Page 84 - North American Clean Energy March April 2016

Mobility Wins!
Peterson 4710B Horizontal Grinder, 765hp, a land clearing favorite!
Peterson 4310B Drum Chipper, 765hp, 6 or 12 pocket con guration
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For over 30 years, we’ve built our business around building the most productive mobile chipping and grinding machines in the industry. Day after day, we partner with our customers by giving them the best tools for the job and exceptional support when they need us.
Visit us a www.petersoncorp.com today and see why Peterson is the industry leader for disc and drum chippers, horizontal grinders, blower trucks, screens and stacking conveyors.
Let us know how we can help you grow your business!
800-269-6520 • www.petersoncorp.com PO BOX 40490 • Eugene, OR 97404
biopower
by Julien Uhlig
Biomass, especially the waste from forestry and agriculture, industry or households, is a clean and cheap energy source. However, biomass power plants are usually expensive, industrial-style, and not applicable for decentralized usage. erefore,
in 2009, a group of German engineers began to develop a small-sized, medium-output combined heat and power plant. eir main goal was to bring electricity, heat, and cooling to even the most remote corners of the earth. ey wanted to provide clean energy from waste, where diesel generators are typically used, and help those who still have no access to a ordable energy.
e mountain of waste arising daily in forestry, agriculture, and downstream industries is gigantic. Furthermore, there is food waste and other garbage from service industries and private households. In the US alone, this waste lls more than 3,500 land lls per year. is is as much as 220 million tons of waste, even though plant remains are far too valuable to simply throw away.
ermally recycled in a biomass power plant, the waste delivers electricity and heat without charging additional carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Some may argue the combustion of such biomass also produces CO2, which is true, but only in the same amount it was captured from the atmosphere during plant growth. is represents a clear advantage over fossil fuels, which release longtime stored carbon.
Transform straw into gold
Along with classical steam power plants and OCR systems, biomass gasi cation plants are a third possibility. e principle behind biomass gasi cation technology is far from being new. Solid biomass, e.g. wood waste pressed into pellet form, is thermally decomposed at very high temperatures. e escaping syngas is used as fuel in an ordinary gas engine which powers a generator and produces electricity.
Such plants operate on the principle of cogeneration. is means, the generated
heat is also used for cooling if it is combined with an adsorption chiller. Biomass power plants are capable of generating base load power, making them ideal renewable energy partners for solar power plants and wind farms. However, the expensive classical steam power plants are often only practical for industrial users and utility-scale power grids.
For the decentralized energy supply, the technical e ort required and the size of these plants can become a problem. A new solution is a high temperature reactor, combined with a gas engine and a generator, placed on three square meters, arguably the smallest biomass power plant in the world. One unit supplies 25kW electric and 60kW thermal power. In combination with an adsorption chiller, the heat can be transformed into 30kW cooling power. To increase electric and thermal output, several biomass power plants can be coupled.
Biomass Waste
is a Problem –
and a Resource
84 MARCH/APRIL 2016
nacleanenergy.com