A U.K.-based bio-gas plant shown
here, runs on
landfill gas to
produce electricity with Caterpillar G3520C
gen-sets.
renewable electricity generated from
these crops, the sector is “booming”
with the German government placing a
target of 8000 biogas to electricity
plants by 2010. The company hopes
that a government renewable energy
review and lobbying by trade associations will bring in changes that would
allow the success of Pro2 in Europe to
be repeated in the U.K.
In 2004, the company had hoped to
build its first biogas plant at Five-miletown in Northern Ireland using
farm slurry, food processing residue and
biomass to produce methane for renewable electricity generation and organic
fertilizers for local firms, but the plan
was shelved due to local opposition.
Thus, the company scrapped its plans
for entry into the U.K. biogas market.
Alkane has, however, expanded its
mine gas generation plants in the U.K.
by increasing the number of plants to
seven, with the latest added in spring
2007 in Nottinghamshire. These containerized plants, when added to the
company’s existing sites, take Alkane’s
owned and operated generating capacity in the U.K. to 8. 1 MW.
The U.K. plants are expected to capture
approximately 15 000 tonnes of methane annually, equivalent to a 350 000
tonne reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. Further mine gas developments
are being evaluated in the country
against the backdrop of higher wholesale
electricity prices and Climate Change
Levy Exemption. The British government hopes that this carbon tax on the
use of energy in industry, commerce and
the public sector will play a role in helping the U.K. to meet its targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Alkane Chief Executive Dr. Cameron
Davies said that he anticipates a huge
growth in the number of biogas-fueled
power generation facilities over coming
years with particularly strong growth in
Germany, France, Poland, Hungary
and other eastern European countries.
He also foresees further growth in
Thailand, China and India.
“The experience and example set by
the increasing use of biogas in
Germany is very much seen as the business model to be imitated by other
countries which see the whole process
as a way of generating local power with
waste products that would otherwise
be left spread on the land or dumped in
landfill sites,” said Davies.
“The German government, for example, traditionally helps its indigenous
industries, and in the case of biogas
power pays producers premium prices
for renewable electricity fed into the
grid,” continued Davies. “A higher feed-in tariff applies to small- and medium-scale biogas plants that use biomass
crops such as maize and rye as feedstock. In addition, biofuel such as rapeseed oil as a substitute for diesel is beginning to drive this market forward rapidly there in response to the high prices
paid under the renewable energy law.
“This new industry is expanding
throughout Europe, but the same can’t be
said for the U.K. where the Renewables
Obligation mainly supports landfill gas
and onshore wind generation.”
The Renewables Obligation requires
licensed electricity suppliers to source a
specific and annually increasing percentage of the electricity they supply
from renewable sources.
Davies also said there is considerable
growth in the amount of electricity being
produced by decentralized biogas plants
on small farms in Europe, which generate between 100 and 500 k W of electricity using animal and horticultural waste.
This is usually produced locally and is
transported to the site, poured into a
below-ground digester, mixed with a
slurry and the biofuel produced generates electricity. Operated as a mini combined heat and power plant they produce hot water and power for the farm,
carbon dioxide for greenhouses with
excess electricity sold into the local grid.
“The whole biogas business is
expanding very rapidly, perhaps by
about 15% per annum not just in
Germany but in France and elsewhere
thanks to legislative changes which
offer a premium price for electricity
from biogas,” added Davies.
In a move late last year that reflected
the growth in the importance of biogas
for power generation, GE Energy
announced it is supplying 40 of its
Jenbacher high-efficiency, JMS 312
biogas engines to renewable energy
developer, NAWARO Bioenergie AG,
Leipzig, Germany, for an agricultural
biogas project in eastern Germany,
near the Polish border.
Representing its largest order of
Jenbacher biogas engines and the
largest biogas power plant in the world,
each of the units is being installed in
separate plants to support the new
combined heat and power (CHP)
bioenergy park “Klarsee,” adjacent to
farmland in the town of Penkun in
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
GE’s 40 units will use biogas created
during the fermentation of agricultural
waste, including maize, crop residues
and animal manure. Residual material
in the digester can be used as a valuable
fertilizer. In all, GE’s Jenbacher engines
will provide 20 MW of electricity and
22 MW in thermal output.
