GAS-L: Irish gasification

["Graeme Williams" <graeme@powerlink.co.nz>]

Dear Gasification Colleagues

Have just returned to New Zealand after a month in Ireland and the U.K. on
what you could say was a busman's holiday.

I attended the Energy from Wood Conference in Belfast 17-18 February, saw
two gasified CHP  systems, one going, one not, coppice willow harvesting,
storage, and drying, and a new gas turbine that looks made for producer gas.
So you could say that its all trying to happen in Northern Ireland.

There are two companies currently showing gasifiers in Northern Ireland, and
I do believe a third company is laying low for the moment until their first
project becomes public.

Rural Generation Ltd has a demonstration project with a 100kWe CHP system,
and a fuel drying and storage system to support their work using coppicing
willow.  They also demonstrated a new willow harvesting machine which cut 10
acres making a nice stack to conduct drying trials.

On show but not connected was a small gas turbine developed for landfill gas
and able to run on 10% methane in that role.  You cannot see much of a
turbine let alone question its suitability, so I later visited Queens
University Belfast to exchange information regarding the interfacing of the
two technologies.

The RGL gasifier had computer monitoring and all the temperature profiles
could be seen across the components.  Being a blown system, surplus gas was
burnt in a flare stack, and gas to the engine had to pass through a
regulator.  It was presented warts and all, but working and yes they did
have sporadic tar problems, which I later sorted out as being a fuel
problem.

I should mention that I was in Ireland to protect the potential customers of
gasification by supervising fuel testing on their behalf using the RGL
gasifier.  It has been discussed widely that gasifiers are fuel specific and
the ability to change or adapt the design quickly is an important detail for
commercial installations.  During the course of the fuel testing, the RGL
team had an opportunity to learn more about packed char beds, and see for
themselves how the fuel species and size affected gas making.  Although not
planned, RGL have now sought a technical agreement to use Fluidyne
technology to support their equipment development programme.

Moving on to the other company demonstration, B9 Energy Ltd, the
installation was promoted as the first zero condensate downdraught gasifier
in the world.  Producing 80kWe using a CHP system, it had a computer
controlled grab crane to load chips into a fuel drier then through fuel lock
into the gasifier. The installation stood cold and silent (like we were) and
no information was offered on performance etc.  Specific questions like
"whats that" were declined to be answered, so if Hub Stassen from BTG in the
Netherlands  been present, I at least could theorise with someone else who
knew what we should be seeing.

There is a limit to what may be considered classified information, but when
you sell equipment and others rely on the function of that technology, as a
manufacturer, everything has to be available for public scrutiny.  In my
opinion B9 Energy lost a golden opportunity to how their stuff, but maybe
like RGL had been having bad fuel days, for it was easy to see their chip
fuel as nothing less than very poor quality,.
For the moment, hope this report will get your interest away from steam and
turbines that work on the etherical level, and will post some separate
reports and photographs over the next few weeks as time becomes available.

Regards
Doug Williams
Fluidyne.

The Gasification List is sponsored by
USDOE BioPower Program http://www.eren.doe.gov/biopower/
and PRM Energy Systems http://www.prmenergy.com
Other Sponsors, Archives and Information
http://www.crest.org/renewables/gasification-list-archive
http://solstice.crest.org/renewables/biomass-info/gasref.shtml
http://www.crest.org/renewables/biomass-info/
http://www.crest.org/renewables/biomass-info/carbon.shtml