Advanced Plasma Power (APP) is one of three companies that has been selected to lead a consortium that will compete to design the most cost-effective, economically viable and efficient commercial energy from waste demonstrator plant possible.
The three consortia will design and develop a plant to demonstrate highest possible efficiencies for plants operating at a commercial scale of between 5 to 20 megawatts (MWe) output. The winning plant could be designed, built, tested and in operation by 2015 or 2016.
The aim of the ETI commissioned and funded £2.8m project is to demonstrate how such a plant operating at this scale could create energy from waste at efficiencies higher than previously produced in the industry. The challenge is that each complete system will need to have an end-to-end net electrical efficiency of at least 25%.
The consortium led by APP will design a demonstration facility with an electrical output of 6MWe. APP’s proprietary Gasplasma® technology will be used to produce a clean syngas as a fuel for the development and demonstration of high-efficiency power island solutions. The Gasplasma® process uses a separate plasma furnace to crack and clean the crude syngas from a gasifier prior to its direct utilisation in gas engines or a gas turbine.
Stage one of the project (the design phase) will last 10 months and phase two of the project will see the construction of the winning design which will be selected in early 2014.
Paul Winstanley, the ETI Bioenergy Project Manager overseeing the competition, said: “Our national modelling work shows that bioenergy could be a key component of any future energy systems mix to meet the demands of providing affordable, secure and sustainable energy. We have already completed an extensive analysis of the existing energy from waste technologies currently available, as well as the breakdown and quantities of typical UK municipal, commercial and industrial waste.
“This analysis indicates that new plant designs could potentially operate at a net electrical efficiency rate of 25%, which significantly exceeds the performance of current plants in operation. Any successful design of such a plant will provide the opportunity to move away from the less efficient current technologies and reduces the use of landfill sites.”
Rolf Stein, CEO of Advanced Plasma Power, stated: “We are extremely pleased to be part of this ETI project and consider that this gives us the opportunity to demonstrate our Gasplasma® waste to energy technology with alternative high-efficiency power island solutions thereby improving competition in the market for the generation of electricity from syngas.”
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Notes to Editors
About APP
Advanced Plasma Power Limited (APP) is a world leader in advanced waste to energy and advanced fuels technology. APP is revolutionising the way in which we treat waste sustainably by maximising the value from it as a source of materials and energy while minimising the impact of waste on the environment. APP has developed the Gasplasma® process, a clean, modular and scalable advanced waste to energy and fuels technology which delivers high efficiencies whilst minimising visual and environmental impact. The Gasplasma® process is an innovative combination of two well-established technologies – gasification and plasma treatment, both of which have decades of proven commercial operation.
About ETI
The Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) is a public-private partnership between global industries – BP, Caterpillar, EDF, E.ON, Rolls-Royce and Shell – and the UK Government.
Public sector representation is through the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, with funding channelled through the Technology Strategy Board and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. The Department of Energy and Climate Change are observers on the Board.
The ETI is focused on accelerating the deployment of affordable, secure low-carbon energy systems for 2020 to 2050 by demonstrating technologies, developing knowledge, skills and supply-chains and informing the development of regulation, standards and policy. www.eti.co.uk
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