[Gasification] Commercial gasifiers in Europe

[Tom Miles]

Fredrik,

Good to hear from you. Thanks for the correction and additional information. The unit I was thinking of was the 45 kWe/100 kWh thermal. 

I had heard of the Volter gasifier but I haven’t seen any reports of its operation. 

Spanner is a manufacturer of automotive parts with a wide distribution system. They have gone fairly quickly into production and distribution. They have a reputation for good customer service. I understand that they hold quarterly meetings with Spanner gasifier owners.  

Their gasifier is available in North American through their distributor, Borealis, in Ontario, Canada. Borealis is  installing their first 45 kWe Spanner in North America at their shop in Ontario.  
http://www.borealiswoodpower.com/process.php 

A general question:

Typical situations in North America are:
Wood $35, $60, $100/oven dried tonne or $0.009-0.025/kg
Heat $10,$25,$44;/GJ or $0.03,$0.09,$0.15/kWh thermal
Electricity $0.10,$0.25,$0.65/kWh

At these costs how much can you afford to spend on a small scale (20-45 kWe) gasification system? What are the annual hours of operation at full load where you break even?

Configurations vary but the systems we have discussed - Ankur, APL, Spanner, CPC - seem to range from about $2,500 to $14,000/kWe. I think the base price for the 45 kWe Spanner system is about USD $190,000 or $4,200/kWh. 

Tom 

-----Original Message-----
From: Gasification [mailto:gasification-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of Fredrik Ek
Sent: Sunday, December 01, 2013 11:31 PM
To: Discussion of biomass pyrolysis and gasification
Subject: Re: [Gasification] Commercial gasifiers in Europe


Hi Tom and list,



Spanner builds units in two sizes; 30 kWe and 45 kWe. I visited Spanner´s

stand at Agritechnika in Hannover last month and they told that they have

sold 240 units. I have seen about 20 of these units during the last years.

Most of them have been running. Thery use a downdraft gasifier with five

nozzles, no constriction and a half fixed half rotating conical "chistmas

tree" grate. The feed sluice for wood chips is massive and robust.

Filtration is dry with a pneumatically operated simple mechanical cleaning

system. The system for sensing fuel levels is robust and clever.



In Finland there is no Spanner unit, but in Latvia there are 23. In

Finland Volter Oy builds rather well functioning 30 kWe woodgas CHP units

with adjustable gasifiers and dry filtration.



Fredrik Ek