Name:
Biomass Power Plant Güssing ltd.

Location (settlement, country):
Güssing, Austria

Brief description of the technology:
In Güssing this innovative process for combined heat and power production based on steam gasification has been demonstrated. Biomass is gasified in a dual fluidized bed reactor. The producer gas is cooled, cleaned and used in a gas engine.

Biomass chips are transported from a daily hopper to a metering bin and fed into the fluidized bed reactor via a rotary valve system and a screw feeder. The fluidized bed gasifier consists of two zones, a gasification zone and a combustion zone. The gasification zone is fluidized with steam which is generated by waste heat of the process to produce a nitrogen free producer gas. The combustion zone is fluidized with air and delivers the heat for the gasification process via the circulating bed material.

The producer gas is cooled and cleaned by a two stage cleaning system. A water cooled heat exchanger reduces the temperature from 850’C – 900’C to about 160’C – 180’C. The first stage of the cleaning system is a fabric to separate the particles and some of the tar from the producer gas. These particles are retuned to the combustion zone of the gasifier. In a second stage the fast is liberated from tar by a scrubber.

Spent scrubber liquid saturated with tar and condensate is vaporized and fed for thermal disposal into the combustion zone of the gasifier. The scrubber is used to reduce the temperature of the clean producer gas to about 40`C which is necessary for the gas engine. The clean gas is finally fed into a gas engine to produce electricity and heat. If the gas engine is not in operation the whole amount of producer gas can be burned in the boiler to produce heat. The flue gas of the gas engine is catalytically oxidized to reduce the CO emissions. The sensible heat of the engine’s flue gas is used to produce district heat, the one of the flue gas from the combustion zone is used for preheating air, superheating steam as well as to deliver heat to the district heating grid. A gas filter separates the particles before the flue gas is released via a stack to the environment.

Why is it a „Best practice”?
The gasification plant in Güssing has got an overall efficiency of about 85%. The electrical efficiency is about 28%. So in comparison to conventional bio-energy plants, for example steam turbine, the efficiency is much higher in this new biomass conversion technology.

Produced electricity is sold to the electrical grid operator (BEWAG) with a guaranteed feed-in-rate of 16 cents/kWh for thirteen years. The thermal energy is delivered to the district heating system for about 3,00 Euro cents / kWh.
Wood chips are used and delivered by local wood farmers who have been established a regional wood farmers association to guarantee the continuous supply of the plant in Güssing as well as the supply of other biomass installations in Burgenland. For saving transport cost the material is obtained within a radius of about 25 kilometres.
Fifteen years ago 7 million € annually had been paid out (‘lost’) to purchase fossil fuels for the town of Güssing. Energy demand has increased up to 14 million € a year until 2005 (as a reason of developed economy and the settlement of new companies), with the difference that nearly the whole amount stays now in the region as the energy system has fully changed and more than the yearly amount of heat and electricity can be produced out of renewables.

Possibility for a visit or guided tour (yes / no):
Yes, in cooperation with the ökoEnergieland and the European Centre of Renewable Energies (EEE) it is possible to manage a guided tour to the Biomass power plant.

Furthermore also other demonstration plants can be visited in the area of Güssing like the district heating plant, photovoltaic plant as well as the worldwide unique biomass plant in Güssing. EEE is organising guided tours for a different spectrum of interest groups.

Public awareness-raising is another dimension that has very effectively been addressed. Visitors can join the first Burgenland biogas ‘theme walk’ to get a first hand impression of local developments and the impact of ‘ökoEnergieland’.

Contact and website:
Biomassekraftwerk GmbH & Co KG
Ing. Reinhard Koch
Europastraße 1
A - 7540 Güssing
Austria

Tel: +43 3322 9010 850 0
Fax:+43 3322 9010 850 12

Website:
http://www.eee-info.net

Full document

Related technology:
Chipping