The Guyra greenhouse facility of the Australian Costa Group will be equipped with an 800 kilowatt (kW) Signature Series microturbine. Capstone Turbine Corporation announced that they received an order for this. Optimal Group, Capstone's exclusive distributor in Australia, secured the order for the unit, which is expected to be commissioned in June 2021.
Aerial Photo of the Costa Group's State-of-the-Art Tomato Glasshouse Facility
Located near the New South Wales town of Guyra, the microturbine will be deployed in one of Australia's largest and most advanced tomato glasshouse facilities. "Their state-of-the-art glasshouse technology and growth program puts them at the forefront of innovation in sustainable farming practices and sets them apart in the fruit and vegetable industry," they say.
Costa Group sought out an efficient and reliable energy system that required minimal maintenance and was environmentally friendly. They turned to Optimal Group and Capstone's microturbine technology to accommodate their massive plant expansion project. "Optimal was able to offer a solution that would meet our expanded power needs and provide a more flexible source of power," they say.
Installed in a Quad-Gen application (combined power, heat, cooling and CO2 fertigation) the microturbine configuration will include a specialized heat recovery module (HRM), two co-fired burners and a custom-designed Optimal cooling system. The 800 kW microturbine will be shipped in a five-bay enclosure to accommodate future expansion. The system's inherent modular architecture will allow the customer to increase capacity for an additional 200 kW, up to 1 megawatt (MW).
The microturbine will supply hot water to the glasshouse via a custom two-stage HRM. The first stage will provide high-temperature hot water (85�C/185�F) to the glasshouse heating system. The exhaust will be sent to two hot water boilers as combustion air. The boilers will be fitted with two SAACKE burners, which will utilize the turbine exhaust to fire the burner. The boilers will provide hot water for the glasshouse, while the cooled exhaust will be used for plant CO2 fertigation. To improve the flue distribution, a water cooling system has been included to improve the performance of the flue gas condensers.
"Capstone's microturbine technology is an excellent fit for CHP and CO2 fertigation in a greenhouse," the team says. "Greenhouses usually provide the CO2 to enhance plant growth by using the exhaust from a natural gas boiler. In these applications, the clean exhaust from the microturbine delivers additional value, providing a richer stream of CO2 to the plants while maintaining very low CO, NOx and hydrocarbons."
For more information:
Capstone Turbine Corporation
16640 Stagg Street
Van Nuys, CA 91406
+1 818-734-5300
www.capstoneturbine.com