Renewable Energy

The bio-oil produced by pyrolysis offers a particular advantage for renewable energy – it may be stored and it may also be transported.

So the oil can provide power generation at a site that is remote from the source of biomass.  The waste heat produced during power generation may also be used, for example to generate process steam.

Cogeneration in this way can achieve overall efficiencies of 70% or more.

Generation options include:

Gas turbines

Orenda Aerospace Corporation of Canada (www.orenda.com) has built more than 5,000 gas turbines.  Over recent years it has developed equipment to use pyrolysis oil in specially modified gas turbines, with the oil first being conditioned in a treatment module.  The first commercial Orenda unit to operate on pyrolysis oil is installed at Dynamotive’s pyrolysis plant in West Lorne.

The Orenda GT2500 turbine can provide flexible, base load power, generating up to 2.7 MWe continuously at ISO conditions from a bio-oil supply of up to 2 tonnes per hour.  It also produces thermal energy, which may be recovered as steam via a waste heat boiler.

This steam may be used to help boost the gas turbine output to 4 MWe via direct injection.  Alternatively it may be used in a steam turbine or for process heat.

For larger power plants a 16 MWe gas turbine is also available which, with steam injection, can provide up to 25 MWe on a continuous basis. 

Combustion plant

Pyrolysis oil may also be used as a fuel in combustion/boiler systems, including industrial applications such as food processing plants and saw mills.  It can replace or augment fuel oil, coal or natural gas and provide renewable electricity and heat.  As a renewable fuel it is eligible for consideration under a variety of emissions trading and renewable energy programs in Australia and overseas.