Flexible Bioenergy and System Integration: Best Practices
IEA Bioenergy Task 44 (Flexible bioenergy and system integration) publishes good practice examples on flexible bioenergy to showcase the multiple benefits and services that flexible bioenergy can provide. The first cases are available here: https://task44.ieabioenergy.com/best-practices/ The different Best Practices can also be viewed through an interactive map.
e-gas plant, Werlte, Germany
The Werlte e-gas plant is the world’s first industrially operated plant for catalytic methanation with CO2 from biogas and renewable hydrogen. The plant preferably obtains electricity for electrolysis to hydrogen when there is an oversupply of electricity due to high feed-in quantities of wind or photovoltaic power. The final product is grid-ready synthetic natural gas (SNG) in a compressed (CNG) or liquefied (LNG) state. The plant can serve as a pilot for other plants in the transition of the fuel market towards renewable, decarbonised fuels.
Biomass hybrid dryer, Jyväskylä, Finland
VTT’s pilot hybrid dryer combines solar collectors and a heat pump in an efficient and flexible way to dry biomass. Various drying modes, such as solar alone, pump alone or solar and pump together, can be applied, depending on the availability of solar irradiation and electricity prices. The control system allows flexibility between different operating modes.
Commercial-scale eFuel facility, Örnsköldsvik, Sweden
Övik Energi will partner with Liquid Wind to provide CO2 for the first commercial-scale eFuel facility. Biogenic CO2 emissions from the biomass CHP facility will be captured and combined with renewable hydrogen to produce e-methanol. The fuel will be used by the marine industry to enable carbon neutral shipping.
Lignocellulosic bioethanol pilot plant, Muswellbrook, Australia
Around 70% of plant fibre is comprised of structural “lignocellulosic” sugars. Micro-organisms can convert these sugars to biofuels, platform chemicals and pharmaceuticals. In a scalable pilot plant project, Ethanol Technologies Pty Limited (Ethtec) is developing and commercialising a new process for the production of ethanol from the structural sugars component of lignocellulosic materials. Ethtec is aiming for flexible use of the sugars for production of ethanol, other liquid biofuels, food additives, bioplastics precursors and other biochemicals. Biofuels are flexibly used for transport, agriculture, forestry, mining and electricity generation. Lignin is used for electricity generation and production of biochemicals.
Power-to-gas integrated with waste-to-energy, Vantaa, Finland
Vantaa Energy Ltd has initiated planning of a Power-to-Gas (PtG) facility in its Waste-to-Energy (WtE) plant. The PtG plant will produce synthetic natural gas (SNG) from green hydrogen and unavoidable carbon dioxide, captured from the WtE process. The PtG facility will be connected to Vantaa’s extensive district heating system. In addition to utilization for heating during peak loads, SNG will be utilized as transportation fuel. The concept is designed to fit on foreseen energy markets where supply from variable renewable energy sources decreases electricity prices but increases volatility, and utilization of fossil fuels to cover peak load periods of local district heating system is not allowed anymore, or is very expensive due to tightening climate actions.
Fuel-flexible gas turbines, Finspång, Sweden
Siemens Energy is developing a pioneer technology, turbines that can be fueled with natural gas, biogas and hydrogen, in the city of Finspång. The main characteristics of these turbines are high efficiency and low environmental impact as well as low emissions. The integration of hydrogen fueled gas turbines in future energy systems is demonstrated in the Zero Emission Hydrogen Turbine Center (ZEHTC).
Wood-based CHP with biochar production for negative emissions, Frauenfeld, Switzerland
Otherwise unused wood from forest and landscape management is converted in a pyrolysis type thermochemical process at 850 °C to a gaseous fuel and biochar. While the wood gas is converted in four gas engines to produce renewable electricity for around 8,000 households and heat that is used by a sugar factory and the regional district heating network, biochar is also discharged from the process. Part of the carbon stored in the wood is permanently removed from the atmosphere in the form of biochar. The biochar is used in agriculture to improve the soil, as a feed additive or as active carbon for water cleaning.
Renewable hydrogen from ethanol, São Paulo, Brazil
The University of São Paulo (USP), Hytron, Shell Brazil, Raízen, and the SENAI Innovation Institute for Biosynthetics and Fibers (CETIQT) have put together a pioneering initiative to produce renewable hydrogen from ethanol and signed a cooperation agreement for the development of two production plants in the city of São Paulo in Brazil. The agreement includes a hydrogen refuelling station (HRS) for a university bus. Hydrogen production through ethanol steam reforming enables local production of hydrogen close to consumption from ethanol that is easy to transport.
Smart solar and bioenergy village, Mengsberg, Germany
The small rural village of Mengsberg has opted for a state-of-the-art hybrid heating solution consisting of an open space solar thermal field (with buffer storage), a wood chip boiler, and an on-demand and redundant biopropane boiler for fully renewable heat supply. Mengsberg’s concept is based on the variant of a three-stage heat generation system with redundancy, so that a reliable heat supply to all connected buildings is guaranteed 365 days a year.
Pellet production linked to a CHP plant for district heating, Falun, Sweden
The city of Falun has an extensive district heating and cooling system and most of the energy is generated at a combined heat and power (CHP) plant, which predominantly uses woodchips as fuel. Falun works closely with the nearby town of Borlänge, and the two towns are linked by a 20 km hot water pipeline that connects the two heating networks and enables cost-effective utilisation of heat and fuel throughout the seasons. The base load of heat production for the two cities is a combined heat and power plant in Borlänge that uses municipal waste as fuel and provides year-round energy.
The combined heat and power plant in Falun is linked to a wood pellet plant. This allows for longer running times and higher power production as the surplus heat can be used for the dryer in the pellet plant. The pellet plant is mainly running between spring and autumn when the heat load is lower than during the winter.
EMPYRO – Biomass to Pyrolysis Oil, Hengelo, the Netherlands
BTG Bioliquids has demonstrated fast pyrolysis technology at a commercial scale of 25 MWth. This polygeneration facility converts 5 t/h of clean wood into 3.2 t/h of pyrolysis oil, while excess heat is utilized to produce steam. The steam drives a turbine for electricity generation, aids biomass drying, and is supplied to a neighbouring company, with surplus electricity sold to the grid.
Fast pyrolysis and the use of the resulting FPBO may bring various flexibility options to the energy and materials system. First, the process is relatively flexible to the type of biomass and in principle, many types of biomass can be processed into a stable liquid bioenergy carrier. In this way, feedstock availability and use can be decoupled in time, location and scale. This allows various short term flexibility options, like in the Empyro case with the use of the FPBO at FrieslandCampina, but may also provide seasonal flexibility in heating applications. Moreover, FPBO can be used in multiple applications and can be the basis for a so-called “Bioliquids refinery”. FPBO can be efficiently fractionated into a pyrolytic lignin and a sugar fraction, and each one can be the starting point for production of fuels, chemicals and/or materials. In addition, FPBO might also allow the flexible uptake of electricity or hydrogen, including direct use of (excess) electricity in the electrochemical conversion of FPBO, and the use of hydrogen for stabilization and hydrotreatment of FPBO. The case study was prepared together with IEA Bioenergy Task 34 (Liquefaction).
Flexibility Through Biomass Gasification + example of Nong Bua DFB Gasifier
Biomass gasification converts solid biomass such as wood from forestry and landscape management, straw, lignocellulosic residues etc. in one or more conversion steps into a burnable gas, referred to
as syngas, synthesis gas, product gas or producer gas. Gasification processes themselves are quite flexible regarding the use of feedstock. The syngas can be used for more efficient and flexible electricity (and heat) production. Further, different chemicals and chemical energy carriers can be produced from the gas, such as methane, hydrogen, FT-diesel and methanol. This facilitates the transport, storage, and use of bioenergy in different sectors such as transport and chemical industry. Finally, inherently biogenic CO2 is produced and it can be used, even in a flexible way, for sequestration (i.e. negative emissions) or together with renewable hydrogen in PtX processes, i.e. allowing for (even seasonal) energy storage.
The Nong Bua plant in Nakhon Sawan, Thailand uses Dual Fluidized Bed (DFB) gasification technology, based on a technology developed in Austria and installed at 8 MWth in Güssing. New engineering design and improvements from the Güssing plant were implemented on certain equipment in the Nong Bua plant. The developments included improved fuel feeding system, biomass dryer, gasifier design, tar scrubber design, and heat exchanger system. With these improvements, the 3.8 MWth prototype DFB gasifier has been the first of its kind plant that can be operated with several different biomass resources such as wood chips, sugarcane leaf, corncob, and other renewable biomass resources.
The case study was prepared together with IEA Bioenergy Task 33 (Gasification).
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WASTE2VALUE – FROM WASTE TO VALUE: GASIFICATION AND UPGRADING OF SYNGAS, Vienna, Austria
Waste2Value represents a research and demonstration initiative driving the use of waste residues to produce hydrogen-rich syngas. In this frame waste fuels such as sewage sludge, industrial residues, waste wood and biogenic residues are converted into a valuable syngas. In a second process step, the syngas is upgraded into valuable products such as liquid fuels (high quality diesel and kerosene) or chemicals. The Waste2Value concept is currently being demonstrated at the Syngas Platform Vienna of BEST Bioenergy and Sustainable Technologies GmbH.
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BECC – FROM BASE-LOAD BIOMASS CHP TO A FLEXIBLE ENERGY HUB, Land van Cuijk, The Netherlands
BECC, Bio-Energy Centrale Cuijk, is transforming from a base-load project based on a solid biomass power plant to a flexible renewable energy hub, which is steered on optimizing operational margin instead of maximizing MWh output.
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