GE Gas Engine Hits Milestone: More than 50,000 Hours of Turning Biogas into Power for German Brewery

Press release:

16 August 2012

GE Gas Engine Hits Milestone: More than 50,000 Hours of Turning Biogas into Power for German Brewery

 

• Bitburger Project Illustrates Growth of Combined Heat and Power in Europe
• Efficient Operation Leads to 10 Percent Primary Energy Savings
• Reinforcing GE Commitment to ecomagination, J312 Gas Engine Provides Fuel Flexibility, Reliable Performance

BITBURG, GERMANY—August 16, 2012—Powered by GE (NYSE: GE) gas engine technology, a combined heat and power (CHP) plant at Germany’s Bitburger Brauerei (brewery) has surpassed 50,000 hours of successful operation. Based on an ecomagination-qualified Jenbacher J312 gas engine, the plant converts biogas (gas produced by biological breakdown of organic matter) into electricity, steam and hot water to meet the brewery’s process requirements.

Since it began operating in 2005, the CHP facility has improved electricity supply for the brewery, reduced carbon dioxide emissions by an equivalent of 10,000 tons and demonstrated higher efficiency and economy compared to the site’s previous steam boiler technology by using biogas.

Biogas, created as by-product during the wastewater treatment process following beer production, is burned by the Jenbacher engine to produce electricity and heat. This efficient operation has enabled the brewery to realize prime energy savings of about 10 percent. The project is an example of GE’s ecomagination commitment to provide innovative solutions that maximize resources, drive efficiencies and help make the world work better.

“The use of GE’s Jenbacher CHP technology enables us to meet our energy and environmental goals while also reducing costs. The project builds on a strong relationship between our companies that has included the purchase of several Jenbacher engines during the past 20 years,” said Dr. Johannes Hankes, head of central engineering of the Bitburger Brewery. “For example, two of GE’s Jenbacher engines are installed near the Jenbacher J312 gas engine, operating in mechanical drive applications.”

The Bitburger Brewery is located in Bitburg, Germany, near Trier and the Luxembourg border. Founded in 1817, today it ranks among Germany’s best selling breweries. The Bitburger Group operates five breweries in Germany and produced 7.5 Mio. Hectolitres of beer in 2011.

“Working with Bitburger allowed us to develop a customized technology solution that met their specific needs,” said Rafael Santana, president and CEO of Gas Engines for GE Energy. “Our gas engine technology provides a high degree of fuel flexibility with the capability to operate on a wide range of gases such as biogas or natural gas for the Bitburger brewery. Its proven reliability and availability are keys to achieving the successful 50,000-hour operating milestone.”

The Jenbacher J312 gas engine at the brewery produces 624 kilowatts of electricity and 700 kilowatts of thermal power, including 330 kilowatts of steam. The option to run the engine either on biogas resulting as a by-product of the production process or natural gas allows the brewery to run independently and operate smoothly in case the grid fails.

Like the other members of GE’s type-3 gas engine group, the J312 offers low fuel consumption, ensuring maximum efficiency of up to 90 percent, along with a high degree of technical maturity and reliability.

In all, GE has supplied about 2,200 Jenbacher engines for on-site power projects in Germany, representing more than 18 percent of GE’s globally installed Jenbacher fleet. Combined, these units generate electricity equivalent to the amount used by about 3 million average E.U. homes.

The successful collaboration at the Bitburger Brauerei (brewery) is an example of GE’s focus on the global food and beverage sector by bringing energy management, CHP and other waste-to-value solutions to the industry, benefitting the companies involved in addition to their surrounding communities. The Bitburger Brewery project also illustrates how GE’s comprehensive suite of distributed power solutions—ranging in size from 100 kilowatts to 100 megawatts—is helping customers worldwide to generate more reliable, on-site electricity and heat.

Breweries are a traditional segment for distributed power generation to meet on-site power needs. In general, CHP applications are growing in Germany specifically to support the country’s energy turnaround efforts, as well as throughout Europe, based on the CHP incentives that are a key part of the European Union’s 20-20-20 initiative.

About GE

GE (NYSE: GE) works on things that matter. The best people and the best technologies taking on the toughest challenges. Finding solutions in energy, health and home, transportation and finance. Building, powering, moving and curing the world. Not just imagining. Doing. GE works. For more information, visit the company's website at www.ge.com.

Follow GE Power & Water on Twitter @GE_PowerWater.

GE’s Waukesha Factory Delivers Generator Sets for Potawatomi Tribe’s Milwaukee Biogas Power Project

Press release:

03 May 2012

GE’s Waukesha Factory Delivers Generator Sets for Potawatomi Tribe’s Milwaukee Biogas Power Project

 

• Biogas Combined Heat and Power Plant to Generate 2 Megawatts of Renewable Electricity for WE Energies’ Customers
• Thermal Power from GE’s Waukesha Gas Engines to Support Milwaukee Tribe’s Operations

WAUKESHA, WIS.—May 3, 2012—GE’s (NYSE: GE) Waukesha gas enginesfactory manufactured and recently delivered two, 1-megawatt (MW) cogeneration sets for the Forest County Potawatomi Community’s (FCPC) planned biogas combined heat and power (CHP) project in Milwaukee’s Menomonee Valley. The biogas project will convert waste from area food processing operations into a reliable supply of renewable energy for the tribal community as well as the local grid.

GE delivered the two Waukesha APG1000 Enginator biogas engines to FCPC on April 13. The Waukesha plant employs 680 people, including 385 production workers.

An anaerobic digester will process the food processor waste-to-produce biogas that will fuel GE’s Waukesha engines in the CHP plant. The engines are designed specifically to run on biogases that are rich in methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Burning the methane in a reciprocating engine reduces the amount of gas that can escape into the atmosphere.

The two generator sets will produce a total of 2 MW of renewable electricity, enough to power about 1,500 Milwaukee-area homes. The biogas plant’s electricity will be sold to WE Energies and can assist the utility in meeting the state’s Renewable Portfolio Standard, which requires a certain portion of the utility’s power be generated by renewable energy sources. The Potawatomi Tribe expects the CHP plant to begin operation in April 2013.

GE’s high-efficiency gas engines are designed to make the most power for the fuel they consume, with benefits for both the plant owner and the environment. The CHP process recovers what would normally be “waste” heat from the engines’ operation. This effectively doubles the Waukesha units’ total efficiency, producing the greatest amount of usable power from the fuel burned in the engine. The Potawatomi Tribe’s Milwaukee operations may use the engines’ heat for a variety of heating and cooling purposes, potentially including the tribe’s planned new hotel.

“Renewable energy projects, like this biogas facility, make both environmental and economic sense,” said Jeff Crawford, attorney general for the Forest County Potawatomi Community. “In addition to increasing the amount of renewable energy being used and saving on energy costs, this project also benefits Wisconsin’s economy. Wisconsin is fortunate to have a number of companies, like GE Energy, that manufacture the components that make these projects possible.”

“While gases from landfills, animal waste and wastewater treatment facilities have long been used as fuel in power generation systems, the use of food waste as a source of biogas for these types of installations is still relatively new,” said Brian White, president of GE Energy’s Waukesha gas engines business. “The Waukesha team is excited to work closely with the Forest County Potawatomi Community to successfully bring this project to fruition as Wisconsin and other states work to diversify their energy supplies.“

Wisconsin has been at the forefront of the U.S. agricultural industry’s efforts to deploy technologies that convert animal and food wastes into new sources of renewable energy. For example, in the last several years, a growing number of Wisconsin dairy farms have installed GE’s Jenbacher biogas engines to generate renewable electricity for onsite uses and the local grid. For example, GE’s Jenbacher biogas engine technology is generating 633 kilowatts (kW) at the Crave Brothers Farm, LLC in Waterloo, Wis.

The Potawatomi Tribe CHP project illustrates how GE’s comprehensive suite of distributed power solutions—ranging in size from 100 kW to 100 MW—are helping customers worldwide to generate more reliable, on-site electricity and heat. The project also exemplifies the company’s focus on the food and beverage industry. GE’s dedicated Food and Beverage Solutions organization is bringing energy management, CHP and other waste-to-value solutions to the industry, benefitting the companies involved and surrounding communities.

About GE
GE (NYSE: GE) works on things that matter. The best people and the best technologies taking on the toughest challenges. Finding solutions in energy, health and home, transportation and finance. Building, powering, moving and curing the world. Not just imagining. Doing. GE works. For more information, visit the company's website at www.ge.com.

GE Energy works connecting people and ideas everywhere to create advanced technologies for powering a cleaner, more productive world. With more than 100,000 employees in over 100 countries, our diverse portfolio of product and service solutions and deep industry expertise help our customers solve their challenges locally. We serve the energy sector with technologies in such areas as natural gas, oil, coal and nuclear energy; wind, solar, biogas and water processing; energy management; and grid modernization. We also offer integrated solutions to serve energy- and water-intensive industries such as mining, metals, marine, petrochemical, food & beverage and unconventional fuels.

Follow GE Energy on Twitter @GE_Energy.

New York’s Largest On-Farm Biogas Power Project Generates Renewable Energy for Nearly 1,000 Homes

Press release:

01 May 2012

New York’s Largest On-Farm Biogas Power Project Generates Renewable Energy for Nearly 1,000 Homes

 

• Synergy Dairy, CH4 Biogas Project to Help Reduce Dairy’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions
• GE’s Jenbacher Engine Uses the Biogas to Generate 1.4 Megawatts of Renewable Electricity
• NYSERDA Provides $1 Million in Incentives
• National Grid to Purchase Electricity from Biogas Project; Provides Grant for Substation

COVINGTON, N.Y.—May 1, 2012—U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) joined state and local officials today at the grand opening of New York state’s largest on-farm, ‘co-digestion’ biogas power project, marking an important boost to the state’s renewable energy production and sustainability efforts. The facility is located at Synergy Dairy, a 2,000-head dairy farm in Covington, Wyoming County, southwest of Rochester.

CH4 Biogas LLC built, owns and operates the project under the name Synergy Biogas LLC. The Synergy Biogas LLC plant also is the state’s first biogas project specifically designed for the co-digestion, or processing, of animal and food wastes. The biogas created in the 120,000-gallon co-digester is fueling a GE (NYSE: GE) ecomagination-qualified, Jenbacher J420 biogas engine to generate 1.4 megawatts (MW) of renewable electricity.

By anaerobically digesting waste from local food processors in addition to the dairy’s cow manure, the 425 ton per day, mixed-waste facility is more cost-effective. The facility has created about a half dozen jobs while enhancing the efficiency of the 30-employee farm’s operations and sustaining area food manufacturers and haulers.

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) is providing $1 million in incentives for the facility.

“This Synergy co-digestion biogas project is the cutting edge of energy technology and is an absolute revenue-producing game changer for our dairies and local economies. By recycling agricultural waste in biogas plants, dairies can reduces disposal costs, produce affordable renewable energy to run their operations and gain a revenue source by selling excess power to the grid. I’ve been proud to help keep this project on track to ensure it crossed the finish line,” said Senator Schumer, whose office helped coordinate federal and local funding for the project.

Schumer’s office also worked with the Wyoming County Industrial Development Agency to help Synergy Biogas LLC complete the facility and partner with Cornell University and Rochester Institute of Technology to evaluate the project’s performance.

The project is expected to reduce the dairy farm’s baselood greenhouse gas emissions by about 8,500 tons of CO₂ annually, which is equivalent to the CO₂ emissions of 1,700 automobiles. The facility also will produce an estimated 17,500 cubic yards of bedding material for livestock while reducing manure odors and helping the farm manage nutrients applied to cropland.

Through its partnerships with local food manufacturers, Synergy Biogas LLC already has diverted more than 1.14 million gallons of food waste from landfills and wastewater treatment facilities, highlighting another environmental benefit of the project.

“We are excited to launch our new co-digestion biogas project that will optimize the recycling of agricultural biomass waste into a valuable renewable energy resource to help reduce our operational costs,” said John Noble, president and CEO of Synergy Dairy.

National Grid is supporting the project as part of its broader strategy to help upgrade New York state’s energy infrastructure, promote further economic growth in the region and encourage the development of renewable energy resources. Under its renewable energy marketing program, the utility is purchasing the electricity generated by the biogas plant, which it states will produce approximately 10,000 megawatt-hours of renewable energy per year—enough electricity to power nearly 1,000 homes. National Grid provided a $750,000 grant through the company’s Renewable Energy and Economic Development Program to cover the cost of building the substation that connects the facility to the grid.
Northeast Energy Systems, a U.S. distributor of GE’s Jenbacher engines, supplied the engine to CH4 Biogas.

Outlook Promising for More N.Y. Dairy Farm Digester Projects
The Synergy Biogas LLC operation is the first of several N.Y. dairy farm digester projects that CH4 Biogas and GE Energy plan to build. Such projects illustrate how the state’s food and beverage industries can utilize their on-site waste streams to produce free fuel for power generation.

According to the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets, in 2011 the state had 5,300 dairy farms with more than 600,000 dairy cows. However, less than 20,000 of those cows were being utilized in energy production, through the use of 17 digesters that produce a combined 3 MW. As of 2011, an additional 17 digester systems were awaiting installation to generate a combined 6 MW.

The Synergy project illustrates how incentives offered by NYSERDA are supporting the purchase, installation and operation of more anaerobic digester gas-to-energy systems to help the state create a more sustainable agricultural sector.

In addition to NYSERDA and National Grid‘s respective financial support, the Synergy Biogas LLC project also qualified for a 30 percent investment tax credit (ITC) under the federal Energy Policy Act of 2005. As part of the 2009 federal stimulus initiative, the U.S. Treasury will pay this tax credit as an ITC cash grant for qualifying projects that began construction before the end of 2011.

Statements of Project Partners and Supporters, click here.
To view b-roll on the Synergy Biogas LLC project, click here.
To view a short video on how Synergy Biogas converts cow manure and food waste to energy, click here.
About CH4 Biogas LLC
CH4 Biogas is a renewable energy company that builds, owns and operates biogas based renewable energy facilities on farms and at food processing plants. These facilities provide environmentally friendly renewable energy and sustainable waste management solutions using internationally proven anaerobic digestion technology. More information is available on the company’s website www.ch4biogas.com and on Twitter @ch4biogas.

About National Grid
National Grid (LSE: NG; NYSE:NGG) is an electricity and gas company that connects consumers to energy sources through its networks. The company is at the heart of one of the greatest challenges facing our society - to create new, sustainable energy solutions for the future and developing an energy system that underpins economic prosperity in the 21st century. National Grid holds a vital position at the center of the energy system and it ‘joins everything up’. For more information please visit our website:www.nationalgridus.com.

Follow us on Twitter, Watch us on You Tube, Friend us on Facebook, Find our photos on Flickr.

About NYSERDA
NYSERDA, a public benefit corporation, offers objective information and analysis, innovative programs, technical expertise and funding to help New Yorkers increase energy efficiency, save money, use renewable energy, and reduce their reliance on fossil fuels. NYSERDA professionals work to protect our environment and create clean-energy jobs. NYSERDA has been developing partnerships to advance innovative energy solutions in New York since 1975.
About GE
GE (NYSE: GE) works on things that matter. The best people and the best technologies taking on the toughest challenges. Finding solutions in energy, health and home, transportation and finance. Building, powering, moving and curing the world. Not just imagining. Doing. GE works. For more information, visit the company's website at www.ge.com.

Follow GE Energy on Twitter @GE_Energy.

Return to the Archives

There isn't much Renewable Energy or Energy Efficiency news today, so I thought I would go back to the Archives to find something of interest.  Below is a DOE article from September 2007 with some interesting links.

Hope you enjoy.

Renewable Energy, Bioproduct Inventions Win Seven R&D 100 Awards

September 26, 2007

Researchers at DOE national laboratories and facilities contributed to 31 out of the 100 technology advancements that are being honored this year with R&D 100 Awards. As a top harbinger of innovative research and development, R&D Magazine has been recognizing the top 100 inventions of the year for the past 45 years. This year's awards include 18 that are related to energy efficiency and renewable energy, of which 7 are related to renewable energy. (The energy efficiency winners are covered in a separate article.) See the awards announcements on Beam/X-Ray Devices (PDF 99 KB), Energy (PDF 150 KB), Materials & Metals (PDF 243 KB), and Thermal technologies (PDF 105 KB) in R&D Magazine. Download Adobe Reader.

Among renewable energy technologies, DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Spectrolab, a Boeing subsidiary, earned an award for building the first solar cell to surpass 40% conversion efficiency. That is, the solar cell is able to convert more than 40% of the sunlight hitting it into electricity. Other solar cell technologies include an improved transparent conductor made out of carbon nanotubes. Transparent conductors often form the top layer of thin-film solar cells and related devices, such as flat panel displays. A German company also won for inventing a small high-vacuum pump used in solar cell manufacturing that consumes one-third less power than earlier pumps. See the NREL press release.

Thanks in part to support from DOE's Inventions & Innovations program, Phenotype Screening Corporation won an award for a non-invasive system to image and characterize plant roots, a technology that could be important for biomass crop development. In addition, DOE's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) helped to develop a gas turbine that can run on biogas, hydrogen, and other fuels; UTC Power worked with a hot springs resort in Alaska to develop a device that generates power from low-temperature geothermal resources; and Battelle Memorial Institute invented a biobased polyol, a chemical that could replace up to 3 billion pounds of petroleum-based polyols that are used each year in the United States to produce foams, coatings, and adhesives. Other biobased polyols have been developed recently, but the Battelle invention is reactive enough to form polyurethane foams. The chemical is also generated from glycerine, a byproduct of the biodiesel industry. See the press releases from LBNL, UTC Power, and Battelle.

Austin Using Green Innovation to Beat the Utility Blues

U.S. Dept of Energy blog post:

Austin Using Green Innovation to Beat the Utility Blues

January 17, 2012 - 1:03pm

An aerial view of the Hornsby Bend Biosolids Management Plant in Austin, Texas. | Photo courtesy of Austin Water.

Todd Allen

Project Officer, Golden Field Office

What does this project do?

• New biogas generators harness the methane produced during the production of a soil conditioner called "Dillo Dirt" to power the entire production plant.

Sewage treatment has always been a dirty business, dating back to the frontier days when "waste management" meant the guy who followed after the horses with a bucket and shovel.

However, thanks to modern technology, there are ways to turn some of the treatment processes into clean energy that can power public infrastructure facilities.

The Hornsby Bend Biosolids Management Plant in Austin, Texas, located on 1,200 acres of land along the Colorado River, is a national model for innovative approaches to improve the environment, such as reducing waste, producing compost, and protecting ecosystems.

Each year, thousands of tons of biosolids, the nutrient-rich organic materials resulting from the treatment of sewage sludge, are anaerobically digested and composted with Austin's yard trimmings into an EPA-certified soil conditioner called "Dillo Dirt" (as in armadillo). This popular product is sold to commercial vendors for sale and use in public landscaping projects across the city. Demand for "Dillo Dirt" often exceeds available supply.

During the 1980s, an initial effort to improve energy efficiency at the plant started when two 400 kW converted diesel generators were installed. The generators were fueled by a mixture of digester biogas from the site and diesel fuel. This worked fairly well, but after 20+ years the old generators are no longer serviceable or repairable, and in recent years the gas has had to be flared.

Austin decided to use $1.2 million of its Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to replace the old equipment with modern "biogas rated" generation equipment.

The new generator equipment will generate clean electricity by utilizing digester methane from the sludge treatment process without the use of fossil fuels. In short, the same anerobic digesting process used to create the Dillo Dirt will also make the biogas used to power the generators. The result will demonstrate distributed clean power generation, reduce the facility's operating costs, and offset on-peak operation of the plant, thereby contributing to Austin's effort to avoid building new conventional power generation plants.

The new equipment is on order and the city intends for the project to be fully operational by the middle of next year. This single generator should generate more energy than the entire Hornsby Bend facility uses, thereby offsetting the plant's total energy use and generating a credit to the water utility.

DOE Blog Post: Farming Out Heat & Electricity thru Biopower

Farming Out Heat and Electricity through Biopower

December 16, 2011

 

Cows like these in Skagit County, Washington, supply the biodigester developed by Kevin Maas of Farm Power up to 70,000 gallons of manure per day. The newest Farm Power facility in Washington generates enough electricity to power 500 homes. Photo courtesy of sea_turtle.

Julie McAlpin

Communications Liaison, State Energy Program

Maas' biodigester:

• Creates electricity from the biogas produced through anaerobic digestion.
• Recycles dried, fibrous solids from the process to make cow bedding.
• Returns digested liquid waste back to farms for fertilizer.

Five years ago, Kevin Maas and his brother Daryl started a business producing electricity from what many would consider an unlikely source -- cow manure.

Kevin Maas developed an anaerobic digester and then a company around a biodigester, which heats and processes dairy manure and other organic wastes in an oxygen-free environment designed to induce digestion by bacteria and then collects the bacteria’s output -- methane-rich biogas.

The system, the first-of-its-kind in the state, stores the gas from the biodigester and then feeds it through bright yellow pipes into an engine generator to produce electricity. After digestion, the fibrous solids are separated and dried, then returned to dairy farms for use as cow bedding. The digested liquid is also returned to farms, stored in lagoons, and then spread on fields, providing nutrients for crop production.

A few years later after learning about the State Energy Program, the Maas brothers applied for and received a $1.06 million Recovery Act grant from the Department of Commerce to construct a second digester near Lynden, a small Washington town just south of the Canadian border.

Nearby MJD Farms, a dairy farm with over 2,000 cows, agreed to supply the manure -- 70,000 gallons per day. 

A closed-loop heat extractor at the Lynden facility uses the heat produced by the burning methane biogas for multiple purposes. First, it heats the digester vessel to sustain bacteria growth. Second, it dries the fiber product. Third, it heats water that is piped to a nearby commercial greenhouse for radiant floor heating.

Maas calculates that the greenhouse, owned by Van Wingerden Greenhouses, will save approximately $30,000 per year in energy costs due to its participation in the digester project. The greenhouse employs 15 workers.

Farm Power Lynden generates over 6,000 megawatt hours of electricity per year, 20 times the amount of power to run its own operations, or enough electricity to power 500 homes. The excess electricity is sold to Puget Sound Energy under a 10-year fixed-price contract.

The methane emissions eliminated by the Lynden facility are projected to reduce net annual greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to taking 3,000 cars off the road.

Farm Power is currently working to establish additional digester projects in the state. “The State Energy Program is outstanding,” said Maas. 

Anaerobic digestion of agricultural waste is a proven and rapidly growing source of renewable energy generated at more than 150 other facilities around the country.