[Gasification] Market for gasifiers?

[Fredrik Ek]

Gasification list,



The fact that one most often can get a better price for locally used heat

than for electric power delivered to the grid is the reason to why there

are so few small CHP units in Finland. In Finland there is about a handful

of wood gas CHP units in operation. They are built to replace bought in

power, not to deliver power to the grid. Farm scale biogas plants there is

not more than a dozen and most of them are located at agricultural

education sites where they do not have to be economical.



Since 2011 we have a feed in tariff system in Finland. Via the feed in

tariff, a power plant owner and operator can get a price of 83,5 €/MWh for

power produced by wind, biogas or wood fuel. For biogas an extra 50 €/MWh

is available, if certain requirements of total efficiency (usage of heat)

are achieved. For wood fuel based CHP:s, there is an extra 20 €/MWh if the

total efficiency is high enough. The tariff price is paid four times a

year. The sum paid is defined as the difference between the tariff price

and the realized market price for power. Tariff price-Nordpool price. The

lower the market price, the higher tariff sums are paid. 



The system is built so that the generator needs to be at least 500 kVA for

wind and at least 100 kVA for biogas and wood fuel based technology.

Typical 30 -50 kW wood gas systems are excluded because of their small

size. In addition not a single used component may be used in a system that

gets the feed in tariff. This fact has excluded for instance the Bionear

plant in Lestijärvi from the tariff system.



The feed in tariff system also involves large new and old power plants

that at least partly use wood fuel. But for these, the tariff is lower and

connected to the price of a ton CO2 in the emission trading system. The

cheaper a ton of CO2 is, the higher is the tariff.

 

A real challenge for small units that want to join the tariff system is

the bureaucracy costs that are built into it. The tariff money has to be

applied for four times a year, to leave an application costs 170 €/time,

and there is also needed a “verificator report”. The dayfee for the

“verificators” is approximately 1500 €. When this bureaucracy has to be

repeated four times a year, a threshold cost is formed that make the system

unattractive for small units. Three years after the introduction of the

tariff system, about 20 windprojects and around 50 power plants with an

average generator power of 70 000 kVA are in the system. In the system

there is not a single biogas plant or small wood CHP system.



All in all, tax money is used to subsidy power production based on

renewable sources, but on a big scale, CHP units with generator power in an

order of magnitude of 100 MW and capital intensive wind power production.

Not small systems.



For heat there is a working market also on the small scale. The country is

full of wood chips boilers and wood chip boiler manufacturers. The wood

chip boilers are either owned and operated by those who need heat

themselves, or by entrepreneurs who have invested in heating systems and

heat delivery grid.

 

A potential market for gasification systems here, is for units that are

able to replace heating oil or natural gas in existing boilers from 0,5 MW

and upwards. 



Fredrik Ek











On Sun, 15 Dec 2013 19:22:20 +0000, Thomas Koch <tk at tke.dk> wrote:

> Dear Gasification neards and geeks.

> 

> I have followed the last weeks discussions about the BIONEAR gasifier

with

> great interest. 

> 

> One of the most interesting comments came from Frederik below here. 

> 

> 

> For heat sold to customers in a district heating system in Finland, one

> 

> can typically take a price of about 70-80 €/MWh. For electric power

> 

> delivered to the grid, one gets the Nordpool FI price minus a margin.

This

> 

> price varies, but it usually is within the range of 30-50 €/MWh. At the

> 

> moment it is about 35 €. This means that it mostly is clearly more

> 

> interesting to produce heat than power.

> 

> 

> These market conditions does not at all favour small - below - 50 MW

> gasifiers.

> 

> With the valuable product from a gasifier - electricity - we compete

> against a NOORDPOOL price and some political mercy. 

> 

> With the cheap product - heat - we have a much better market. 

> 

> In this case a wood chip boiler is a much better choice than a gasifier

if

> you look at the economy. 

> 

> 

> If we (all the nerds!!) need to put more interest in identifying

> profitable markets for our technology. 

> 

> Thomas Koch 

> 

> 

> 

>  

> 

> -----Oprindelig meddelelse-----

> Fra: Gasification [mailto:gasification-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org]

> På vegne af Fredrik Ek

> Sendt: 13. december 2013 06:32

> Til: Discussion of biomass pyrolysis and gasification

> Cc: Gasification at bioenergylists.org

> Emne: Re: [Gasification] HKG BIONEAR http://www.youtube.com

> /watch?v=ZKbYDF9Hp0o&feature=player_embedded

> 

> 

> Hi Tom and list,

> 

> 

> 

> The Bionear gasifier is very interesting, but it is difficult to get a

> 

> grip on it. The man in the video is the inventor himself, Timo Heimonen.

I

> 

> have met him several times and also seen several of his systems in

> 

> operation during the last few years.

> 

>  

> 

> The gasifier in the video is located in Lestijärvi, Finland where it

> 

> primarily serves a district heating system. The turbine has earlier

served

> 

> as a diesel powered emergency power station at bank of Finland and has

been

> 

> modified for use on producer gas.

> 

>  

> 

> On the same site in Lestijärvi where Turos teams unit now is operating,

> 

> another gasification plant was in operation for a few years. This

previous

> 

> gasifier had earlier been located in Tervola in Finnish Lapland and then

> 

> modified for service in Lestijärvi. The operation in Tervola was

> 

> unsuccessful. In Lestijärvi the plant was in operation, but there were

> 

> problems with gas quality. The rapeseed oil press and the drying

facility,

> 

> were already on the site when Turos Team came into picture. The gasifier

in

> 

> the video is the first of Turos teams units that is running as a real

> 

> installation, not “at home” for them.

> 

> 

> 

> I visited the plant in Lestijärvi two days ago. At that time the turbine

> 

> was not in operation due to too little heat load at the time (+4 C). The

> 

> district heating system was in operation and run on producer gas. The

unit

> 

> is over dimensioned for the site and a portion of the produced gas also

was

> 

> flared. Based on the color of the flare, the gas seemed to be of real

good

> 

> quality. Not entirely soot free, but with a flame looking like when

clean

> 

> tar free wood gas burns in a flare. Previously I have had the

opportunity

> 

> to see flares and also smell dripping condensate from another of Turos

> 

> teams smaller units. The concensate was like spring water. 

> 

> 

> 

> For heat sold to customers in a district heating system in Finland, one

> 

> can typically take a price of about 70-80 €/MWh. For electric power

> 

> delivered to the grid, one gets the Nordpool FI price minus a margin.

This

> 

> price varies, but it usually is within the range of 30-50 €/MWh. At the

> 

> moment it is about 35 €. This means that it mostly is clearly more

> 

> interesting to produce heat than power.

> 

> 

> 

> In the entire building in Lestijärvi, there was no smell of tar or

smoke,

> 

> and the process seemed to run very smoothly. Time by time one could hear

> 

> small amounts of wood chips being fed to the gasifier. As is mentioned

in

> 

> the video, there is no access to the interiors of the gasifier except

the

> 

> two 2” plugs on the side. In the gas piping there is a small trap for

> 

> flyash, but it this is not really designed for removing much anything.

> 

> 

> 

> The gasifier was fed with wood chips with a humidity of about 30 % and

> 

> according to the inventor additional water was added at a rate of 10

l/h.

> 

> The statements of how much fuel was measured to be consumed per produced

> 

> MWh were not believable, 200 litres of wood chips/MWh. This is about one

> 

> fourth to one fifth of the amount that should be needed. Mr. Heimonen

was

> 

> very aware of this himself too. I have been dealing with gasification

for

> 

> many years and seen and heard unbelievable statements before too. When

> 

> something is too good for being true, it tends to show up that it also

is

> 

> not. Water did not burn in Reisijärvi either despite earlier statements

> 

> made by another company… This unit in Lestijärvi is the most impossible

> 

> unit I have seen so far, but it seems to work. I can not believe the

> 

> efficiency statements and the presented values, but I can see that the

unit

> 

> produces a clean gas and that the process seems to run very smoothly.

> 

> 

> 

> Measurements made by VTT (Technical research centre of Finland) on one

of

> 

> the earlier units also showed impossible values. The construction of the

> 

> gasifier is a well kept secret. No patents or other documents on this

are

> 

> available.

> 

> 

> 

> I keep my thumbs for Turos team and Mr. Heimonen! Gasification suffers

> 

> from too many failures, success stories are needed! The laws of nature

are

> 

> hard to break, but also if the values are not true, a well functioning

> 

> system is worth a lot.

> 

> 

> 

> Fredrik Ek

> 

> 

> 

> fredrik.ek at xylogas.fi

> 

> +358407547182

> 

> 

> 

> 

> 

> 

> 

> On Wed, 11 Dec 2013 17:06:45 -0800, "Tom Miles" <tmiles at trmiles.com>

> 

> wrote:

> 

>> I liked that as well. Do we have any idea what “gasification” scheme

> 

> they

> 

>> are using? They say they have a gasifier and that they are making high

> 

>> hydrogen but they carefully avoided showing any useful pictures of the

> 

>> reactor. We see a lot of gauges and pipe fittings in these videos. 

> 

>> 

> 

>>  

> 

>> 

> 

>> Tom

> 

>> 

> 

>>  

> 

>> 

> 

>> From: Gasification

> 

> [mailto:gasification-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org]

> 

>> On

> 

>> Behalf Of Thomas Koch

> 

>> Sent: Wednesday, December 11, 2013 4:25 PM

> 

>> To: Discussion of biomass pyrolysis and gasification;

> 

>> Gasification at bioenergylists.org

> 

>> Subject: Re: [Gasification] HKG BIONEAR

> 

>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKbYDF9Hp0o&feature=player_embedded

> 

>> 

> 

>>  

> 

>> 

> 

>> I love the last 10 seconds of the video

> 

>> 

> 

>>  

> 

>> 

> 

>> This plant is not designed to be repaired – it is designed to run

> 

>> smoothly.

> 

>> 

> 

>>  

> 

>> 

> 

>> Best regards

> 

>> 

> 

>>  

> 

>> 

> 

>> Thomas Koch

> 

>> 

> 

>>  

> 

>> 

> 

>>  

> 

>> 

> 

>>  

> 

>> 

> 

>>  

> 

>> 

> 

>>  

> 

>> 

> 

>> Fra: Gasification 

>> [mailto:gasification-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org]

> 

>> På

> 

>> vegne af kari käräjäoja

> 

>> Sendt: 11. december 2013 21:00

> 

>> Til: Gasification at bioenergylists.org

> 

>> Emne: [Gasification] HKG BIONEAR

> 

> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKbYDF9Hp0o

> 

>> <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKbYDF9Hp0o&feature=player_embedded>

> 

>> &feature=player_embedded

> 

>> 

> 

>>  

> 

>> 

> 

>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKbYDF9Hp0o

> 

>> <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKbYDF9Hp0o&feature=player_embedded>

> 

>> &feature=player_embedded

> 

>> 

> 

>> 

> 

>> 

> 

>> VISITED TODAY THIS 4,2 MW ENERGY  station.

> 

>> 

> 

>> VERY IMPRESSIVE!

> 

>> 

> 

>> Made in Finland. PROUDLY1 SEE WHY...



-- 

Fredrik Ek

fredrik.ek at xylogas.fi

+358407547182