02/03-07   -   Press releases

Biogas and water treatment plants to produce electric power

Biogas- and water treatment plants are now able to produce electric power from biogas and deliver it directly to consumers over the grid. A revolutionizing micro power plant, the XRGI, has been developed and approved to produce electricity from biogas, and this gives new opportunities for the biogas- and water treatment plants in Britain.

With a guarantee for effect and low service expenses Biogas- and water treatment plants now can produce power to cover the plants own consumption and supply the grid with 100 pct. CO2-neutral power.

"The technology is now so mature that power production from Biogas- and water treatment plants is very interesting – both economically and from an environmental point of view. XRGI has been designed to run at least 30.000 hours without any repairs, and service is only to be done every 4.000 hours. This gives extremely low operating costs. ," says Bjarne Bogner, CEO of EC Power, the company that developed the technology behind the XRGI-systems.

Effective use of biogas
The core in the XRGI is a motor developed in corporation with Toyota. It combusts many types of biogas, even low quality gas, with a very high efficiency. The result is heat and power, which can be used locally or distributed by the grid to consumers.

A typical XRGI-setup produces 13 kW, equal to the heat and power needed for 15-20 households or a pig-production with about 20.000 pigs. XRGI-units can be combined in order to produce larger amounts of power and heat. This way the biogas plants can set up a XRGI combination that fits exactly the plants own demand for power.

Replaces out-dated generators
At the moment some biogas plants have power generating units, but these are often old based on outdated technology. Most of these are not in production anymore and this means that costs of maintains and service are disproportionate high. The result is waste of energy and unsatisfactory overall economy at the Biogas- and water treatment plants.

Political attention
At the moment, combined heat and power plant (CHP) is under political attention since the European Commission has agreed to promote this type of plants because of its economical and environmental benefits. Furthermore XRGI systems secure the energy supply with environmental friendly heat and power.

About EC Power
EC Power has logged more than 1,000,000 hrs of system operation in a diverse range of applications, from farming to housing projects. EC Power is partly owned by Statoil ASA, the world’s fourth largest supplier of energy, this gives EC Power the secure financial platform for future expansion and development. EC Power was formed in 1994 by Danish civil engineers with many years experience in heat and power technology. In Denmark, large scale CHP systems have been in operation for more than 50 years, today covering approximately 60% of all households.

http://www.ecpower.dk/resources/HydrogenPlanet_08_high.wmv