Biomass CHP-Technology has Promising Emission Saving Potentials

In the peer-reviewed article "First stage environmental impact assessment of a new highly efficient and fuel flexible medium-scale CHP technology based on fixed-bed updraft biomass gasification and a SOFC" the project partners describe the results of the environmental and overall impact assessment for the HiEff-BioPower system after the first phase of the project. The Wuppertal Institute is responsible as lead partner for this work package.

In the course of the Horizon 2020 project HiEff-BioPower scientists are developing a new, fuel flexible and highly efficient medium-scale biomass CHP technology. It consists of a fuel-flexible fixed-bed updraft gasifier, a novel compact gas cleaning system, and a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC). The system can utilise diverse residual biomass fuels, such as wood pellets, wood chips, short rotation coppice (SRC) or selected agricultural fuels (such as agro-pellets, fruit stones and nutshells). Despite the challenging fuels, the system achieves high gross electrical efficiencies of up to 40 per cent and overall efficiencies of up to 90 per cent. At the same time the system is characterised by extremely low levels of gaseous and particulate emissions.

Based on the preliminary impact assessment results after the first half of the project, the new HiEff-BioPower technology scenarios show promising and significant technical emission saving potentials compared to equivalent state-of-the-art conventional biomass boilers and gas engine CHP systems.

The complete article "First stage environmental impact assessment of a new efficient and fuel flexible medium-scale CHP technology based on fixed-bed updraft biomass gasification and a SOFC" with the comprehensive first results and further information on HiEff-BioPower project are available using the following links.