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On Aug. 31, 2010, the public had their first view of the dog and pony show of Frank Howe and Doug Young. They made their first presentation to the County Legislators on the subject of the biogas pipeline. In this presentation they quoted a cost of $3.5 to $7 million dollars to build 40 miles of pipeline. Not one legislator spoke up disagreeing with these figures. Yet Frank Howe, Tim Lattimore and Peter Tortorici, as members of the task force, should have been aware of a March 2009 planning document, where a cost of $60 million was placed on the construction of 20 miles of a biogas pipeline. Why was nothing said about the vast disparity in the cost estimates? Is someone trying to mislead the public to gain acceptance of this project?
I have spent some time researching the 1984 law creating the Cayuga County Public Utility Service Agency (CCPUSA). This is Local Law No. 2 and defines the parameters of the agency and its restrictions. This law forbids the county and the agency power of condemnation and the establishment of generation, distribution and transmission systems. In 2005 the voters passed a referendum to amend this law allowing the agency to own, acquire, use and operate gas utility service and/or alternate energy service. Nowhere, in this amendment, were the restrictions on ownership, operation, use of electric facilities mentioned or amended. It is my opinion that the installation of a generator at the end of the pipeline would be in violation of Local Law No. 2 of 1984 and be illegal.
In a past letter, I estimated a cost of over $40 million for 40 miles of pipeline. Apparently, I was being too conservative in my estimates. As previously stated, in 2009, a core of local government officials has their names on a document stating an estimated a cost of $60 million for 20 miles of pipeline. This core of officials is now the driving force for the construction of the biogas pipeline. One has to ask, who stands to gain from this pipeline? Somehow I don’t think it’s the taxpayers, who will be paying for it.
According to the report Waste-Derived Biogas: Global Markets for Anaerobic Digestion Equipment – Focus on North America sustainable energy production will be the fastest-growing energy sector over the next two decades. From 2010 to 2016, the market is projected to grow from $124 billion in 2010 to $217 billion in 2016. Price instability, supply anxieties, and the environmental aspects of fossil fuels are likely to boost the rate of all non-fossil fuel development.
Currently, the cost of oil has hit highs of over $100 per barrel on the global market, while U.S drivers are paying nearly $4 per gallon of gasoline. Renewable domestic energy supplies are seen as a means of getting past these problems. Biogas, a clean fuel sourced mainly from waste materials, is a significant alternative to conventional fossil energy.
Read more about the report “Waste-Derived Biogas: Global Markets for Anaerobic Digestion Equipment – Focus onNorth America” is available from Report Buyer at:
With car maker Audi pioneering e-gas research to soon have methane-powered cars on the roads, an International Energy Agency (IEA) conference on renewable gas will see experts from across Europe converge in Cork, Ireland, next week to discuss the country's potential to inject renewable gas into the gas grid through the conversion of biogas into biomethane, or to use it as a source of renewable transport fuel.
Germany's Audi is investing heavily in research to pioneer technology to introduce methane-powered cars from 2013 onwards, making the e-gas from energy derived from North Sea wind farms.
So, from Ireland's perspective, next week's International Energy Agency conference, Energy from Biogas, will take place at University College Cork (UCC) on 15 September to look into the country's capacity to really push the biogas sector here, creating new green jobs in the process, while also contributing to a cleaner gas grid overall.
Biogas, also termed biomethane or renewable gas, is a versatile energy vector with applications in electricity, heat and transport, according to Dr Jerry D Murphy, a lecturer in Transportation & PI in Bioenergy at the Environmental Research Institute (ERI) at UCC, who is chairing next week's event.
"In Germany, on average, each week a new facility comes online injecting renewable gas into the gas grid; the potential for Ireland with our feed stocks and our modern gas grid is very significant," he said.
At the conference, presentations will be given from top academics in the renewable gas field, including Prof Charles Banks of the Bio-Energy Research Group at the School of Civil Engineering and the Environment, University of Southampton; Jukka Rintala, professor of bioprocess engineering, Tampere University, Finland; Prof Bernd Linke, ATB Potsdam, Germany; and Simon Zielonka, University of Hohenheim, Germany.
Murphy said the main aims of the conference would be to highlight successful facilities with different feedstocks and to highlight the advantages of upgrading biogas to biomethane for either injection to the gas grid or use as a source of renewable transport fuel.
Speakers at the event will also examine the potential of, and barriers to, use of digestate as a fertiliser, as well as giving details of ongoing biogas research happening around Europe.
Anaerobic digestion itself and the production of biogas is a technology with applications in biofuels, waste treatment, renewable energy and sustainable agriculture. Germany has been taking the lead on anaerobic digestion, with Murphy pointing to how the country has more commercial facilities than any other country, with 6,000 digesters at the end of 2010.
In stark contrast, Ireland just has four anaerobic digestors up and running, with 50 planned for both North and South of the island.
Dr Jerry Murphy, principal investigator in Bioenergy at the Environmental Research Institute, University College Cork
Murphy said Ireland has an array of opportunities if it embraces anaerobic digestion. For instance, he said it would bring benefits through reduced energy importation, reduced carbon fines, helping the environment and facilitating organic waste treatment.
"It would also provide rural employment to operate the digesters and help re-employ the construction workforce in building digesters," said Murphy.
The conference will be hosted by the ERI and funded by the IEA and the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland.
Crop digestionBiomethane and grid InjectionDigestion of food waste in the UKThe Swedish experience of gas upgrading, gas injection and transport fuel useGreen gas: the Dutch experienceExperience with gas grid injectionInterpretation of the animal byproducts regulations in IrelandUtilisation of digestate as biofertiliserQuality assurance of digestate in SwitzerlandBiogas research in FinlandEffect of organic loading rate on biogas yield from animal slurry and biogas cropsBiogas research in the ERI, UCCBiogas research in Teagasc, Grange, Ireland.
Pactitioners who will speak at the event will include Anneli Petersson of the Swedish Gas Centre, Sweden; Nathalie Bachmann, EREP SA, Switzerland; and John Baldwin, CNG Services, UK.
Meanwhile, policy makers David Baxter of the Clean Energies Unit, European Commission Joint Research Centre; Mathieu Dumont, Secretariat Working Group on Green Gas, The Netherlands; and Melanie Farrar, DAFF, Ireland, will also speak at the conference.
A new option for small-scale biogas - 9/8/2011 - Farmers Weekly was launched by technology provider Biogas Nord at this year's Dairy Event & Livestock show.
(In the video (below) a hydrolysis stage is shown, but the video was produced by another biogas company, and is included here to show the high temperature heat) hydrolysis stage, to explain the use of hydrolysis in anerobic digestion (biogas) processes -Ed.)
The 75kW BiNoMiniMax has been designed for small to medium-sized livestock farms and runs primarily on slurry or manure from cattle or pigs, plus some supplementary silage.
The company's Owen Yeatman said the single 678m3 digester, with 75kW combined heat and power unit, associated control systems and slurry tank, would cost around £500,000 to install, excluding grid connection. As a guide, it could run on the slurry and manure from 160 cows (around 3000-4000t), plus 900t of maize silage per year, or the slurry from 920 sows plus 900t of silage, he said.
Annual electricity savings for such a dairy unit - assuming 95% efficiency of the CHP system - would be around £20,000-30,000 and with heat used to warm cleaning water for the parlour, as well as the farmhouse, another £10,000 saving could possibly be added, he said. Combined with additional Feed-in Tariff income worth 14p/kWh and Renewable Heat Incentive payments of 6.5p/kWh, that would give a payback of around six years, he claimed.
"It's a simple design that doesn't need a large amount of extra land for the feedstock, as bigger systems do. The 900t of silage needed is only about 2.5t per day, much of which could come from waste silage off clamps, or rougher quality second- or third-cut."
Farmers would have the option to expand the system in the future by adding a second digester tank, he noted.
"A system such as this could run mainly on the farm waste with few extra substrates needed. Biogas plants do require more managing than things like solar or wind, but the returns can be potentially higher and aren't reliant on the weather. It could be useful way of getting a son or daughter involved in the business."
Boosting gas yields
The company also launched a new system for improving the biogas yield from woody or high lignin feedstocks, such as straw, grass, hay and manure. The BioNoLiquifeed hydrolysis unit uses a mix of bacteria to pre-treat feedstocks before they are fed into the digester.
The process reduces the dry matter content and converts the fibrous biomass into acetic acid in around three to five hours, depending on substrates. The pre-treated substrates are then pumped into the primary digester.
Mr Yeatman said the system, which costs around £150,000, could shorten retention times in the digester by up to 20 days and improved the biogas yield from fibrous substrates by 15-20%. It could also mean that other previously overlooked feedstocks, such as oilseed rape straw, could be used, he suggested.
Substrates are fed into the hydrolysis unit using a wheel loader, which reduces the need for more expensive and higher-maintenance slurry stores, walking floors and screw conveyors, he added.
All Rwandan prisons are set to become environmentally friendly following the installation of anearobic digestion plants.
The Deputy Commissioner General of Rwanda Correctional Services (RCS), Mary Gahonzire, disclosed to The New Times that the installation of the Biogas plants in all the prison facilities countrywide is now complete.
According to Gahonzire, the use of firewood for cooking purposes was not only environmentally hazardous but costly too.
"We have finished installing biogas plants in all the prisons, which accounts to 75 percent of the energy needs. The rest is covered by peat energy and a small amount of firewood.
"Peat will supplement biogas and eventually, we hope to completely stop the use of firewood," she noted.
Peat is carbonised vegetation matter used as either fertiliser or a source of energy after decomposition.
Gahonzire further said that the use of biogas has accelerated by the increase of livestock in prisons whose waste is used in the biogas plants.
She added that the use of biogas has reduced heavy expenditure on firewood as a source of energy for cooking in prisons.
"We are currently strengthening the concentration and the high level usage of gas in prisons."
She further revealed that the biogas project is one of the most successful among many of their projects so far.
LONDON (SHARECAST) - AIM-listed green technology company TEG and energy company Alkane are to form a joint venture to handle the contract for a new plant in north-east Wales, which will convert food waste into electricity and fertiliser.
The 15-year contract, which guarantees a supply of food waste to the facility for about 60% of its capacity, is with a consortium of three councils in the area as part of the first of the Welsh government's sponsored organic waste projects.
(NOTE: This is a serious video about Alkane Energy - just be patient and try not to wince too much over the opening sequence!)
The joint venture is to be called NEAT Biogas. TEG will hold 70% of the equity of the joint venture, while Alkane will hold the remaining 30%.
Under the contract, NEAT is planning to construct and operate a new 20,000 tonnes per annum anaerobic digestion (AD) plant to process the food waste supplied by the councils, together with additional third party food waste.
Full year revenues for NEAT are expected to generate 2m, while the facility is expected to produce enough renewable energy to power around 2,000 homes in the area each year.
The AD facility is expected to begin operations in the first half of 2013.
Commenting for Alkane, Chief Executive Neil O'Brien said: "The Alkane/TEG collaboration deal is proving its worth combining our heritage in waste management and energy generation. There is a strong match of the skills of the two teams and we continue to work on a number of other AD projects."
Alkane's share price was up 0.63% to 19.88p at 12:33.
TEG's share price was up 1.25% to 10.12p at 12:33.
The Daily News - Organic waste is the new black gold at the University of Guelph's Ridgetown Campus.
The campus unveiled a $2.6 million FedDev Ontario-funded anaerobic bio-digester that converts agricultural and food industry biomass to biogas.
(We could not find a video by PlanEt Biogas so we have incuded the one above.)
"This is one of the ways we can produce renewable electricity in our community. It's unique in that . . . this can run 24-7 so we can produce hydro at the same level all the time," said Art Schaafsma, director of the Ridgetown Campus.
Schaafsma said the farm scale unit, built by PlanET Biogas Solutions, works much like a cows stomach, utilizing bacteria to break down the ingredients to produce gas which fuels an engine to create energy through a generator.
The unit produces 250-kilowatt hours of electricity and has the capacity to produce the same amount of heat energy as well.
"You go to some farms and they're taking those fans and they're collecting the air and blowing it over a trailer of wood and they're drying wood. Other guys in Eastern Ontario are drying grain," said Matt Lensink, application manager for PlanET Biogas Solutions.
"We can heat about five acres of greenhouse with the heat that comes from this facility," Schaafsma said. "We can recapture nutrients as well, which can go back on the farmers fields.
"We've kind of replaced the cow and made a great big cow," he added.
Lensink said a farmer in the Niagara area has been applying the nutrients captured from a biogas facility on his land for two years and is now able to get a fourth cut of hay off his fields.
He added not only did the farmer say that was unheard of before, but also that the quality of the hay is good.
Dave Van Kesteren, MP for Chatham-Kent Essex, is excited about the possibilities the new biogas facility opens up to Chatham-Kent.
"This it really cool stuff, its got possibilities, huge possibilities," said Van Kesteren. "If we can create the technology, sell the goods but also sell the technology abroad, now we've added another component."
The MP said the big challenge in research is to get the results to the market place and create a new revenue source for local farmers and an opportunity to create new jobs.
"We want to start training (operators) here so we get the great people, because those great people will go into the greenhouses, they'll come up with this innovation, these great ideas and next thing you know we'll be exporting," Van Kesteren said. "We're just getting it going and a guy like Art is going to help make that a possibility."
Ridgetown campus is investing in the bio economy not just for the future of the school and area farmers, but also for the community at large.
"It takes a community to make a campus . . .we feel like we're obligated to . . . help lead and create opportunity so that we have some development in the rural sector," said Schaafsma. "We have to pitch in to make these things happen. All our kids are leaving and we need to provide opportunities so they can stay, many of them want to stay and they can't."
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The Maabjerg BioEnergy biogas plant while under construction: 31 August 2011
Danish energy company, DONG Energy is establishing a green energy consortium with local players to determine if a number of bioenergy projects, including waste to energy projects are technically and economically viable.
Over the coming 15 months, the consortium - Mabjerg Energy Concept - will explore project opportunities in the form of new plants and conversion of existing plants.
According to the consortium, all projects will be within the scope of green energy generation based on local biomass and waste resources, which will be used to generate a range of energy products, including biogas, hydrogen, bioethanol and electricity and heat.
The consortium says that it will look specifically at the possibilities of constructing a second-generation bioethanol plant, expanding the existing Maabjerg BioEnergy anaerobic digestion plant by adding a hydrogen generation plant, as well as converting the existing biomass-fired CHP plant to enable it to handle waste products from the bioethanol plant in future.
Additionally, the consortium will study the possibility of constructing a waste treatment plant that will use enzymes to separate waste fractions for use in biogas production.
Besides DONG Energy, the participants in Mabjerg Energy Concept are: Vestforsyning, Struer Forsyning and the waste company Nomi. Jorgen Udby, Vestforsyning's CEO, is the chairman of the consortium.
"The establishment of Mabjerg Energy Concept will boost the opportunities for Danish research and, especially, export of green energy know-how," says Thomas Dalsgaard, senior vice president of DONG Energy.
The biogas generated during the treatment of sewage at Asia's largest Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) at Bharwara in Lucknow might be used for the production of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG).
The state government has invited Expression of Interest (EOI) for selection of a private agency for the production and marketing of CNG. The STP was commissioned about seven months ago.
The project of CNG generation using biogas will be based on Public-Private Partnership model. The selected agency will be given land at the STP site for 25 years for installation of required infrastructure and use the biogas for production and marketing of CNG. The amount of biogas expected to be generated from STP is approximately 402.50 cubic metre per hour.
As per the EOI, after 25 years the CNG plant will be transferred to the state government, which may select any new agency to operate the plant. During first 25 years, the private agency will make monthly payment to the UP Jal Nigam for the actual quantity of bio gas used for CNG generation. It will also pay Jal Nigam, which is running the STP, a certain share from its profit. Meanwhile, UP Jal Nigam has planned a site visit cum pre-bid meeting at Bharwara on September 2.
Are You Making Maximum Advantage of the Opportunities Arising from the UK’s Sustained Growth in Waste Technology Investment? Don’t Miss the Forthcoming “Waste Technology Summit” to Make Sure You Are!
2 Day Conference: Waste Technology Summit EU (4th - 5th October, London)
The UK government has for some years now been investing heavily in the Waste Technologies to increase recycling and reduce waste sent to landfill, but with announcement made this June it has confirmed that it is taking this much further, having embarked upon a “Zero Waste” policy. Earlier Zero Waste initiatives are underway in Scotland and Wales, with Northern Ireland also taking a similar approach and they all need waste technology investment, to be successful.
Visit the Colnbrook EfW Plant
But, large though that investment is, there is more to come. The commercial and industrial waste sector which is of similar size, and had been slow to follow this lead, is now catching up. The landfill tax at £48/tonne in 2010/11 is the main driving force in this sector, and the fact that the Landfill Tax is to continue to rise by £8 a year until 2013, is now providing a compelling economic incentive to all businesses to divert larger quantities of their waste.
Put that together with the buzz around the emerging news of the exciting technical advances taking place in the waste technologies, which are evolving from proving trials to “proven and market ready”, and you have an un-missable opportunity to take part and benefit from this uniquely growing market.
Local Authorities and Waste Management Companies from across the UK and Europe are shifting their focus towards Waste-to-energy and Anaerobic Digestion. In addition, they are now committing large sums of government funding to the emerging technologies such as Gasification, Pyrolysis and MSW to biofuels.
At the Waste Technology Summit the challenge for many of the speakers will be to answer the pressing questions the delegate will be asking about: How can we identify the right technology? What are the merits and drawbacks of each? Which one suits the needs and budgets of the local area? How scalable are they, and what are the economic capacities?
EyeforEnergy have developed the Waste Technology Summit as a rare opportunity to bring together the top technology providers together in-person to answer your questions.
For any technology providers not yet signed up, there is still time to get involved. If you want to meet, and get your technology seen by decision makers from over 15 local authorities and waste management companies in the UK alone, EyeforEnergy can help you secure those meetings.
We recommend that you act now, and sign up for the Waste Technology Summit EU on the 4th and 5th October, London. Some of the leading stakeholders and most successful operators that will be present are: CEWEP, DEFRA, Grant Thornton, Mott Macdonald & WSP, Viridor? and Grundon?, to name just a few.
Find out more about the Waste Technology Summit, and how it can put technology providers in front of clients here:
Don’t forget to enter the coupon code SLASTfor your £100 discount when you sign up. An exclusive site visit to the Viridor/Grundon facility at Colnbrook is also included in the price.
GE unveils Waukesha APG1000 biogas engine EBR Staff Writer Published 24 August 2011
GE has unveiled its 1MW Waukesha APG1000 gas engine to be utilized for smaller anaerobic digestion projects.
(Not an official GE video, but amusing?)
The new Waukesha gas engine can utilize biogases from landfills, wastewater treatment plants and agricultural waste.
Under an 18-month redesign and testing initiative, GE has done modifications to the combustion chamber; a new spark plug design; and a new fuel control system that simplifies engine start-up and operation. (Visit http://www.anaerobic-digestion.com )
GE said the changes were required to address the unique operational challenges of using biogases and were validated at both landfill and digester biogas-to-energy project sites.
Entec Services managing director Bob Weston said the APG1000's new biogas fuel system has made a significant improvement to the engine's load stability, despite fluctuations in the heating value of the fuel gas.
"The new system provides an automated response to fuel gas fluctuations that results in faster, more reliable engine starts as well as more consistent engine output with less manual intervention," Weston said.
GE Power & Water Gas Engines CEO Rafael Santana said the launch of the Waukesha APG1000 biogas engine helps to address the demand for more biogas engine choices in the lower output range as more industrial customers seek to recycle their own waste gases to generate cleaner and more cost-effective onsite power.
Nairobi Star (Nairobi) - Jesse Mwangi - 17 August 2011
Thousands of small scale farmers nationwide are set to benefit from installation of low cost biogas units.
The Kenya Agriculture Research Institute which is the initiator the project said it has already installed 3,000 units in Murang'a, Kirinyaga, Kisii, Embu, Kiambu, and Nyandarua among others. Unlike the conventional biogas units which cost approximately Sh100,000, the plastic digester would cost the farmer Sh10,000.
According to Kari Embu station researcher Erastus Kiruiro said that the idea came when he realized the massive destruction being caused on the forest by human activities as they look for firewood and charcoal for cooking. "We have established that 80 percent of rural dwellers depend on fire wood for cooking and this has highly contributed to destruction of forests causing intensive environmental degradation, this biogas project is thus a better alternative," said Kiruiro.
HUMAN waste is being turned into usable energy in a revolutionary multi-million pound project in Blackburn.
(Video content is not related to the article. We hope you find it interesting, nevertheless.)
In a first for East Lancashire, United Utilities is converting a by-product of waste-water treatment at its giant plant into gas.
The biogas, which is produced when wastewater sludge is broken down by the action of microbes in a process known as ‘anaerobic digestion’ or AD, will help the company generate a seventh of the power it uses in its operations.
Steve Mogford, chief executive officer of United Utilities, said: “The plant can process up to 168 mega-litres of sludge each day, which arrives from other UU sites in a 15-mile radius, and includes industrial waste from the Inbev Brewery and the local BAE Systems operations.
“The power generated helps run the adjacent sewerage treatment works.
“We already use AD technology to treat sewerage sludge and generate electricity at a number of our large treatment plants across the North West.
“Blackburn is the first in East Lancashire to use a sustainable power supply to run its heating and machinery.”
Mr Mogford demonstrated the high-tech site to the Conservative Defra Minister, Lord Henley, who holds the Government’s portfolio for waste and recycling, on Wednesday.
The plant, in Roman Road, also exports highly nutritious fertiliser, free to farmers, to use on agricultural land across East Lancashire.
Last year United Utilities generated 340GWh from sewerage gas combined heat and power and hydropower.
Mr Mogford added: “That is one seventh of our total electricity needs and it is proof that we are serious about reducing our carbon footprint and reducing the amount of power we import from the national grid.”
* Human waste, animal waste and even food scraps can be turned into biogas – a fuel that can be used for generating electricity.
* Digesting equipment uses bacteria to break down waste into sludge, much like a septic tank.
* In the process called anaerobic digestion, the bacteria emit gases, mostly methane. But instead of being vented into the air, they are piped into a storage canister.
* The biogas is then further cleaned up before being fed into the gas grid.
Gouda - Imtech N.V. (technical services provider in Europe) announces that it has been commissioned by various English water companies to realise sustainable biogas plants and upgrade waste water facilities in the UK. As a result of these orders valued at more than 67 million euro, clients will reduce their carbon footprint and deliver more sustainable services to their customers.
René van der Bruggen, CEO Imtech: 'In the UK, Imtech possesses virtually unique expertise at the interface between waste water treatment and energy. Our strong position in the market for waste water treatment is further confirmed by these new orders and a recently won prestigious environmental award for the biogas plants realized for the water company Welsh Water. As part of our growth strategy 2015, this expertise will also be exported to other European countries in which Imtech operates, such as the Netherlands.' From waste to energy Imtech's unique understanding of both the (waste) water and energy sectors has resulted in further growth in the market for waste water treatment. Imtech is a specialist in treating bio-solids, a residual product from the waste water treatment process. These bio-solids undergo sustainable treatment based on innovative enhanced anaerobic digestion technology in high-tech biogas plants. This process maximises the biogas produced, which is then converted into renewable energy. It also creates a high grade fertiliser product. Biogas plants recently completed for the water company Welsh Water in Cardiff and Afan have won the prestigious Construction News Environmental Project of the Year Award.
Imtech received a substantial new order from Anglian Water. Together with its partner Galliford Try, Imtech will deliver sustainable biogas plants at Basildon and Cliff Quay that will have a total treatment capacity of approximately 25,000 tonnes of bio-solids per year. Both partners are jointly responsible for the design, engineering, construction, commissioning and optimisation of the plants that will generate more than 17 GWh of sustainable electricity per year.
The plants will become operational in 2013. Anglian Water has challenged Imtech to deliver innovative co-generation facilities at four different locations that will generate a total of over 80 GWh of sustainable electricity by 2015. As part of a framework contract for water company Welsh Water, a technological upgrading of a biogas plant will be carried out at Five Fords that processes 10,000 tonnes of bio-solids per year. For the same customer, Imtech will be improving the waste water treatment at various other locations in Wales. A framework contract was signed with water company Veolia Water for refurbishing and expanding its existing potable water and waste water facilities across the UK.
Imtech Profile Imtech N.V. is a European technical services provider in the fields of electrical solutions, ICT (information and communication technology) and mechanical solutions. With more than 27,000 employees, Imtech achieves annual revenue of around 4.5 billion euro. Imtech holds strong positions in the buildings and industry markets in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Eastern Europe, Sweden, Norway, Finland, the UK, Ireland and Spain, the European markets of ICT and Traffic as well as in the global marine market. In total Imtech serves 21,000 customers. Imtech offers added value with integrated and multidisciplinary total solutions that lead to better business processes and more efficiency for customers and the customers they, in their turn, serve. Imtech also offers solutions that contribute towards a sustainable society, for example in the areas of energy, the environment, water and mobility. Imtech shares are listed on the NYSE Euronext Amsterdam, where Imtech is included in the Midkap Index. Imtech shares are also included in the Dow Jones STOXX 600 index.
The Centre for Agriculture Mechanisation and Rural Technology (Camartec) has appealed for more government budget allocation to boost biogas production that could help many power users cope with the current energy crisis.
(The video above is about a related biogas project.)
Biogas which is pollution-free and clean gas is seen as an option for rural and peri-urban low and medium income earners as it can easily produce energy for their daily domestic needs, such as cooking, heating and lighting.
Camartec is implementing biogas project across the country, and so far a total of 12,000 biogas plants are to be constructed under the first phase of the project set to cost euro 16 million to completion 2013.
“But budget constraints remained a challenge to spread the biogas technology across Tanzania especially for rural-based communities,” Camartec director general Evarist Ng'wandu said.
Speaking to media practitioners here recently, engineer Ng’wandu stressed the need to allocate more financial resources in the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Marketing.
“This will help to boost the biogas anaerobic-digestion sector in Tanzania which is affordable and simple in rural and peri-urban households,” he said.
The official noted that despite its economic and environmental significance, the 29-year-old centre is constrained with a number of challenges, one being shortage of funds.
Camartec is responsible for carrying-out different researches as well as promoting improved household stoves, community stoves, biogas and solar energy facilities, he noted.
“But all these couldn’t be reached if there are no funds to accomplish all these responsibilities,” he said.
“Our centre has increased services to 11 regions and managed to train technicians to install over 500 biogas plants in those areas,” Ng’wandu said
He added that agriculture alone will not succeed without industrial development; hence the need to allocate more funds in the sector remained crucial.
He however commended government efforts in developing biogas technology, whereby in five-years between 2007 and 2013, the centre plans to install about 12,000 biogas plants across the country.
Started in 1982, the centre was meant to produce and disseminate agricultural implements such as harrow planters, nutshells, oil press machines, wheelbarrows, pulling and oxen carts, water harvesting tanks and brick making tools.
Among other things, Camartec also pioneered to develop biogas technology, the innovation intended to be among the responses to skyrocketing oil prices in the world market in 1970s.
A plant used to produce biogas, also known as a biodigester, is an anaerobic digester that treats farm wastes or energy crops. This has been mostly the case in the developed countries where in recent years the technology has assumed new importance because of advanced methods of waste treatment.
In most developing countries, however, domestic biogas plants convert livestock manure into gas. The technology has been feasible for smallholders with livestock producing at least 50 kgs of manure per day.
Recently, Camartec launched a large-scale production of biodigesters that could help many families cope with the crisis.
The project, as a component of the African Biogas Partnership Programme (ABPP), known as Tanzania Domestic Biogas Programme (TDBP), is funded by The Netherlands, through its directorate of international cooperation.
Programme coordinator Lehada Cyprian Shilla, once expressed optimism over its potential to alleviate current energy woes as it would provide cleaner and safer energy solutions at a household level.
When it was officially inaugurated by Vice President Mohamed Gharib Bilal, a total of 1,439 units had been constructed under the programme in various regions giving Tanzania a lead ahead of other nations where the initiative is being undertaken in Africa.
“Besides, providing an alternative source of energy to households currently faced with rising kerosene prices and worsening electricity crisis, the programme is expected to stimulate the private sector’s participation in the development of biogas technology and sale of a gas "that is affordable and simple in rural and peri-urban households,” he said.
The world's first tri-generation fuel cell and hydrogen energy station had a commissioning ceremony yesterday in Fountain Valley, California.
(Video explains hydrogen fuel cells. However, it is not these same technology provider as in the article.)
The fuel cell is a combined heat, hydrogen, and electricity-generating system, making it a tri-generation system.
Here's how it works:
Biogas from the municipal wastewater treatment plant feeds the fuel cell, which then generates hydrogen. That hydrogen will be sent to a hydrogen fueling station that's open to the public and can support 25-50 fuel cell electric vehicle fill-ups each day. The fuel cell also produces 250 kW of electricity which will partially power the wastewater treatment plant.
Using hydrogen produced on-site solves infrastructure problems that are holding back the technology, and should accelerate its adoption as a renewable fuel.
The Fountain Valley fuel cell system could offer a pathway to low-cost hydrogen while demonstrating the versatility of fuel cells ability to use multiple feedstocks. Fuel cells can run on biogas or natural gas to produce electricity and fuel for light duty vehicles such as forklifts or as backup power in applications such as cell phone towers.
The project was developed as a partnership between the US Department of Energy, California Air Resources Board, the Orange County Sanitation District, and private industry. The project is managed by Air Products (NYSE: APD); additional partners include FuelCell Energy, Inc. (Nasdaq: FCEL) and the National Fuel Cell Research Center at the University of California, Irvine.
"Innovations like this demonstrate how American ingenuity and targeted investment can accelerate breakthroughs in the hydrogen and fuel cell industry while driving the clean energy economy forward," says DOE's Deputy Assistant Secretary for Renewable Energy Steve Chalk. "By providing the added value of electricity and heat, this approach provides a significant step in overcoming economic challenges with hydrogen refueling infrastructure."
Swedish Biogas, 100% owned subsidiary of Tekniska Verken i Linköping AB (publ), a municipal company owned by the city of Linköping, will double its production, and hence the market within the next few years, to meet increasing demand for biomethane as a fuel for transportation.
In managing this expansionary phase, the company plans to split into two parts: a production company and a marketing/distribution company. By doing so Swedish Biogas expects to increase focus on their core business, streamline operations and facilitate the creation of regional partnerships.
(This article compiled using information from a Swedish Biogas press release)
There’s a gold mine of energy waiting to be produced from animal waste on SA’s farms. Biogas projects could play an important role in helping SA reach its renewable energy targets of 10000GWh by 2013 — if only producers were given some more support.
There is only one farm in SA producing electricity from pig waste. In 2006, Humphries Farm in Bela-Bela, together with international agricultural company Cargill, pioneered a waste-management system that uses a large-scale bio digester that processes pig waste .
By 2009, the farm was generating electricity — but always just 10 kW less than the farm needed, so that power was still drawn from Eskom. “It was a gentlemen’s agreement so that local knowledge could be developed,” says Andrew Taylor, managing director of Cape Advanced Engineering, who designed and supplied the power plant.
The project has the environmental benefits of responsible waste management and carbon emission reduction. This comes through generating electricity that would otherwise have been fossil fuel-generated by capturing methane gas that would have been released into the atmosphere.
Taylor is planning 10 more projects like this one, which could be producing a combined 1,9MW by the end of 2012.
The success of the Humphries Farm, however, and the possible success of Taylor’s other projects , is largely through the use of local technology . He says if the engines had to be imported, the project would not have been feasible .
In fact, the project was developed on the assumption of government’s renewable energy feed-in tariff (Refit) of 90c/kWh. Now that the proposed Refit tariffs have been scrapped, the ceiling price for biogas is 96c/kWh. But though the Humphries Farm project can break even at 35c-40c/kWh, Taylor says he doesn’t believe “that any biogas plants will work with 96c as the upper ceiling”.
There seems to be a gap between SA’s potential and what is being done to reach it. According to Industrial Development Corp energy specialist Raoul Goosen , SA can produce 5% of its electricity needs from biogas. This would be on-site, localised generation because of the size of the plants. “The largest one could reach about 5MW, but they would typically generate less than 1MW,” says Goosen. A typical Eskom power station generates around 1600MW.
This could go a long way in not only bringing low-emission electricity into SA’s energy mix, but also taking pressure off the national grid, which is struggling to keep up with demand.
And there is no lack of innovation waiting to fill this space.
Trade plus Aid (TPA), a nonprofit organisation, and Premier Pork Producers, the representative body for pig producers in the northern region of SA, have 13 farms lined up to become biogas producers under a commercial biogas programme.
Each farm will need around R4,5m to install the technology, which will be funded through the sale of certified emission reductions (CERs) under the UN’s clean development mechanism (CDM). The farms will be registered under a “Programme of Activities”, which means an unlimited number of farms can be added to the programme. The CERs will come from the substitution of fossil fuel- based electricity, as well as captured methane.
However, TPA’s Matthew Hayden says he has struggled to secure the necessary environmental authorisation from the department of environmental affairs.
The first application was submitted 17 months ago. The 104-day timeframe for the authorisation of a final environmental impact assessment has been exceeded.
The environmental authorisation is the first step of many in the process of generating CER s. Without CERs the projects are not financially practical.
“We’ve complied with all the timeframes,” says Rebecca Bowd, environmental assessment practitioner at Green Door Environmental Consultants, which is handling the process. “But the department says it has capacity constraints.” Comment from the department was not forthcoming.
Those involved say given that the growth of such renewable energy projects is a stated national priority, projects like this should be treated as such, with a concerted effort from government to support them. “We’re trying to rectify something from an environmental perspective that’s always been wrong on farms,” says James Jenkinson, chairman of the SA Pork Producers Association. “But we keep on running into brick walls — there is total frustration [among those involved].”
Jenkinson’s farm in Pretoria is also the site for TPA’s pilot project, where it plans to install the first Capstone microturbine (imported from the US) as a showcase to investors. The plant should be commissioned by the end of September, and the imported turbines will play an important role in transferring technology to SA, says Hayden.
But if Hayden doesn’t receive a response from the department soon, he says investors may withdraw their funds. “The project is under threat, and it’s such an obvious environmental upgrade and investment into renewable energy.”
Perhaps more importantly, if these projects fall through, so will another set of projects. Three years ago, TPA’s investors asked for funds to be channelled into clean technology. Hayden began introducing household-size biogas digesters in rural homes with sufficient kitchen and agricultural waste to run them.
The commercial biogas programme that is being held up by government was intended to raise funds for the domestic programme. Any extra CERs will be used to fund this .
The domestic project gives families a cleaner, more reliable source of energy than wood, and reduces carbon emissions. They can also use the fertiliser , which comes as a byproduct, to grow food gardens. The developmental and environmental spin-offs are clear.
But funds from investors dried up quickly: at R35000 a digester, Hayden says it’s a “hard sell”.
SA does not lack renewable energy solutions. What is lacking is the will to create an environment where these solutions can be implemented
This blog is written by a member of our expert blogging community and expresses that expert's views alone.
Dirt gets a bad rap. I'm sitting on a dirt floor in Badreni, Nepal, in a home built largely of dirt (waddle and daub) and there's nothing dirty at all about this place. I'm a guest in a biogas home--one of 7,500 the WWF has helped build to date and one of 40,000 that will dot this Nepalese landscape five years from now.
A small but powerful blue flame whispers in the corner and brings light to the faces of my host family. That flame lights and heats the home; it also warms the Chiya tea we're all anxious to drink.
The biogas home is about as low on the low-tech totem pole you can go because it all begins with, well… let’s just say that one man's waste is quite literally another's gold in this equation. Cow dung, human excrement and a bit of water make up the slurry that ferments in a simple cement-lined pit. Some elbow grease to stir a crank, a heavy dose of microbial action and--voila!--a clean, odorless, and life-changing gas.
I say that this is life-changing because women once confined to a smoke-filled kitchen area for much of the day no longer face an almost certain future of respiratory illness. It's life-changing because those same women no longer have to spend two to three hours of every day searching for sticks or hacking trees in a forest with some very cool but rather unfriendly neighbors (think snakes, rhinos, elephants, and the highest density of tigers in the world). That time saved can be spent on everything from enjoying the Himalayan backdrop in the company of family to going to school. And the spent slurry can be used as potent and easy-to-work fertilizer that dramatically bumps crop productivity and food security.
That little blue flame has become a symbol of hope and a powerful tool for overcoming poverty in this landscape.
We’re in what’s called the Terai-Arc of Nepal, a narrow band of forests and grasslands nestled in the foothills of the mighty Himalayas. "Pristine" or "primeval" are words that don’t work here. Humanity has kneaded this place into a patchwork of villages and secondary forests. Eleven protected areas--like Chitwan and Bardia--form something of a conservation core. WWF, the local and national government, and the communities themselves have been working to reforest and stitch this place together in a way that benefits both people and animals. Again, enter the blue flame.
A typical non-biogas household will char about five and a half pounds of fuel wood a day to light and heat their space and to cook meals. Any woody debris from the immediate surroundings quickly gets picked clean. So there is a progressively more distant, more dangerous, and more destructive daily exodus into the forest to find fuel.
Biogas homes are great for Nepalese families, but they're also integral to forest reforestation and conservation, the survival of endangered fauna like tigers, and even to the stability of the climate. The demand for these stoves has spiked recently because the benefits are so tangible and immediate.
Part of the success of the stoves as a whole can be attributed to the cost-sharing, micro-lending approach we've used. One unit costs $548 (about 40,000 Nepalese Rupees). WWF has agreed to subsidize 25% of that cost ($137) through Nepal’s Alternative Energy Promotion Center. We also subsidize the $27 per unit toilet cost (I never imagined using that phrase in pursuit of saving tigers). And we also spend approximately $34 per unit to monitor the use and functioning of the equipment and to support maintenance of the plant.
That leaves families with a $384 gap--and that's where things get interesting. Interest rates charged by the local banks are too high and require collateral. So we created microfinance institutions at the community level and established a revolving fund for the project that provides a soft loan at an interest rate of 8% (almost one-third of the general bank rates) with a duration of two years. The repayment rate is 99%.
The revolving fund was capitalized with donations from WWF supporters the world over and, importantly, with the sale of Gold Standard credits from the voluntary carbon market. The 7,500 stoves save 617 acres of forest annually; that means 33,000 tons of fuel wood isn't being torched. Each stove eliminates four metric tons of CO2 equivalents annually, and those carbon savings are traded by a Swiss-based organization, My Climate.
At a price of $18.50 per ton of CO2 equivalent, we can reach a break-even point on the biogas project in the seventh year. Since the average life of a biogas plant is 20 years, revenue after the seventh year will help us construct more biogas plants in Nepal, making this initiative sustainable. The whole complicated economic and ecological chain is a model for ensuring that local people benefit from emerging programs like Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD).
Jari Maya Tamang, the woman who has taken me under her protective wing and who has schooled me with regards to the intricacies of biogas, refills my cup with more tea. After sharing stories, translated with tremendous patience by her brilliant, multi-lingual son, Jari closes the valve and the blue flame expires, leaving us wrapped in darkness and the fragrance of tea.
As President and CEO of WWFUS, Carter Roberts leads World Wildlife Fund’s work to save endangered species and their habitats through innovative programs with governments, businesses and local communities throughout the world. WWF, famous for its panda logo, is the world largest conservation network, with over 6 million members and programs across 100 countries.
Ever thought about endeavoring to support anaerobic digestion including co-digestion of the organic fraction of MSW with sewage sludge? Most people just consider this briefly, then never do anything whatsoever regarding it Most people have no idea of just how to start, so they really never do. Thinking that it'd require too much time to understand the concept discourages some others. Others are too lazy to try, or don't have motivation!!
Now just hang on here a minute! Are those really valid reasons? Did the reasons for receive a fair hearing? Was there enough info on which to base a reasonable decision? The possible benefits don't appear to have been very well considered...
Maybe that needs to be reconsidered. Let's look at 5 top reasons to support anaerobic digestion including co-digestion of MSW with sewage sludge to see how things look from that perspective.
To start with, AD (including co-digestion) has great potential to minimise the impact on the carbon economy by replacing fossil fuel derived power and heat. You've got a valid point as you note that replacing fossil fuel derived power and heat is going to become scarcer and even more expensive. That's a very good point. Even so, take into account that, anaerobic digestion isn't exactly cheap, and to rely on government AD subsidies and incentives lasting as long as they say they will is quite a leap of faith. Moreover, consider that most governments don't last more than 4 to 5 years, when investment is returned on these AD plants over a much longer period.
Second, anaerobic digestion enables diversion of wastes from landfill. That is because all of the output from the anaerobic digester will in future be used in the process. One of several results of this is the fact that there will be virtually no waste from AD Plants that they will need to send to landfill.
Third, by co-digestion (if OFWAT's review gives it the go-ahead in AMP5) society would be avoiding the carbon cost of full treatment of wastes through sewage treatment processes by feeding directly to co-digestion. Moreover, biogas yields may rise by up to 50%, with little or no further investment. Co-digestion simply uses existing headroom in AD Plants that the Water Plcs's engineers have already made more efficient!
Fourth, production of digestate to act as a fertiliser will provide a big phosphate benefit, and this is good as phosphate reserves are finite and may run out sooner than oil.
5th, the locality of AD plants can lead to reduced transportation - optimising the use of embedded carbon in existing assets.
So just look at those points and examine them mentally. All five reasons are persuasive points as to the reasons you really should support anaerobic digestion including co-digestion of MSW with sewage sludge.
Just think it over for a moment. Those reasons were sufficient to convince a lot of people before you. Will they not also persuade you to support anaerobic digestion including co-digestion of msw with sewage sludge?
In primary facilitative ponds (those that receive raw wastewater), two mechanisms reduce BOD: Sedimentation - settled solids undergo anaerobic digestion.
(Video is about aerobic treatment - we were unable to find a suitable video about facultative treatment lagoons.)
Upper layers oxidize non-settleable organic solids and the solubilized products of anaerobic digestion. Part of the oxygen comes by surface aeration of wastewater, but mostly it is provided by the photo-synthetic activities of the micro-algae, which have profuse growth in the facilitative pond. The algae in return gets almost all of carbon dioxide from the end product of bacterial metabolism. A symbiotic relationship exists between the heterotrophic bacteria and the autotrophic algae.
In secondary facilitative pond (those that receive what comes from the anaerobic pond), the first mechanism (sedimentation) is very little.
BOD removal in both the types of facilitative ponds is in the range 70 - 80%. The depth of facilitative ponds is 1 m to 2 m. A depth of 1.5 m is usually preferred. Depth, less than 0.9 m encourage growth of rooted plants (a natural habitat for mosquito breeding).
Due to the photo-synthetic activities of the facilitative pond algae, a variation of DO concentration is noticed. After sunrise, the DO level gradually rises to a peak value. From mid-afternoon, it gradually drops down and reaches a minimum at night. Oxyphase and pH values change. When algae activity is at its peak, the bi-carbonate ions break to release more carbon dioxide to the algae, so excessive hydroxyl ions that are left over boost pH up to or above 10.
Wind and the churning of pond liquid takes place resulting in an even distribution of DO, BOD, bacteria and algae throughout the depth and hence a better stabilization. When this is absent, the algae population stratifies in narrow bonds (about 20 cm thick), during daylight hours. These bonds move up and down through the top 50 cm of the facilitative pond in response to the changes in sunlight intensity. Samples collected from these will show increased BOD, COD and suspended solids, which is not a true representation of everything.
Richard J. Runion is the President of Geostar Publishing & Services LLC. Rich loves net research & blogging. His new blog on Wastewater Treatment is fast becoming popular, as it is comprehensive and well-researched.
The edie Newsroom has reported that Biffa, the operator of the soon to be fully commissioned Anaerobic Digestion Plant at the Poplars Landfill, has awarded the contract to manage and market their AD digestate to to 4Recycling.
This is dubbed as a recycling contract, but many view AD digestate as a product in its own right.
4Recycling has been awarded the 3-year duration contract by Biffa to recycle their digestate from a their anaerobic digestion (AD) facility at Poplars, near Cannock in Staffordshire.
Production of digestate from the facility, which has the capacity to process 120,000 tonnes of waste per annum, is likely to commence later in the year.
The digestate will be produced to PAS 110 standard and 4Recycling will provide a technical, transport and recycling service for both solids and liquids working with local contractors and landowners to provide a continuous service for the plant.
4R Group's managing director, Mike Holt, is reported by edie.net to have said: "We are really pleased to be supporting Biffa on this important contract."
"Our team have decades of experience in developing recycling outlets for organic materials, delivering huge carbon savings by substituting out fossil-derived fertilizers in agriculture or bringing brownfield land back into use."
ARGHAKHANCHI: In the face of lack of access to electricity, people in rural areas in Arghakhanchi district have been attracted towards biogas plant, one of the sources of alternative energy.
Many people in rural Arghakhanchi areas are still without power. An increasing number of villagers are preparing to build biogas plants at their home due to double benefits—power generated from cow and buffalo dung meets the basic need for cooking fuel and lighting up home and at the same time the residues can be reused in agriculture.
Though many villagers may not have known the benefits of biogas plants, the attraction towards this source of alternative energy will be boon to them in many ways. Since all villagers are depended on firewood for their energy consumption that leads to deforestation and is harmful to health, biogas plants ensure healthy environment both inside and outside home.
Biogas companies say continuous load shedding in other areas have fuelled attraction towards biogas plants among rural folks in the district.
According to statistics available here, around 4,200 biogas plants have been already installed in the district.
The government provides subsidy in the installation of biogas plants. An estimated cost of Rs 10,000-Rs 25,000 is required to build on biogas plant.
Farmers say the attraction towards biogas plant will go up overwhelmingly if the government increases subsidy.
Ministry halts biogas subsidies - Business - The Prague Post
Ministry halts biogas subsidies: Official explanation for the cancellation of energy funds is nothing but hot airTweet Posted: August 3, 2011
(Video is an example of Czech biogas.)
By Emily Thompson - Staff Writer Farmers' representatives claim the sudden halt to funding erodes the confidence of potential investors in renewable resources.
Biogas plants producing electric energy from agricultural waste and energy crops have been bubbling up on farms across the country in recent years, buoyed by the same generous government support given to other renewable energy industries, but the Agriculture Ministry took a pin to the biogas sector July 22 when it canceled subsidies for building new plants.
The decision, which came on the heels of a municipal court ruling against taxes on solar plants intended to offset the cost of solar subsidies, will affect farmers planning biogas operations and change the shape of the sector for better or worse.
"The aim was to respond to the risk of disproportionate growth in purchasing subsidized energy," said Tereza Dvorácková, spokeswoman for the Agriculture Ministry. "Another reason was financial savings."
Dvorácková added that both facility construction and energy buy-back was being funded.
As renewable energy of any type is often more expensive to produce, some politicians and analysts have warned purchasing too much of it for the public grid could cause consumer prices to skyrocket.
Since 2007, when the support for biogas plants began, the Agriculture Ministry has provided funding for 146 plants with a price tag of 2.7 billion Kc ($161 million), of which 72 have already been built and paid for, the ministry said. In total, including nonagricultural landfill biogas plants, there were 273 biogas plants in the country in July of this year, with an installed capacity of 150 megawatts, according to the Czech Biogas Association.
Farmers' representatives say the negative effect of cutting off the funding so suddenly - right in the middle of accepting applications for the next round of grants - reaches beyond farmers and agricultural companies with plans for a plant and has eroded the confidence of all potential investors in renewable energy resources in the country.
Jan Veleba, president of the Czech Agrarian Chamber, expressed this view and even suspects foul play on the part of large energy companies and politicians, who he says colluded to cut the legs out from under the competition.
"We consider it a scam that they stopped administering support - the result of work by the energy lobby to protect their monopoly," Veleba said. "We have indications that this happened at the urging of Prime Minister Necas and that this step is not an expression of the free will of the agriculture minister."
At a time when the solar-subsidy debacle is playing out in the court system and will likely lead to a slew of arbitration from investors whom it now appears were unconstitutionally taxed, state support for renewable energy is a politically sensitive subject. Jan Štambaský of the Czech Biogas Association said this is the reason for a lack of political will to continue subsidies for biogas. He does, however see a silver lining in the decision to halt funds for new plants.
"It will put pressure on the suppliers of the technology to biogas plants because right now the equipment may be more expensive than is necessary," he said. "If suppliers know the producers have one-third of their investment subsidized by the government, we don't believe the prices they charge are really the correct ones. The positive side of this is that the prices will decrease a bit and be more realistic."
Looking forward, Štambaský said though biogas is an important tool for the agricultural industry, more emphasis should be placed on producing biogas from biowaste in landfills. He estimates the 800,000 tons of waste that piles up in Czech landfills each year could be diverted to biogas plants to produce up to 5 percent of the country's electricity needs.
Currently, biogas from all sources accounts for nearly 10 percent of all renewable energy production, which makes up about 6 percent of total energy production. With the Czech Republic pledging to reach 13 percent energy production from renewable resources as part of the EU 2020 goals, biogas is not likely to evaporate anytime soon, with or without government subsidies.
"It will slow down this year and next," Štambaský said, "but it's still a good business."
Research and Markets has announced the addition of GlobalData 's new report "Biogas Power in France, Market Outlook to 2020, 2011 Update - Capacity, Generation, Power Plants, Key Regulations and Company Profiles" to their offering.
“Biogas Power in France, Market Outlook to 2020, 2011 Update - Capacity, Generation, Power Plants, Key Regulations and Company Profiles”
Biogas Power in France, Market Outlook to 2020, 2011 Update - Capacity, Generation, Power Plants, Key Regulations and Company Profiles is the latest report offering comprehensive information on the biogas power market. The report provides in depth analysis on global renewable power market and global biogas power market with forecasts up to 2020.
The report analyzes the power market outlook in country (includes thermal conventional, hydro and renewables) and provides forecasts up to 2020. The research details renewable power market outlook in France (includes wind, biopower and solar PV) and provides forecasts up to 2020. The report highlights installed capacity and power generation trends from 2001 to 2020 in France biogas power market. The research also showcases top active and upcoming plants in the country.
A detailed coverage on renewable energy policy framework governing the market along with policies specific to biogas power development in France are provided in the report. The research analyzes investment trends in the biogas power market in France and some of the major deals pertaining to the market are dealt in detail. The report also provides elaborate company profiles of some of the major market participants. The report is built using data and information sourced from proprietary databases, secondary research and in-house analysis by a team of industry experts.
Silicon Valley’s fuel cell maker Bloom Energy continues to add customers looking to power part of their data center operations with distributed, cleaner power in California. On Thursday, the U.S. division of Japanese telecom giant NTT, NTT America, said it will install five Bloom fuel cells at one of its data center facilities in San Jose, Calif.
Nine-year-old Bloom Energy sells an industrial-sized fuel cell (which looks like a large refrigerator) that uses a chemical reaction to produce electricity. The Bloom Boxes suck up oxygen on one side and fuel (usually natural gas or biogas) on the other side, and produce power on-site for companies in a more efficient and less carbon-intensive manner than using the grid (depending on what fuel the company uses).
NTT America says it will use biogas (gas generated by decomposing organic material) produced at a California dairy farm as fuel for the Bloom fuel cells. That means NTT’s fuel cells won’t emit as much carbon as many of the Bloom fuel cells that are being powered by natural gas. Updated: NTT America has corrected the source of the biogas to two landfills in Pennsylvania.
Five Bloom fuel cells have a capacity of 500 kilowatts, which is the equivalent power for about 500 houses or five large office buildings. Each Bloom fuel cell costs around $700,000 to $800,000 before subsidies, so NTT is spending a couple million dollars on the installation.
Data center operators are looking for ways to make their facilities more energy-efficient and greener as a way to cut growing energy bills and also to highlight company sustainability. While fuel cells are still not commonly used to power data centers, Bloom has been slowly growing its customer list of telcos and Internet companies that want to use the Bloom boxes for part of their data center operations.
Earlier this month, AT&T said it plans to install a whopping 7.5 MW worth of Bloom fuel cells (that’s 75 fuel cells) at 11 AT&T offices in California. AT&T said it would use the fuel cell power for data centers as well as administration offices and facilities that house network equipment.
Fuel cells likely won’t be used as a main, or stand alone, power source for a data center. As we pointed out on GigaOM Pro (subscription required) last year, data centers need a power source that is so-called “five nines” (99.999 percent). Google has said the Bloom Box it was using on its campus had an availability rating of 98 percent, which translates into around seven days of downtime a year: no good for a stand alone power source for a data center running web sites that can’t go down.
Bloom has also found success with data center operators in California because state subsidies make the Bloom boxes a lot more economical in California. Customers in the state include Google, eBay and Adobe .
Top image is NTT’s installation, and the bottom is the installation at Adobe.
Infrastructure services provider NTT America, part of NTT Communications Corp (NTT.NYSE), has deployed Bloom energy servers at its Lundy Data Center, San José (CA).
The initial deployment encompasses five energy servers with a total capacity of 500kW, which will enable the company to produce over 4.2GWh annually. In addition, the firm will be able to reduce CO2 emissions by around 730t per year.
The energy servers are connected to a natural gas pipeline and use biogas from a local diary farm to generate electricity on-site.
The company considered Bloom Energy’s proven fuel cell technology, running on directed biogas, as the best option to minimise its carbon footprint and reduce power intake from the national grid.
“As one of the major data center operators in the world, we recognize the importance of energy efficiency and the need for distributed generation and use of clean fuels. Equally important is our enterprise customers’ interest in, and support of, energy efficiency both from the environmental and cost reduction avenues. As a key driver for the future of the data center, NTT America will continue to evaluate, support and deploy technologies that can be environmentally sound and cost effective for our customers,” said Kazuhiro Gomi, president and CEO of NTT America.
29 July 2011- Pursuit Dynamics PLC - ("PDX" or "the Company")
Agricultural Waste to Energy trial announced with Future Biogas
(We could not find a video by Future Biomass so we have included a video on food waste recycling in Somerset, UK.)
PDX (AIM:PDX) is pleased to announce that it has entered into an agreement with Future Biogas Ltd ("Future Biogas"), a UK-based company that uses established German anaerobic digestion technology to produce renewable fuels from agricultural waste. The agreement comprises a commercial evaluation of the PDX waste to energy system for Future Biogas's Norwich plant, a fully operational facility, and is scheduled to commence in September 2011. A commercial decision is expected to be made by the end of November. This evaluation will also reinforce the performance baseline that PDX has demonstrated at Cranfield.
Anaerobic digestion is a series of processes that cause microorganisms to break down biodegradable material in the absence of oxygen and which are used for industrial or domestic purposes to manage waste and/or release energy. Agricultural digestate produced by Future Biogas will be treated by the PDX system and put into batch anaerobic digestion. The evaluation will last for a period of 60 days and, subject to operation performance verification, Future Biogas can enter into a commercial installation agreement with PDX. The PDX business model for this industry is based on a revenue sharing model.
This is the second field trial that PDX is undertaking in the waste to energy sector over the next few months, following the trial with Thames Water announced on 13 July 2011. These trials are on track to commence mid-august at the Thames facilities. The company is seeing immense interest in its waste to energy work and expects more trials to be announced shortly. These trials cover municipal sewage, agricultural waste and food / industrial waste. Commenting on the announcement, Managing Director of Future Biogas, Philipp Lukas said: "We look forward to working with PDX to bring the benefits of their technology to the biogas sector. The PDX unit could potentially improve various aspects of the biogas process and we are excited by the simplicity of the system's design and implementation". Commenting on the announcement, PDX CEO, Roel Pieper, said: "The waste to energy market is significant in size and is growing rapidly with over 5,900 biogas plants in Germany alone, a twenty-fold increase in the last ten years. PDX's technology is clearly differentiated from other solutions in this sector and so we are very well placed to capitalise on the demand from producers to reduce costs and maximise output". For Further Information, please contact:
Pursuit Dynamics PLC Roel Pieper, CEO Tel: +44 (0)1480 422050 Richard Webster, CFO Financial Dynamics Marc Cohen Tel: +44 (0) 20 7831 3113 Cenkos Securities Ian Soanes Tel: +44 (0)20 7397 8924 Max Hartley Mirabaud Securities Rory Scott Tel: +44 (0) 20 7878 3360
Notes to Editors:
About PDX - PDX (AIM: PDX) owns and commercialises the PDX Atomiser and Reactor technologies that enable significant reductions in energy usage, process acceleration and result enhancement for a wide range of industrial processes and applications. - The PDX business model is currently organised into five Lines of Business - Biofuels; Brewing; Food and Beverages; Public Health and Decontamination;
Industrial Licensing; and Water. - PDX is headquartered in Huntingdon with an office in London, Schaffhausen, Denver and Connecticut. - Further information is available at the Company's website: www.pdx.biz - Publication quality photographs are available from FD.
About Anaerobic digestion
- Anaerobic digesters provide a variety of environmental and public health benefits including: greenhouse gas abatement, organic waste reduction, odor reduction, and pathogen destruction. They are carbon-neutral systems that produce biogas that can be used for heating, generating electricity, mechanical energy, or for supplementing the natural gas supply. - Anaerobic digesters are used to convert agricultural, industrial, and municipal wastes into biogases that can be upgraded to 97% pure methane as a natural gas substitute or to generate electricity. - Currently, there over 5,900 biogas plants in Germany with an installed capacity of approximately 2,300 MW. This is 20 times the capacity of 2001. Austria has 551 plants.(1) - Electricity generation from biogas in 2010 was about 12.8 billion kWh, representing approximately 2.1% of the total electricity consumption in Germany, or approximately 12.6% of the electricity supply from renewable energy sources(2) . - In 2011, 167 anaerobic digesters generated 478 million kWh of energy in the United States in agricultural operations.(3) - In developing countries, small-scale anaerobic digesters are used to meet the heating and cooking needs of individual rural communities. China has an estimated 8 million anaerobic digesters while Nepal has 50,000.(4) 1 http://www.biogasportal.info/daten-und-fakten/biogasanlagen/
2 IEA Bioenergy Task 37. Country Reports of Member Countries, Istanbul, April 2011. International Energy Agency. Accessed June 3, 2011. 3 The Agstar Program. U.S. Farm Anaerobic Digestion Systems: A 2010 Snapshot. U.S. EPA. U.S. EPA. Accessed June 2, 2011. 4 IEA Bioenergy. Biogas Production and Utilisation. International Energy Agency. May 2005. Accessed June 3, 2011.
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Can chicken litter and pig manure be part of our energy salvation?
(We were not ble to find a vdeo about the Cirencester project dsecribed in this article, but here is an example in the Netherlands.)
That's not just a rhetorical question, either. Many people know the energy transition is looming and energy salvation is energy salvation. Keep in mind what energy salvation is: It's not when Rush and Al can do their thing whenever they want. No, it's when we working stiffs have energy to at least run a refrigerator and power a vehicle and maybe a few things more.
If that doesn't sound like much, the day is coming when many would be pretty darn happy if they could just get that. And they won't.
But some people understand this and are trying. I read where in the United Kingdom, a new biogas power station is showing how to operate using locally produced energy.
Many of our friends in the English town of Cirencester are in the process of building a biogas power station powered by agriculture biomass. This will include pig manure and chicken litter. Many of you who were raised near those animals know how potent those commodities are. I shoveled a lot many, many years ago and I'm not sure I have it washed off yet. Potent? You bet! local residents will certainly benefit from this low cost alternative to coal, foreign gas, and even oil.
This is one of the first towns I know of to take advantage of these products. These good people will have energy security when most others do not.
The people living locally are going to use an anaerobic digester. They will put into the digester corn, wheat, and grass. Added to that will be the animal wastes. This is expected to supply three hundred and fifty houses with electric energy.
If you think it through, this makes a lot of sense, Economic sense, and also social. The local farmers will make more money off their waste, and local jobs will be created. On a purely local level, it should also lower the cost of food. And make the supply more stable.
One of the big benefits of this process is the smell. Anyone out there remember the pungent smell of pig manure and chicken litter? The plant will extract the smell from the waste and burn it. Leftovers from the plant can be used in the farming sector.
A real win win for all these enterprising people.
Before I go off, let me take just a minute to discuss Anaerobic digestion. The process has been a great success in Europe. I read where there are currently more than five thousand plants across northern Europe.
Anaerobic digestion happens where organic material decomposes and it then releases methane and other gasses.
The methane (called biogas by this time in the process) is burned in a generator and used to produce electricity. The leftover material is a great fertilizer and is spread out on the land.
I understand that only normal farming practices and equipment is used. Nothing new for them to invest in.
In addition to the chicken and pig material, they can also use the leavings from horses, turkeys, cows, etc. Anyone who grew up on the prairie knows how well "cow patties" burn.
Heat and Power. From electrical generation. That's what it's all about.
Energy transition is looming. Don't let your family be left out.?
I know that a lot of you don't believe this. Fine.
Hide and watch.
Jimmy writes a home power generation review web site. He is interested in what works and what scams are out there.
