EQTEC Iberia Builds Biomass-to-Energy Plant in Bulgaria

EQTEC Iberia, part of Spanish holding company Ebioss Energy, is building a landmark biomass-to-energy plant powered by GE’s Jenbacher gas engine technology near Stroevo, in Bulgaria’s Plovdiv region, GE said.

"The 5-megawatt (MW) Karlovo plant will use three of GE’s fuel-flexible, robust and high-efficiency Jenbacher engines—one J612 and two J620 units—powered by syngas derived from straw and wood chips and will produce enough electricity to power 2,000 homes,” GE said in a press release on Wednesday.

The plant, scheduled for completion by the end of 2014, is the latest development in Ebioss’ strategy to apply its Integrated Biomass Gasification Cogeneration Power Plant (IBGPP) technology throughout Europe to help countries reduce their dependence on foreign energy supplies and to increase the proportion of energy from renewable sources.

"Gasifying biomass for energy usage—in this case, straw and wood chips—requires special know-how, and our engineers and GE’s team worked as one team to integrate EQTEC Gasifier Technology and GE’s power generation technologies for improved performance and economics,” Luis Sanchez, CEO of Ebioss, said.

"The IBGPP plant we developed achieves a far higher electrical efficiency than the thermal technologies traditionally used in a plant of this size. For example, a typical Rankine thermal cycle-based plant offers an electrical efficiency of 18 to 20 percent from converting biomass to electricity compared to using GE’s Jenbacher gas engines that offer approximately 28 percent electrical efficiency and almost 70 percent total combined heat and power efficiency. This will enable us to deploy the IBGPP technology economically with GE elsewhere in Bulgaria and in other nations to help them enjoy greater energy independence and fuel diversity,” he added.

Ebioss Energy develops and owns waste to energy power plants based on its EQTEC gasifier technology. It has projects in different countries such as Spain, Bulgaria, Italy and Germany.

EQTEC Iberia, part of Ebioss Energy holding, designs, builds, operates and maintains EQTEC gasifier technology based power plants.

Source: SeeNews