Gerbera grower Simon Zwarts from Mijdrecht hopes to save money on energy bills through using a gasification plant based on reed in conjunction with CHP. The implementation should save him 250,000 euros per year. The ornamental grower now burns 750,000 m3 of gas annually. For the generation of electricity, heat and CO2, he has two CHPs with a capacity of 750 kilowatts. Instead, he wants to work with a biomass gasifier-CHP with a capacity of 700 kilowatts in the future.
In gasification, biomass is heated at temperatures above 850 degrees. Due to insufficient supply of oxygen incomplete combustion occurs. Syngas is created, a combination of combustible and non-combustible gases. After cooling and purification the gas can be used in a custom CHP. Zwarts wants to use reeds as biomass and therefore made arrangements with State Forest and Nature Reserves. The biomass gasifier CHP is provided by the company Dordtech / Synvalor.
The new plant must make 4200 hours per year. Surplus electricity is diverted back to the grid. The boiler is kept on as backup and will keep supplying CO2. The entire plant will require an investment of approximately 3 million Euro, but will save 250,000 Euros on gas and electricity. Zwarts expects a payback period of 6 years.
Source: AgriHolland