Your choices so far:
1 Process heat (> 1000 °C); 2 Fuel: gaseous
What is your resource? | What do you want to deliver? | What is the service the customer wants? |
Biomass (digestible sludge) | District cooling | Comfortable indoor climate |
Biomass (fermentable sludge) | District heating | Electricity |
Biomass (solid) | Electricity | Process cooling (< 0 °C) |
Geothermal | 2 Fuel: Gaseous | Process heat/steam (50 - 150 °C) |
Sunshine | Fuel: Liquid | Process heat (150 - 1000 °C) |
Water | Fuel: Solid | 1 Process heat (> 1000 °C) |
Wind | Local cooling (ind. house) | Transport |
Residual oils/fats etc | Local heating (ind. house) |
A large number of industrial processes large-scale as well as small-scale today use fossil ("natural") gas as one main fuel. Main reasons are the relative simplicity of supply and control, the versatility and the relative cleanliness of the fuel with the end user.
Switching from fossil gas to a renewable energy carrier will then only be an option if the added value either in the form of goodwill, in the form of reduced CO2-taxation/fees or by a lower fuel bill is judged enough to pay for any extra costs for the change.
For a small-scale enterprise there will basically be only one alternative and that will be to contract the delivery of sng-quality (substitute natural gas) biogas via the European gas grid.
For the large-scale plant there will be two alternatives:
- The first and easiest will be to contract the delivery of sng-quality biogas via the European gas grid. The only question may be if there is enough volume available.
- The second alternative will be to install one or more solid biomass gasifier(-s) adjacent to the main process(-es) and then to modify the processes to operate on gasifier gas.
The second solution will involve investments as well as operational and maintenance costs and can only be defended economically if the feedstock to the gasifier is sufficiently cheap as compared to the gas from the grid. Thus, basically only wood chips from forest residues will be the alternative.