10% target set by the EU for its 2020 deadline.

Although the country’s transport sector is clearly making good renewables progress, however, pressure is still being maintained for further advances in the future. This is in line with Sweden’s longer-term ambition to have a vehicle fleet that is independent of fossil fuels by 2030. The country’s government also wants Sweden to be producing no net GHG emissions whatsoever by 2050.

Even having made such a strong start to its renewables and GHG ambitions, Sweden will still need to take “concrete steps” to realise its 2030 and 2050 vision, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

“Although Sweden has decided to allow the replacement of its existing nuclear reactors, further emission reductions will come at a higher cost and require technology change,” said the IEA. “This means Sweden will need to carefully evaluate the most cost-effective pathways for its transition to a low-carbon economy.”

Noting that the country currently has a high energy-intensity level, which demands greater energy efficiency in industry, buildings, heat and transport, IAE added that a decarbonisation vision for Sweden should be mapped out for each industry sector. It also commented that such a “mapping out” process will

Bioenergy Insight

regional focus Bioenergy need to start with transport, if Sweden is actually going to wean its vehicle fleet from fossil fuels within the next 14 years.

Denmark In Denmark, energy consumption is currently at its lowest level for 40 years, an achievement which helped lower CO2 emissions by 6.6% between 2014 and 2015, with the country making a significant reduction in coal consumption in the process. In addition, according to the Danish Energy Agency (DEA), using energy statistics for 2015, the share of Denmark’s energy consumption provided from renewable sources continues to increase, rising from 26% in 2014 to 27.2% last year.

The Danish government’s declared target is the same as for Sweden’s transport sector, namely to “wean” the country off fossil fuels by 2050. This policy was first set out in 2011, along with a number of key stepping stones to be followed along the way. From 2011 to 2020, for example, the stated aim was to reduce the use of fossil fuels in the energy sector by 33% compared to 2009, the launch point for comparisons selected by the government at the time its energy policy was announced.

The 2011 strategy statement also envisaged that renewable energy would increase its share of Denmark’s total energy requirement to 33% by 2020, accompanied by a 6% reduction in the country’s primary energy consumption, also to be achieved by 2020.

Given that Denmark has already been on a renewable energy journey, having reached its current 27.2% renewable status from a 1980 starting point of just 3%, some may be tempted to think the current rate of progress will not be sustainable for much longer. However, the latest DEA projections have lifted the bar even higher with the country’s renewable energy share now forecast to rise “above 40%” in 2020. DEA does add, nevertheless, that there are “great uncertainties” in making longterm projections and that such levels of uncertainty must be expected to increase during the projected period.

“Uncertainties derive, among others, from growth, price, and technology conditions, which may develop differently than expected,” said DEA, pointing out that its baseline projections made in 2015 contained “sensitivity analyses”.

In that context, the forecast position for Denmark’s reduction of GHGs by 2020 is expressed in terms of a relatively

Bioenergy Insight

broad range, running from 35%-44%, compared to 1990. This result, however, whichever level is achieved within the range, would still be rated as either good or very good when compared with performances elsewhere in the EU. Finland IEA’s analysis of Finland begins with an acknowledgement that more than half of the country is located above the Arctic Circle, is largely rural and sparsely populated, and has an inevitably cold climate and energy-intensive industries.

All of this adds up to Finland’s energy consumption per capita being the highest of the IEA’s list of member countries.

While currently highly dependent on imported fossil fuels, the Finnish government’s energy strategy displays a determination to move progressively towards a decarbonised economy.

“Finland has a very ambitious renewable energy programme,” notes IEA, “with a view to meeting 38% of its final energy consumption from renewable sources by 2020.”

In this context, IEA’s recommendations for Finland’s energy future includes the following: • That the country should “continue to address energy security concerns in a comprehensive and sustainable manner”, while pursuing its focus on key policy pillars of bioenergy and nuclear energy.

• To maintain its drive to improve energy efficiency, notably through a stronger focus on efficiencies in the transport sector.

• To actively contribute to finding a mutually acceptable solution at an EU level regarding the discussion on sustainability criteria for biomass and the development of a robust certification scheme that does not create an unacceptable burden for small forest owners.

• To seek to develop the regional integration of its gas market, building on the example of its successful regional integration in electricity markets.

Finland, of course, is the most forested country in Europe with approximately 86% of its land area being covered with coniferous forests, a fact which lies behind the Finnish government’s commitment to ensure that forestry resources play a central role in meeting the country’s future renewables targets.

How such resources are accessed efficiently, without exposing Finland’s forestry industry to excessive EU-based requirements, especially concerning sustainability certification, is already a major focus for the government ministers in Finland. According to Tiilikainen, the Nordic region’s future sustainability policy should be based on “existing national systems and should not impose administrative burdens on forest owners or bioenergy operators”.

Tiilikainen made this comment in late April 2016, following a meeting of the Nordic Council of Ministers for Fisheries and Aquaculture, Agriculture, Food, and Forestry, which delivered a united call for a strengthening of co-operation for the creation of a sustainable forest-based bioeconomy in the region. His “administrative burdens” comment, which echoed one of the recommendations for Finland made by IEA, was specially directed towards certification policy-makers in the European Commission.

“The forest-based bioeconomy offers great opportunities for the Nordic societies in the form of growth and jobs,” he concluded, adding that such cooperation “can and should be achieved in a sustainable way”.

Having already achieved so much in renewable terms across the region, the big challenge for politicians and industry leaders, going forward, will be to sustain momentum, especially in light of the Nordic Council’s view that the “real work” still has to be done. IEA’s summary view of prospects for further growth up to 2020 is that the use of biomass and other renewable energy sources can be expected to continue to increase in the Nordic countries, albeit that some circumstances exist that may also limit continued growth in the demand for bioenergy.

At the top of its “some circumstances” list is the fact that the targets defined in the EU Directive on renewables for 2020 have already been met or are very close to fulfilment among the Nordic countries, the inference being that pressure for further gains will become harder to maintain. Looking further ahead, however, IEA concludes that there is a clear technological and economical pathway for the Nordic region to push towards a near carbonneutral energy system in 2050. As such, it adds, the Nordic countries, working together, can send a strong signal to the global community that the ambitious aims of the Paris Climate Agreement are achievable. l

July/August 2016 • 33

Bioenergy comment The EU must ensure bioenergy sustainability with pragmatism and effectiveness

Clarity and confidence

O

ver the past few months, tense debates on the sustainability of biomass used for energy production have arisen. Most stakeholders seem to agree on one point: an EU policy to ensure the sustainability of biomass is required. It is needed to secure investments, to set a level playing field among member states, and to provide answers to questions and concerns from society on future bioenergy developments.

Bioenergy has played an important role as renewable energy consumption has significantly increased in the EU over the last 15 years.

Currently, bioenergy is, in fact, the largest renewable energy source in Europe.

In Finland, bioenergy is the largest energy source and accounts for 26% of the total energy use and more than 80% of the renewable energy use.

It comes as no surprise that the development of a new EU sustainability policy will have consequences on the future EU energy framework and on EU renewable energy and climate targets. This is why this issue should be carefully discussed and — in doing so — the whole spectrum of stakeholders should be involved. As a positive signal, almost 1,000 contributors participated in the public consultation recently organised by the European Commission.

Paris agreement In the Paris climate conference last December, sustainability of bioenergy was hardly discussed.

34 • July/August 2016

This is a promising development towards embracing common methodologies within international climate policies.

The Paris agreement also requires all parties to improve their LULUCF inventories and reporting methods. The EU is already acquainted with LULUCF accounting methods, and an important proposal from the Commission on how to integrate this sector into the EU’s overall GHG emissions reduction objective is expected this summer.

Sustainable forest management

Harri Laurikka, CEO of the Bioenergy Association of Finland

The focus of the conference was on how to organise the transition from fossil fuels towards a sustainable low emission economy. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) had identified bioenergy as one of the key technologies to achieve ambitious emission targets cost-effectively in its assessment in 2014. The long-term vision of the Paris agreement became a balance between carbon emissions and sinks post-2050. Bioenergy is a solution that fits very well into that vision, if used to replace fossil fuels and if carbon stocks in forests keep increasing.

For a long time, the IPCC has been clear on how to deal with emissions from biomass combustion. Emissions should not be accounted under the energy sector but under the so-called “Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry” (LULUCF) sector in order to avoid double counting. This is a clear and established principle. In fact, the EU and many other countries have already informed at the UN Climate Convention that they will apply the most recent IPCC 2006 guidelines, based on the above-mentioned principle, in implementation of their contributions.

On the ground, bioenergy production is not isolated from other wood uses, and we often see more synergies than competition. For example, in Finland, residues used in heating installations come mostly from the value chains of the forest industry to generate timber and fibre wood.

Sustainable forest management consists of a wide set of actions that range from sophisticated harvesting to regenerating wood, maintaining an adequate carbon sink, and to ensuring biodiversity. In Finland, for instance, the bioenergy market enables forest operators to proceed with thinning operations that will eventually lead to stronger forest growth, carbon stock increase, and to high-value timber.

The future EU sustainable bioenergy policy should take into account the fact that a single biomass type can be used to produce heat, electricity and biofuels.

For instance, woodchips can be burned to produce heat and/or electricity, but also lignocellulosic biofuels

Bioenergy Insight

comment Bioenergy depending on the real market conditions, which keep on evolving in the future. It therefore makes sense to address the sustainability of the raw material and to trust the ability of the market to find the best value, rather than try to develop theoretic concepts around the different end uses. The future EU policy should also ensure that biomass contributes to GHG savings by setting a minimum greenhouse gas emissions savings threshold based on calculation methodologies, such as the one already endorsed by the Commission.

I truly believe that a robust bioenergy policy is achievable by building on the existing policy framework.

Several key EU legislations are in place or in the pipeline — on renewable energy, biodiversity, wood trade, and

‘Currently, bioenergy is the single largest renewable energy source in Europe’

land use change. If properly implemented and reinforced by national legislation and voluntary systems, this legislation could provide the foundations of a sustainable EU assurance system. Such a system should take into account the administrative costs and burdens that companies — in particular SMEs — will eventually face.

SMEs could be hindered by an unrealistic approach, acting de facto against locally-available sustainable bioenergy and therefore

High Solids Anaerobic Digestion System

against climate targets and employment rates within European rural areas.

This is why the Bioenergy Association of Finland, together with AEBIOM and its networks, is asking the European Commission to adopt a reasonable, credible threshold of 20MWth, coherent with EU ETS (Emissions Trading System) legislation, to apply its future sustainable bioenergy policy.

This is also why the European bioenergy sector supports the risk-based approach at macro

level (regional or national) to evaluate whether forest biomass is originating from forests where biodiversity and ecosystems are thoroughly protected and the carbon stock is maintained.

Finally, what companies investing in European sustainable bioenergy solutions today require can be summed up in one word: confidence. The EU has the capacity to send a strong policy signal and we should use it! What is not needed for the currently most important source of renewable energy is a shortsighted policy with built-in revision requirements. l

For more information:

This article was written by Harri Laurikka, CEO of the Bioenergy Association of Finland. Visit: www.bioenergia.fi/english

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July/August 2016 • 35

Bioenergy energy-from-waste An assessment of the EU’s Circular Economy Package on the waste-to-energy sector

Going for growth

T

he existing European waste legislation is in need of a significant revision.

The EU’s Circular Economy Package with a coming revision of the Waste Framework Directive, Landfill Directive and the Directive on Packaging Waste will focus on higher recycling targets (75% for packaging and 65% for municipal waste by 2030).

It will also focus on a binding landfill target to reduce landfill to a maximum of 10% of all waste by 2030. In addition, uniform calculation method as well as a definition of municipal waste and measures to promote re-use and industrial symbiosis.

However, the definition of recycling must be made clear in order to correctly plan waste-to-energy capacity and thereby recover the energetic value of waste that has not been able to be recycled. It is also necessary to understand that all waste neither can nor should be recycled due to its composition of chemicals. In some cases the circular loop should be cut off, for the sake of the environment and health.

Since the implementation of the first Waste Framework Directive in 1975, the focus of European waste legislation has been on municipal and hazardous waste. Waste management is a vital part of the services of general interest provided by local authorities and an important factor in the sustainable development of a municipality. In most member states this encompasses household and similar waste from other sources in the municipality. However, targets

36 • July/August 2016

on non-hazardous industrial waste is still lacking in the proposed revision by the European Commission.

Self-sufficiency Mobility across borders for recycled waste and residual waste for energy recovery is central in a circular economy in order to attain resource efficiency in Europe. It is an effective use of available infrastructure and energy resources. It also diverts waste away from landfill.

At the same time, the principle of self-sufficiency and proximity for disposal and destruction of hazardous waste must be respected. The EU should strive to become self-sufficient in regards to disposal and recycling. As far as possible, the waste should be treated as close to the source as possible, but in the absence of treatment with high performance in one

member state, it is better if the waste is transported to another member state, with better ability to treat the waste in an efficient and environmentally-sound manner. Hence, some of the residual waste generated in the UK and Ireland is processed by energy recovery plants in the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden and Norway.

Energy recovery in Sweden In Sweden, there are 20,000km of district heating network delivering approximately 50TWh of heat each year, of which 22% comes from waste as a fuel — a low carbon fuel. 20-25% of the waste that goes to energy recovery in Sweden was generated in another European country. Since most of Swedish waste-to-energy plants produce heating, cooling and electricity, they are very competitive and

A circular economy is one that is restorative and regenerative by design, and which aims to keep products, components and materials at their highest utility and value at all times

the energy efficiency is way above the European average.

Sweden was one of the first member states to introduce landfill bans in 2002 and 2005.

Even though Sweden is one of the member states that has the highest capacity of energy recovery per capita, Sweden still has one of the highest recycling rates in Europe and in the world. If Europe is to become less dependent on fossil fuel for heating (currently 75% use is fossilbased) and cooling purposes, residual waste must be better tackled by all member states.

Restrictions on landfilling is essential in this endeavour.

Furthermore, the definition of recycling and recovery must be clear in order to correctly plan waste-toenergy capacity and thereby recover the energetic value of waste that has not been able to be recycled. Hence, the connection between energy recovery within a circular economy and as part of the European Energy Union policy work, which aims for energy security, energy independence, and to reduce the carbon footprint of the energy use in Europe, must be acknowledged.

Waste consists of a large variety of discarded goods with huge differences in regards to potential for material recovery. A substantial part of waste consists of hazardous and heterogeneous products for which there is no evident and economically viable material recovery method (wall-to-wall carpets, used diapers, hospital waste, plastics containing hazardous additives etc.).

Even if waste consist of materials that are physically

Bioenergy Insight

energy-from-waste Bioenergy recyclable, we are far from achieving 100% recycling rates — and even farther away achieving 100% actual recycling. Hence, it is obvious that in reality material and energy recovery are complementing each other.

The rejects from the recycling industry still need waste treatment — energy recovery.

Reduction, reuse, recycling and recovery However, it is still appropriate to give priority to material recovery over energy recovery, as in the waste hierarchy. There are also ways to create conditions for a better material recovery in the future by improving the activities upstream of the waste treatment — improved separation and most importantly — product design.

When planning for heating,

cooling, and electricity production, the role of waste-to-energy in the waste management sector is essential. There will always be a residual part of waste that will not be able to be recycled — a city needs to make use of its residual

in 2030? Assuming there is no substantial increase in population, less waste generation per capita, proposed recycling and landfill targets are met, no residual waste going to cement kilns — we are looking at an increased need of waste-to-

20-25% of the waste that goes to energy recovery in Sweden was generated in another European country waste in the best way possible. Quality and quantity of waste fuel depends on activities upstream.

With higher targets on recycling and a landfill cap of 10%, both the quantity and quality of waste fuels will alter. How much residual waste will be available for waste-to-energy in Europe

energy capacity in Europe of approximately 10-20%.

Granting all this, there are huge informational gaps on several issues. This includes how much waste the cement kilns incinerate and will incinerate annually, the amount of materials rejected from material recycling processes, the

share of waste collected for recycling that is actually recycled to new products, and the effectiveness of policy measures targeting upstream activities. All of these matters affect the quantity and quality of residual waste for the waste-to-energy sector. Still, member states need to acknowledge the potential for waste-to-energy as a prerequisite for landfill restrictions and bans, as a complement to recycling and as a low-carbon fuel (recovered energy) aiding in the shift towards lower dependency on fossil fuels in the heating, cooling, and electricity sector. l

For more information:

This article was written by Weine Wiqvist, CEO at Avfall Sverige and Jakob Sahlén, adviser on wasteto-energy at Avfall Sverige. Visit: www.avfallsverige.se/in-english

Your Single-Source System Provider We offer complete systems for grinding and/or drying a wide variety of biomass materials including wood chips, algae, switchgrass, & kenaf. nt Biomass Handling Equipment ms Complete Engineered Systems Primary Hogs Secondary Hammer Mills Apron Pan Feeders Mass Loading Feeders Disc Screens Screw Conveyors Pneumatic Conveying Silos 2701 North Broadway, St. Louis, Missouri 63102 USA Phone: (314) 621-3348 Fax: (314) 436-2639 Email: sales@williamscrusher.com

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www.williamscrusher.com July/August 2016 • 37

Bioenergy CHP production Stockholm is moving towards completely renewable energy economy with a new biomass plant in a residential area

Power next door

A

new massive biomass-fired combined heat and power (CHP) plant is an important step towards 100% renewable district heating in Stockholm, Sweden. The new plant, inaugurated in May and expected to commence commercial operation this autumn, has a heat production capacity equivalent to 190,000 households and also produces electricity equivalent to 20,000 rooftops covered with solar panels.

This makes the €500 million plant the world’s largest of its kind in a residential area.

The new plant uses forest residues and wood waste as feedstock, pushing the share of renewable or recovered energy in the Stockholm district heating system to 90%.

Fortum Värme’s MD Anders Egelrud recognises the new plant as an important step towards a sustainable energy system in Stockholm.

With increasing volumes of intermittent renewable power production, the demand for effect will increase on cold and windless days. As CHP is flexible, the production of both heat and electricity can easily be adjusted to meet the demand, thereby providing a key component in the growing renewable energy system.

During the inauguration, which took place before summer, after three years of construction, the chairman of the board of Fortum Värme, Göran Långsved, noted that the 90% share of renewable and recovered energy sources is quite unique.

The new plant will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 126,000 tonnes annually.

Fortum’s president and CEO

38 • July/August 2016

Delegates from the renewable energy industry visit Fortum Värme’s combined heat and power plant in Sweden

Pekka Lundmark called the plant a step towards a circular economy, where biomass, waste, and recovered heat from data centres are utilised in energy production in the

district heating system. In Stockholm, Fortum provides sustainable solutions that connect waste management, biogas production, district cooling and other aspects of

Fact box

• The plant in Värtan is operated by Fortum Värme, which is a joint venture between Finnish energy company Fortum and the City of Stockholm.

• Construction started 2013 and the plant was inaugurated in May 2016.

• Investment in the project is valued at about €500 million.

• The plant is estimated to produce 750GWh electricity and 1,700GWh heat annually.

• Together with the expected increase of recovered energy in the system, mainly from data centres, the new plant will enable Fortum Värme to completely phase out all remnants of fossil fuels in the system by 2030.

• Fortum Värme is the first energy company in Europe to have the Forest Stewardship Council’s (FSC) Chain of Custody (CoC) certification.

a circular economy with heat and electricity production.

A building challenge To build a power plant of this size in a residential area is challenging, the logistical solutions for the fuel even more so. Although biomass is a renewable, largely local, and carbon-neutral energy source — and hence an important building block of a sustainable energy system and bioeconomy — it still uses 12,000m3 of wood chips per day. That translates to three wheel barrows of wood chips per second.

The fuel, forest residues and wood waste, is transported both by sea and railway, three to four shipments and five trains per week. The project also included extensive work in the Energy Port, the port where the ships unload their cargo of wood chips, which is situated in the vicinity of the plant where both sea

Bioenergy Insight

CHP production Bioenergy and railway transports are unloaded. A new pier with land-based power supply further reduces emissions.

From the Energy Port, the wood chips are transported by a half kilometre long conveyor belt to the power plant’s underground storage facility, which has a capacity of 50,000m3. From the storage facility, another 500m long conveyor belt transports the fuel to the burner. The biofuel comes from sustainable forestry in Sweden, Norway, the Baltic countries, and Russia.

As mentioned, the plant is situated close to a residential area, as well as a big port, railway, and a major road.

It was therefore essential to build the wood chip storage underground. Fortum also had to deal with strict regulations on the size and height of the plant due to the proximity to houses, which

is why part of the boiler was built below ground as well. Building underground put stricter demands on the project as a whole.

Despite the location, there were few issues with the residents. They have lived side by side with some kind of power or heat production for nearly a hundred years.

In fact, that is one of the reasons why the area was built in the first place — for the workers at the old gas utilities. Of course, not all of them were pleased, but as there already was existing power and heat production in the area and the city of Stockholm saw the plant as crucial to increase the supply of heat and power, the decision to place the plant in the area went through without major issues.

The plant does make an attempt to be more visually pleasing, though. Its design

Fortum Värme’s biomass-fired combined heat and power plant in Stockholm, Sweden

is quite unique with a façade that is somewhat bent to make room for several hundred-year-old oak trees.

The oldest of these trees is said to have been planted around the time of Gustav Vasa, Sweden’s first king. The facade is now being covered with terracotta-coloured tiles in order to align with

the old buildings surrounding the plant, designed by the well-known architect Ferdinand Boberg. l

For more information:

This article was written by PerOscar Hedman of Fortum Sverige.

Visit: www.fortum.com

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July/August 2016 • 39

Bioenergy wood pellets Incorporating future-proof design concepts into the layout and operating principles of new wood pellet plants is vital if managers are to improve quality and maximise profits from their multi-million pound investments

Proofed for the future

I

n 2010, US-based company Astec began aggressively moving toward participating in the wood pellet industry as a manufacturer and supplier of wood pellet plants and related equipment. At that time, the growth projections for the wood pellet industry were incomprehensible.

There was practically a feeding frenzy of people trying to get a piece of this exploding business.

As word began to spread that the company, long known as North America’s dominant manufacturer of hot mix asphalt plants, could build pellet plants, people wanting to get into the business began a steady parade through Astec’s main manufacturing location in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Well, the frenzy has subsided and only those who are really committed to the pellet business are still around.

The company became committed from the outset by investing several million dollars to design and build a five tonne per hour wood pellet plant, which the company then operated itself for the next several months. At the time, the industry did not know whether it would go with “white” or torrefied pellets. So, Astec built the prototype to produce both kinds.

Trial and error The company learned a lot and made a lot of mistakes, which was the purpose of building the prototype. Astec wanted to get as many mistakes as possible out

of the way before building a commercial plant. Today, the company is building a 600,000tpy plant. This will be Astec’s second major commercial plant for Arkansas-based Highland Pellets. Its first major plant was built for Georgiabased Hazlehurst Wood Pellets.

From the outset, the company sought and listened to the needs of the wood pellet industry as expressed to Astec by those who were already in the business and were actively making and selling pellets. The needs were many, but a few of those really stood out as major issues for the industry.

Among them were the following: 1. Someone to provide a complete pellet plant and stand behind it with substantial warranties, guarantees, and service resources.

2. A different drying technology that was safer and cleaner than traditional convection dryers.

3. A plant consisting of modular equipment that could be highway shipped, installed with a little or no onsite assembly of major components, and could begin to make pellets and produce income relatively quickly.

4. A plant that is of a standardised design that would have predictability of performance.

As the company considered these needs, it realised that it was in a great position to be able to provide the answers. Being a member of the Astec Industries family of companies, the division has a lot of

resources to draw on. As it has turned out, Astec is able to design and build almost all of the plant equipment “inhouse” among its 18 companies. Because the company dsigns the equipment itself, it is capable of providing the support and assurances plant owners want and need.

To the best of Astec’s knowledge, it is the only manufacturer that provides complete pellet plants. When a new pellet plant is under consideration, the owner typically looks for an engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contractor. The EPC label really does not fit Astec, as it would be more accurate to refer to the company as an engineering, manufacture, and construction (EMC) contractor.

To avoid the safety and volatile organic compounds (VOC) emission issues that have been a concern to the industry, Astec chose to use a hot oil tube dryer as its main equipment for drying incoming wood chips.

The firm also positioned a hot gas tube pre-dryer upstream on the main dryer to improve thermal efficiency and drying capacity by capturing heat from the hot oil heater exhaust gases. With these dryer types, the hot gas stream from the burner is never in contact with the wood chips.

All heating and drying of material is done by contact of the chips with the heated tube surfaces rather than by direct contact with hot gases or any other heated fluid. By this method, chips are dried in a nearly oxygen-free atmosphere. This greatly reduces both the risk of fires and explosions and the release of VOCs from the chips.

Because the exhaust volume from the hot oil tube dryer is relatively small, the entire exhaust stream can be treated to destroy any VOCs by injecting it into the combustion chamber of the hot oil heater that supplies hot oil to the dryer.

Other considerations

Astec began diversifying into the wood pellet making industry in 2010. Building asphalt plants is its main business.

40 • July/August 2016

When considering that the heat transfer oil used in Astec’s system is heated to

Bioenergy Insight

wood pellets Bioenergy only about 10 to 13˚C, as compared the hot gases at about 43 to 65˚C that are in direct contact with chips in convection type dryers, and that the hot oil tube dryer atmosphere is virtually oxygen free, the company’s design provides majorly reduced safety risks and emissions. As a fringe benefit, the scorching of the material that sometimes occurs in convection dryers is generally avoided in the tube type dryers. So, this effectively addresses the second major need.

The third need was essentially addressed before the company started.

Astec’s standard approach to building equipment has always been to shop assemble equipment modules for highway shipment. When Astec-manufactured equipment arrives on site, it is simply set in place on its foundations.

Very large components, like a baghouse, may consist of more than one module. In that case, the modules will be stacked and bolted together on the foundation. Interconnecting elements such as ductwork and conveyors

are set in place and connected, to complete the plant assembly.

Plants consist of multiple production lines that are rated at 20 tonnes per

‘Astec is able to design and build all of its plant equipment in-house’ hour each. This dovetails well with the modular concept and allows the first installed line to start producing pellets even before the plant is completed.

It also provides significant redundancy to keep the plant running in spite of planned equipment shutdowns or breakdowns. It also gives the owner the option of starting smaller and expanding easily by adding production lines.

need for predictability. Whether the plant is large or smaller, a production line is the same from one plant to the next and so its performance characteristics are the same from plant to plant. This gives everyone needed assurances.

Owners, financiers, insurers, pellet customers, all have increased assurance that the plant will operate reliably, with the predicted performance, and will do so safely. From Astec’s point of view, this makes it easy to provide the necessary performance guarantees.

Astec is glad to be a part of the wood pellet industry and is thankful for the relationships and business it has brought to the table. Although there is certainly not the “feeding frenzy” type expectations of the earlier days, the reality is that the pellet business is here to stay. l

Production line Using standard modules to assemble standard production lines answers the

For more information:

This article was written by Malcolm Swanson, president at Astec. Visit: www.astecinc.com

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July/August 2016 • 41

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pyrolysis Bioenergy A UK company is turning materials that are traditionally challenging to recycle into gas and oil

Plastics to power

P

ackaging is a necessary part of almost all products sold today. Laminate packaging is a very popular choice for its protective and lightweight attributes, but the multiple layers mean that there is no easy recycling route. As such, the packaging often ends up in landfill, wasting valuable raw resources. Now a new plant, based in Alconbury, UK, seeks to change that.

Enval has developed and built a recycling process for plastic aluminium laminates, which are commonly used as packaging for consumer goods such as juices, toothpaste, cosmetics, and pet food.

The technology involved is microwave-induced pyrolysis, where microwave energy is used to heat up the material in a fast and mechanically gentle way. The aluminium foil in the laminate is then recovered clean and ready for reprocessing. The plastic component of the material degrades to form a mixture of hydrocarbons ranging from C3 to C20.

This mixture is then cooled down and separated into two fractions: gas and oil. The gas has a high energy content and is used to generate the electricity required to power the process, and the condensed oils can be used as fuel or, in principle, as chemical feedstock.

One of the most important characteristics of the microwave-induced pyrolysis process and which lies at the centre of the success so far is its capacity to scale up or down according to need. In the case of the laminates this has been crucial because it has meant

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Enval’s operational full-scale plant in Alconbury, UK

Example of a pouch layer that can be recycled through Enval’s process

that Enval has managed to create a distributed solution for a distributed problem.

Lightweight laminates are a growing market, found postconsumer everywhere, but never in the same amounts by mass as other heavier materials (glass or metals for example). This means that a process to recycle them will never be able to be financially attractive if it requires tens of thousands of tonnes of feedstock. The transport costs of moving these low density materials would be unsurmountable.

As a consequence, Enval decided to design and build plants for its customers that can deal with the laminate waste generated in a relatively small geographical area. These small plants still provide a very attractive return of investment thanks to their products: aluminium, which can be sold and reintegrated into the aluminium supply chain creating a real circular economy solution, and a high-energy oil.

The company is currently selling the oil as heating oil, but, as part of the plans for growth in the future, Enval wants to upgrade and use it as speciality chemicals and feedstock for other processes. It is early days in this upgrading project, but the company is confident that it will be able to increase the competitiveness of the process by making the oils more attractive than “just as fuel”.

In the last ten years, the company has managed to scale up the technology from batch lab-scale equipment to a full commercial-scale plant, built by Enval at its site in Alconbury, UK. The commercial plant is now operational and is used to recycle both post-industrial and post-consumer laminates, which would otherwise have gone to landfill.

Owning and operating its own full-size unit has allowed the company to simultaneously showcase the process to interested parties and also optimise the systems.

Enval is about to begin a stage of global deployment, increasing its capacity and demonstrating the commercial and environmental viability of the process to an even wider audience. l For more information:

This article was written by Catherine White, technology development manager at Enval.

Visit: www.enval.com

July/August 2016 • 43

Bioenergy corn stover

Clustering together Building the value chain from corn stover to sugar

C

anada is a country of abundant biomass from agriculture and forestry as well as municipal solid waste (MSW). The country is seeing companies like biofuels producer Enerkem focus on MSW with a facility in Edmonton, Alberta. In relation to the forestry sector, there is a lot of research being done to determine the most effective utilisation of woody biomass.

Today, companies involved in forestry are using biomass for heat and energy. For instance, firms such as Conifex in British Columbia have built power plants utilising their sawmill residues and turning this material into green energy.

In addition, Forest Products Innovation (FpInnovation), a research and development organisation for the forestry industry, has been producing significant research papers on creating value from woody biomass. Its research includes biomass to sugars, lignin, nano-crystalline cellulose, resins, fibres, and more.

In the agriculture and biohybrid cluster in Sarnia, a city in Ontario, corn stover is the most abundant feedstock for converting to sugars, with wheat straw being second.

In Western Canada, wheat

44 • July/August 2016

and barley straw would be the most abundant.

Why does corn stover make sense as a sugar feedstock in Ontario? Grain corn yields have tripled over the last 60 years, and so has the amount of stover — to the point that there is a need to remove up to 50% of the stover to allow producers to practise good management of their land and maximise yields of their rotational crops such as soybeans. Other benefits that are being looked at and measured are nutrient management and runoff of phosphates into our water systems, causing algae blooms.

Of course, like any business, a farmer needs to see a benefit to his bottom line, not a cost.

With corn stover being sold through a cooperative to sugar mills, there will be a small margin to the producer, and in many cases an increased yield in his soybeans the next year.

primary focus was on corn stover and wheat straw as they are key crops in Canada with quantities of excess biomass.

Corn stover is an important biomass in Southern Ontario as part of the material can be sustainably removed from the field to better prepare the fields for the next year’s crop.

Wheat straw is also a potential option, as well as purpose-grown crops such as miscanthus and switchgrass.

However, corn stover is the primary agricultural biomass that will be used at large scale

for the foreseeable future.

Over the last two years, BIC has lead two projects funded by the Agriculture Adaptation Council (AAC), a funding programme for agriculture supported by the Federal and Ontario Departments of Agriculture to support research in agriculture. The first project also had support from Alberta Innovates, Ontario Agri-Food Technologies (OAFT), BIC, Cellulosic Sugar Producers Cooperative (CSPC), and the industry (BioAmber, Jungbunzlauer Canada, IGPC

Process to establishing the first sugar mill Bioindustrial Innovation Canada (BIC) had set out on a course of defining technologies with the ability to convert biomass to separated C5 (xylose) and C6 (glucose) sugar products. The company’s

Murray McLaughlin, advisor to Bioindustrial Innovation Canada

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corn stover Bioenergy Ethanol, and AGRIS Cooperative). The second project also had support from Comet Biorefining, Ontario AgriFood Technologies, and BIC. Screening technologies The main purpose of the first project was to evaluate, develop, and physically validate biomass-to-sugarsand-co-products conversion technologies for commercial scale-up applications. There were many cellulosic sugar conversion technology providers claiming to have economically-viable technology for producing sugars of high quality. However, to date, no commercial facility had been built in Canada as there was insufficient information available to reduce the risks associated with: 1) biomass supply and cost, 2) cellulosic sugar plant capital and operating costs, 3) sugar market quality requirements and pricing, and 4) investment model. This project sought to gather this information.

BIC conducted a detailed analysis of 19 companies that had the ability to process biomass to sugars. Through a preliminary screening analysis, the number of companies was reduced to eight technologies.

These eight remaining technologies were assessed in further detail. Site visits were conducted to see their pilot and/or demonstration facilities to determine the readiness for commercialisation.

Representative sugar samples were obtained and analysed to determine sugar quality and a full assessment of the business plan economics was completed. Through this detailed approach, it was further narrowed to four companies, which could potentially meet the project objectives. At this point, large multi-tonne quantities of corn stover harvested from the region were provided to the four companies. These companies processed the corn stover to sugars and

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provided BIC with sufficient quantities to analyse and test the finished products.

The industry partners evaluated the sugar samples from the companies and determined the suitability of these sugar products for their processes. Once the evaluation process was complete, BIC made recommendations to the Cellulosic Sugar Producers Cooperative (CSPC). From these recommendations, the Cooperative decided to collaborate with Comet Biorefining. CSPC and Comet

The CSPC will manage the front end from the farm gate to the sugar mill and the sugar mill will cover all the costs of these operations.

The producers will receive a transfer fee per tonne of biomass harvested from their land and as an investor in the mill, CSPC will also receive dividends to distribute to their members.

The Comet/CSPC is a true partnership with the CSPC being an investor in the mill and managing the front end harvesting and delivery of the

Corn stover is the primary agricultural biomass that will be used at large scale for the foreseeable future agreed to work together on a second project to determine the economics of a full corn stover biomass value chain from the farm field to the sugar products and co-products.

Corn stover harvest and delivery Over the winter 2015/16, BIC completed this second project to assess the cost of corn stover harvest and delivery to the sugar mill on behalf of the CSPC. This included all aspects from equipment (bales, windrowers, stackers, tractors, and trucks) to storage, fuel, contracts, labour, and leases.

For consistent bale size, it was decided to use the AGCO baler and Hiniker windrower. This information was coupled with the detailed economics of the Comet sugar mill and the full costed economics from farm field to sugar products and co-products was completed.

Based on the success of this project, CSPC and Comet have agreed to work together to build a cellulosic sugar mill in Sarnia. The CSPC is now building its membership and will be an investor in the sugar mill as well as manage the corn stover harvesting, transportation, and storage.

corn stover. Comet has already secured off-take agreement for its sugar, and BioAmber has agreed to use the Comet sugar in its production of succinic acid. This will establish the full value chain from the farm field to a bio-based chemical and biofuels.

A cluster under development BIC has been focused on cluster development for eight years with Sarnia, Ontario, being the community initially selected for establishing a Bio-Hybrid Chemistry Cluster.

Today, there are a number of companies in various phases of development from research to pilot to demonstration plant to commercialisation within the cluster. BioAmber

is the most notable with global recognition. Having Comet establish a sugar mill is another significant step of the cluster initiative.

The Sarnia Lambton Research Park is at 95% capacity, with the pilot/demo facilities at full capacity.

However, one company will soon graduate from the facility making space available for new projects.

BIC works closely with the Park management to connect with prospective clients in the bio-based chemical sector.

BIC has recently received new funding from the province of Ontario through the Ministry of Research and Innovation (MRI) to provide support for the next four years. This funding allows BIC to continue to execute its mission, providing critical strategic investment, advice, and services to business developers of clean, green, and sustainable technologies.

In eight years, BIC has been able to go from the concept of a cluster in Sarnia to what today is viewed as a leader in bio-based chemistry. Having Comet Biorefining build a sugar mill in the cluster will add more strength to the biohybrid chemistry cluster and establish a fully functioning farm-to-biochemical products value chain. l

For more information:

This article was co-written by Sandy Marshall, executive director of Bioindustrial Innovation Canada, and Murray McLaughlin, advisor to BIC. Visit: www.bincanada.ca

A corn stover baler

July/August 2016 • 45

Bioenergy energy crops Move over wood, perennial grass is looking to have its moment in the spotlight

King of the grass world

W

hen one thinks of biomass energy, grass doesn’t automatically spring to mind. Images of burning wood or sugarcane bagasse normally permeate the brain. In fact, in most of the world, biomass energy means burning the latter.

Wood and wood waste have many competing uses such as pulp and paper and construction materials. After Fukushima, Japan is also seeking wood pellets from around the world to meet its environmental goals.

Sugarcane bagasse is routinely used to produce heat and electricity for sugar mills and the excess is sold to local electricity grids.

Sugarcane production bagasse production, however, is seasonal and not available for reliable 24/7 base electricity.

Nevertheless, perennial grasses are an attractive option as dedicated energy crops. Some can be harvested in the first year and subsequently harvested up to three times per annum. As in all agriculture, the cost of the biomass is proportional to the yield per acre. Higher yield means lower cost.

Perennial grasses can be planted on marginal lands that are currently fallow and do not displace food crops.

Clean energy company Viaspace has developed a proprietary hybrid energy crop called Giant King Grass (GKG) which produces high yields in humid tropical climes. It can be grown in warm regions such as Africa, Central and South America, and South and Southeast Asia. GKG can be used there to produce electricity for local use, and it can be used as a feedstock

46 • July/August 2016

5.5m tall Giant King Grass in Hawaii being harvested as seed for a biopower project in Africa

to produce energy pellets, biochemicals and biofuels for export to Europe, Northern Asia and North America.

Nevertheless, it does not withstand a hard freeze.

The crop is attractive in terms of water use and fertiliser use efficiency which is defined as the amount of water or fertiliser required to make one tonne of dry biomass. It has been tested extensively for use in direct combustion, anaerobic digestion and as a feedstock for cellulosic biofuels. In most properties it is very similar to corn straw, but has a much higher yield in terms of tonnes per hectare. GKG is a noninvasive species and is planted from cuttings like sugarcane.

The agriculture is also similar to the well-established techniques for growing sugarcane. GKG can be planted by hand or with machines, and it can be manually or mechanically harvested. It is currently growing in California and Hawaii in the US, and has been exported to St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands, as well as to South Africa, China, Myanmar, Pakistan, the Philippines, Nicaragua, Jamaica, and Guyana.

GKG is inspected by the US Department of Agriculture

prior to export and issued with a phytosanitary certificate.

Higher efficiency A high quality direct combustion power plant can have 30% or higher efficiency from the lower heating value of the fuel to electricity produced. The direct combustion power plant can burn GKG or other fuels at moisture levels of 50% or lower. When GKG is harvested it has about 75% moisture and must be dried down to 50% or lower in order to be burned.

A 12MW biomass power plant requires 18 tonnes per hour of GKG at 50% moisture (9 tonnes per hour of dry matter). This is equivalent to 36 tonnes per hour of freshly harvested GKG. The power plant operates 7,884 hours annually and therefore needs 284,000 tonnes of GKG to be harvested every year. With the high yield of GKG, in a tropical climate with irrigation and two harvests per year, the 12MW power plant can be produced on 840 hectares of land. This is 70 hectares per megawatt.

In a temperate area with a lower yielding grass and only one crop per year, the amount of land needed will be three to five times larger. The

boiler for direct combustion of agricultural straws and grasses must have a special design to accommodate the higher levels of chlorine in these fuels compared to wood.

The chlorine causes both high and low temperature corrosion. Additionally, the ash from these fuels has a lower melting temperature that causes slagging. Simply putting grass or straw into a wood boiler will cause it to fail within a year. Special boiler designs are available and boilers designed for grass and straw can also burn wood or sugarcane bagasse.

A properly designed boiler can use a mixture of fuels such as GKG with rice husk.

The sizes of direct combustion power plants for grasses and straws range from 10-35MW. In a tropical area, just in-time harvesting can be employed to reduce the amount of biomass that needs to be stored for the power plant. Logistics are simplified and costs are reduced if the power plant and plantation can be co-located.

The biomass power plant is environmentally-friendly.

It requires a bag filter to capture particulates, but no other emission controls are needed to meet World Bank standards. Emissions are much

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energy crops Bioenergy lower than with a coal power plant, and further reducing nitrogen oxides and other emissions is straightforward using technology developed for existing power plants. GKG ash is a good fertiliser and can be put back on the fields.

Biocoal GKG pellets have been tested by many companies and independent laboratories.

GKG pellets have also been tested by SGS, Bio Energy Labs, and laboratories in Korea and China with similar results.

Wood pellets are routinely used to replace up to 20% of coal in European power plants to reduce carbon emissions. GKG pellets have the same potential.

GKG has been converted at laboratory scale into a highenergy, carbon neutral, drop-in replacement for coal using a thermal catalytic process.

The resulting GKG biocoal has the same energy density as metallurgical coal, and is environmentally friendly as it burns cleanly without generating sulphur, mercury or other emissions found in coal.

The biocoal is hydrophobic and can be stored outdoors like coal and pulverized in

tested for biogas production using anaerobic digestion.

Since lignin inhibits anaerobic digestion, the Giant King Grass is harvested every 60 to 90 days before it gets too woody, when it is to be used for anaerobic digestion.

The average biomethane production is 60.7L per

GKG is a non-invasive species and is planted from cuttings like sugarcane. the same machines as coal.

The laboratory results indicate that GKG is an excellent feedstock for the production of biocoal using the hydrothermal process. The energy density of the biomass is increased significantly to the range typical of a good thermal coal (~24MJ/Kg).

The ash content is similar to that of a good coal.

GKG has been extensively

kilogram of fresh GKG. With warm weather, sufficient water or irrigation, and good nutrition, 100 hectares of planted GKG can produce 1MW of biogas electricity.

Tibbar Energy is developing a 7MW biogas power plant using GKS on St. Croix, US Virgin Islands.

GKG can be digested alone or mixed with other organic matter such as manure,

pig waste, food processing waste, slaughterhouse waste, vinasse from rum making or waste from cheese making.

Researchers are using an open culture reactor similar to anaerobic digestion to produce biochemicals including medium-chain carboxylic acids, such as n-caproic acid (C6) and n-caprylic acid (C8).

In summary, GKG is an attractive, low cost feedstock for multiple biopower applications. GKG can also be used as a feedstock for cellulosic biofuels such as ethanol and butanol, drop-in biofuels, and for producing biochemicals and biomaterials.

GKG has another important application as a high nutrition animal feed when it is harvested every two months at about 1.5- 2.0 m feet tall. l For more information:

This article was written by Carl Kukkonen, CEO, Viaspace.

Visit www.viaspace.com

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July/August 2016 • 47

Bioenergy company profile Sustainability is playing a key role in meeting a growing demand for bioenergy feedstocks

A decade of progress

S

ince Enviva was founded in 2004, it has had a clear, unchanging purpose.

The company works to provide a cleaner energy alternative to coal. Enviva’s core product is, and always has been, sustainability.

The company’s customers expect it. Regulators demand it. It is the reason why the group exists.

Today Enviva is the world’s largest producer of wood pellets. In fact, last year Enviva provided more than 2 million tonnes of wood pellets to coal-fired power plants in the UK, Europe and Asia.

The company is a critical partner to major power generators, delivering a renewable, cost-effective and essential complement to wind and solar power. The company makes its wood pellets in southeastern US. Converting coal-fired power plants to wood can reduce their lifetime greenhouse gas emissions by 80%.

Leading scientists and global policymakers are taking note of wood bioenergy’s environmental benefits. US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack recently wrote that “the US wood pellet industry increases our forested area, reduces greenhouse gas emissions, and improves US forest management practices”. And a group of distinguished researchers, including the chair of the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Science Advisory Board Biogenic Carbon Emissions Panel, has found that wood pellets made in the US and exported to the UK produce 74 to 85% less lifetime carbon emissions than coal.

48 • July/August 2016

But after more than a decade of work, the need to clearly and continually communicate these benefits to stakeholders around the world has never been more acute. As always, actions speak louder than words.

Enviva, and all of the stakeholders in the wood bioenergy industry, must base their actions on three pillars of sustainability: certification, transparency, and commitment to the forest.

Sustainable forests First, everyone in the supply chain aims to meet and exceed the sustainable forestry criteria set by independent third parties.

Enviva is certified to the standards of multiple international forestry organisations, including the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, the Forest Stewardship Council and the Programme for the Endorsement of Forestry Certification.

Recognising that independent landowners who want to achieve certification face significant administrative barriers, Enviva also supports its own independently managed group that assists landowners in becoming certified by the American Tree Farm System — a network of 74,000 family forest owners sustainably managing 20.5 million acres of forestland.

To produce wood pellets, the company uses only low-grade or leftover wood that cannot be milled into high-value products such as furniture or lumber.

This means Enviva buys only pulpwood, crooked or undersized trees, limbs, tops, wood chips and sawdust. In

addition, the company does not accept wood from specific types of forest ecosystems that have been identified by experts as areas of special environmental concern.

‘Track and trace’ But to provide even greater transparency in Enviva’s procurement, the company is leading the way in responsible practices and has developed a proprietary “track and trace” system that enables the firm to document the source and characteristics of every truckload of wood the company uses. For example, the group can determine the age and species type of its wood supply on a tract-bytract basis. This allows the company to identify sensitive areas before landowners make harvesting decisions and helps Enviva promote the continued health of the forest landscape.

In addition to certification and transparency, the company must be equally committed to conserving working forests and preserving environmentallysensitive areas.

In December, Enviva joined with the US Endowment for Forestry and Communities to launch the Enviva Forest Conservation Fund.

This $5 million, tenyear initiative is focused on bottomland forests in eastern North Carolina and Virginia, an area that is home to three wood pellet plants and a deep-water marine terminal owned by Enviva.

The Enviva Forest Conservation Fund recently awarded its inaugural matching-fund grants to protect thousands of acres

through forest stewardship and the promotion of sustainable harvesting.

Its grantees included the Nature Conservancy’s Virginia and North Carolina chapters, the Triangle Land Conservancy and the Virginia Department of Conservation.

Along with the grant programme, the company is working with the US Endowment and other experts from conservation groups, government and academia to develop practices and procedures that protect working bottomland forests.

The company plans to incorporate these measures into its wood supply practices.

Wood bioenergy plays a major role in the world’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In the EU, biomass accounts for about 40% of the region’s entire supply of renewable energy.

And wood pellets produced sustainably in the US play an important part in Europe’s decarbonisation initiatives.

All in all, Enviva is committed to demonstrating the environmental benefits of wood bioenergy. The company is committed to sustainability today and to developing innovative, industry-leading sustainability programmes for the years ahead. l

For more information:

This article was written by John Keppler, chairman and CEO at Enviva.

Visit: www.envivabiomass.com

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July/August 2016 • 49

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