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A net electrical efficiency peak of more than 80% is expected to be derived from Combined Heat and intelligent Power (CHiP), an innovative plant that will be the first of its kind in the world as its installation proceeds in Greater London, England. Driving the innovation will be four MAN B&W 10L35MC-S engines. The end result: by 2010, greater London will have a supply of green, low carbon dioxide (CO2) power.

The first of four engines was installed in December in Beckton and Southall, Greater London, with the other three expected to be installed in three-month increments throughout 2009.

The two-stroke, low-speed engines run on bio-liquids. Each engine develops 6,450 kW at 214.3 revolutions per minute (rpm) and has an ISO 3046 efficiency of 48.9%. The engines’ high-temperature waste heat will drive an organic Rankine cycle (ORC) turbine, while low-temperature waste heat will be used in a natural gas, pressure-reduction station where the heat will drive turbo expanders. The plant’s total net electrical efficiency will peak at above 80%. MAN Diesel’s Polish licensee, H. Cegielski—Poznan S.A, is constructing the engines.

To date, the 35-bore engines have been installed in more than 2,280 marine applications. This installation is a new application for the engines. Meanwhile, a modified internal combustion engine powered by gaseous hydrocarbons generated from waste material using a pyrolytic thermal conversion process was successfully demonstrated in August by I Power Energy Systems and US Innovation Group at its plant in Indianapolis, IN.

A systems engineering company, I Power Energy Systems actively engages in the creation and application of technology-based products in the energy generation and management field. US Innovation Group focuses on centrifugal liquid/solid separation technology. Its recently formed US Thermal Technologies division is dedicated to further expanding “waste remediation” and “waste -to-energy” technology development.

In order for the demonstration to be successful, I Power modified the fuel system of the 13-kW engine, which was adapted from a conventional four-cycle industrial unit. The contribution of the US Innovation Group was to utilize proprietary technology developed over the years to design and built the prototype pyrolytic thermal conversion system. 

The prototype unit is sized to work with power systems up to 20 kW. The prototype system builds upon two prior proof of concept units designed to adapt to either continuous or batch feed processes with a wide range of feed stocks and waste materials. For the demonstration, the pyrolytic thermal conversion system was fed with waste typical of that found in industrial trash and shredder processing operations.

I Power has an active program that addresses the use of these combined technologies for a range of civil and military applications. The ability of the pyrolytic system to utilize a wide range of feed stocks, including sludge from wastewater treatment plants, food waste, animal waste, and general industrial and military site waste such as paper, plastics, and wood scraps gives the technology options in a variety of mobile and fixed-base operational applications. High-power density and overall efficiencies are derived through the high-quality gas produced by the pyrolytic system.

While US Innovation Group’s clients had been pleased with the operation of the centrifuges, they were seeking a solution to the challenge of utilizing the residual solids that were the result of the centrifuge project, says I Power President Terry Pahls, whose company also was working on solutions to that challenge.

“They began to work on various things, one of which was pyrolization of that waste matter,” he says, of US Innovation Group. “When they started working on it, it reduced the overall mass of the waste by two-thirds, but what they didn’t expect, and they were able to demonstrate, was that there was a pretty significant energy product, a gas that was given off in the process.”

Meanwhile, his company had been seeking a pyrolization process that it could marry with its gensets to power them on both domestic and international fronts, Pahls adds.

After forging a partnership with I Power Energy Systems, US Innovation Group constructed a large demonstration unit to prove their ability to run a pyrolizer in continuous operation, “because it has to be run north of 1,000 degrees in the absence of air,” says Pahls. “They subsequently built a small unit, which serves as both a demo unit for the process and a unit that would be able to characterize the three components that are generated from the process.”

Those three components include high-energy gas, a liquid condensate, and pyro-ash, which Pahls describes as having the consistency of coke and is classified as sequestered carbon. “There are three, very positive waste streams that come from this pyrolization process,” he says. “One which we can run into our cogeneration or Combined Heat and Power [CHP] gensets and make large amounts of electricity for use, either onsite or for export to the grid.

Photo: Royal Pride In Holland, Royal Pride has achieved 95% efficiency with GE’s 8-MW Jenbacher cogen.

“The carbon that’s left over can be sold on the Chicago Climate Exchange for carbon credits and is an excellent nutrient to plow into fields to revitalize the soil,” says Pahls.

He says because the process is suitable for any organic waste stream, “there is a tremendous opportunity to turn organic waste into usable energy well beyond what is being considered for normal digesters that would be located at wastewater treatment plants or landfills or concentrated animal feeding operations. We envision it to be a significant new alternative energy
technology.”

As for the long-term and broader implications, Pahls says the technology opens a conversation with those involved with organic waste streams that presently incur a significant amount of expense to deal with that waste steam by sending it to landfills.

“Landfills, of course, are a problem in and of themselves,” he says. “We will be able to take that expense that’s incurred and turn it into pretty significant revenue streams, as well as improve our sustainable energy position in the United States and significantly reduce our carbon footprint.”

As a result of the successful demonstration, PyroGen has been installed in its first municipal application for sludge waste—a system capable of consuming 1,000 pounds per hour of organic waste—and is expected to be operational in July 2009, says Pahls.

Across the globe in the Netherlands, GE has introduced a next-generation Debaucher ‘Type 6’ gas engine to help European Union member (EU) states comply with a mandate to boost energy efficiency, while reducing local fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions by installing new industrial, commercial, and residential cogeneration systems.

GE’s new ‘6F’ gas engines recently reached a critical performance milestone of 10,000 operating hours during a pilot for combined heat and power plants that provide support to two commercial horticultural greenhouse sites in the Netherlands. The new 3.3-MW 6F natural gas units showed an increased output of up to 10% and electrical efficiency of up to 1% over existing systems in the pilot projects.

Netherlands growers Kwekerij Baarenburg and Kwekerij de Kabel B.V. installed GE’s Jenbacher standardized greenhouse application (cogeneration with CO2 fertilization)—each powered by a J612 “6F” unit—as a pilot project to ascertain the impact on energy efficiency optimization and crop production. The units feature electrical efficiency ratings of 44.1% and 44.8%, respectively.

Baarenburg and Prominent Kabel greenhouse operators signed a full customer service contract with GE for the two 6F CHP plants that will cover the units up to their first major overhaul needed at 60,000 operating hours. According to Lars van Bar, general manager of Kwekerij Baarenburg and Richard Hartensveld, general manager of Kwekerij de Kabel, the 6F’s commercial launch has come at a “perfect time” to help horticultural companies and other industries support the energy efficiency standards set by the EU.

The installation comes on the heels of the successful commercial introduction of GE’s Jenbacher Type 6, 4-MW model, the J624, the world’s first 24-cylinder gas engine for commercial power generation, particularly cogeneration. That installation was made in 2008 at Royal Pride Holland, a commercial tomato greenhouse. Two GE 4-MW, natural gas–fueled J624 GS engines began powering the greenhouse’s new cogeneration plant, which plays a pivotal role in an increased emphasis on the energy efficiency of CHP in Europe.  

The pilot project is being conducted to determine whether the application can be successfully applied for the horticulture industry. Dutch gardeners were among the first to use CO2 fertilization. The process is now enhanced with the engines and works as such: GE’s Jenbacher cogeneration-CO2 fertilization treats the engines’ CO2-rich exhaust, recycling the gas in the greenhouse as a special fertilizer instead of venting gas into the atmosphere to boost crop production.

Additionally, surplus electricity from the cogeneration plant is delivered to the local grid. One J624 engine with an output of 4 MW could cover the power needs of about 9,000 European households. The engines were tested for a year before installation with Royal Pride Holland in the pilot project. The success of the project has enabled Royal Pride Holland to more than double its greenhouse surface area from 45 hectares to 102 hectares, making it one of the largest facilities in the Netherlands. 

GE’s 8-MW Jenbacher cogeneration plant offers Royal Pride Holland a total efficiency level of 95%. The plant is supported by a full service maintenance agreement that will cover the units for 60,000 hours or 15 years of service. Frank van Kleef, director of Royal Pride Holland, says his company has always sought the highest efficiency in its operations.

“Jenbacher proved to be an expert is this and is always working on this,” he says. “Even after installing an installation, they keep thinking about how they can do a better job. If they find a way to make the efficiency a bit better they upgrade the machines.”

The J624 was chosen “because of the efficiency and how this engine is built up,” says van Kleef. “All the parts are placed after each other instead of building the machine very compact. This makes the machine run very quietly and efficiently. Higher efficiency means saving gas and money.”

The engine system has assisted the tomato-growing operation with its onsite power generation and energy efficiency in several respects, says van Kleef: the company sells part of the electricity to the grid, uses part of it for artificial lights and also use waste heat from the engine for heating up glasshouses.

“Besides that, we also use a big part of the CO2,” says van Kleef, adding the overall goal is to “save money and do a better job by saving the environment.”

The J624 GS engine became commercially available to global customers this year. GE Energy’s Jenbacher gas engine business is based in Jenbach, Austria and manufactures gas-fueled reciprocating engines, packaged generator sets, and cogeneration systems for power generation. The engines range from 0.25 MW to 4 MW and operate on natural gas or specialty fuels, such as flare and coal mine gas or alternative fuels, such as biogas, landfill gas, wood gas, sewage gas, and industrial waste gas. The 6F design benefited from GE’s development of the J624 as GE’s engineers were able to adapt the more powerful J624’s optimized combustion system to the new 1,500 rpm Type 6F version engine models, GE reports.

Increased performance has enabled the Type 6F to run the engine at a higher break mean effective pressure of 22 bar due to enabling technologies such as steel pistons with optimized geometry, which have higher peak pressure capability compared to aluminum pistons.

GE reports that a new-generation turbocharger with a higher-pressure ratio allows for optimized valve timing (also known as “Miller”) to further improve combustion, subsequently pushing the knocking limit. Unburned hydrocarbons are reduced as a result with anticipated savings over the life cycle of the engine.

“With the EU’s sustainable energy strategy calling for member states to also install efficient power generation technology, gas engines are well-suited for a variety of cogeneration applications,” says Prady Iyyanki, CEO of GE Energy’s gas engine business.