WHO ARE WE

Since the foundation of the company in 2010, our focus is now on the search for maximally efficient and at the same time low-emission biomass CHP technologies. Based on preliminary developments at Gammel Engineering GmbH, Michael Gammel and Klaus Röhrmoser quickly agreed that these should be bundled in a new company.

At the Bögl plants in Neumarkt i.d. Oberpfalz, the same cycle was installed 8 times larger incl. double gasifier with 8.4 MW fuel capacity. Difficulties in the gas turbine cycle led to the decision not to continue using gas turbine plants. However, the good experience with countercurrent gas generators encouraged us to pursue this technology further.

The updraft gasifier converts a small part of the calorific value of the feedstock into tar. In the "Bögl plant", we have therefore optimized the process so that this tar can be recovered as a valuable by-product in the form of pyrolysis oil.

In addition, we developed a gas purification system to be able to supply high-efficiency gas engines with wood gas. In a first project, a single gas cooler was combined with a wet electrostatic precipitator. After various modifications, we succeeded in generating continuous clean gas (measured and confirmed by the laboratories of FAU Nuremberg) and ensuring stable genset operation.

Not all support programs focus solely on the electrical power factor. For example, in the neighboring country of the Netherlands, the support of electricity and useful heat from regenerative plants is equally focused on replacing natural gas as a raw material in the long term. For the heat and power supply of the flower grower "Baas tuinplanten", we therefore installed a counterflow gas generator with a fuel capacity of 4.5 MW together with a thermal oil system, a 500 kW ORC plant and a flue gas condenser to recover the low temperature heat.

The almost dust-free flue gases enabled us to operate the thermal oil boiler as a cost-efficient standard boiler plant without a sootblower. In this case, since the wood chips fed are very moist and the hot water return is rather low, the flue gas condenser operates very efficiently and recovers more than 900 kW on average. The plant is easy to operate and has been running continuously at full load since 2018 with an overall efficiency > 95%.

Since it became apparent that the aqueous phase of the gas condensate cannot be combusted together with the pyrolysis oil, three years of intensive development followed for us, during which we learned how to evaporate the condensate and at the same time avoid the formation of tough polymers. The FAU Nuremberg team around Prof. Jürgen Karl actively supported us as a scientific partner in this process.

The Swiss company "Romande Energie" placed its trust in our plant combination and ordered the construction of the "Puidoux Kombi Power System" with a 770 kWel unit. The heat demand of the district heating system was lower than initially planned, while the feed-in tariff seemed relatively high. It therefore made sense to generate the maximum electrical power by combining our gas engine genset with an ORC system. The overall efficiency can thus be more than 30%.

The plant has been operating successfully since 2018. The company invested in another plant similar in construction for the Charmey commune site, which has been in continuous operation since the beginning of 2020.

After 10 years of development, pilot plants and 2nd generation commercial plants, we are currently working on making the Kombi Power System even more cost-efficient and profitable.

With the support of the "Agency for Renewable Resources (FNR)", an R&D program has been launched. The most relevant tasks from this are for us:

Expansion of the fuel range:
In the future, other fuels such as demolition wood, compost, miscanthus, corn, etc. are to be used.

Utilization of pyrolysis oil:
Pyrolysis oil is suitable, for example, for the production of second-generation biodiesel or as a feedstock for the chemical industry. We want to explore these potential applications further.

For this purpose, a small experimental gasification plant was designed - fully equipped with gas cooling and ESP - and erected at our customer "Blue Energy" in Senden/Ulm.

Through the strategic cooperation with Polytechnik (A-Weissenbach), contact was established with Exeo Corporation, Tokyo. After tests with Japanese cedar chips in our test gasifier, we received the order to supply a reference plant for Furodono (Fukushima Province).