Your choices so far:
1 Biomass (solid); 2 Process heat
| 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 |
| 1 Biomass (solid) | Electricity | Process cooling (< 0 °C) |
| Geothermal | Fuel: Gaseous | Process heat/steam (50 - 150 °C) |
| Sunshine | Fuel: Liquid | 2 Process heat (150 - 1000 °C) |
| Water | Fuel: Solid | 2 Process heat (> 1000 °C) |
| Wind | Local cooling (ind. house) | Transport |
| Residual oils/fats etc | Local heating (ind. house) |
Temperatures ranging from 150 to some 1000 °C are common in many types of industries like asphalt works, metal manufacturing and heat treatment, metal casting, glazing of ceramics end numerous others.
With increasing temperature demands the share of exergy increases but in case fuel-firing is used for the production, then any fuel that is combustible will also be able to deliver any of the temperatures desired in this interval. To put it simple: In case something can burn it will already produce temperatures exceeding 1000-1100 °C. If such temperature is not reached, then the fuel will not burn.
For temperatures exceeding 1000 °C, such as glass melting, steel reheating for rolling, the burning of ceramics like building brick or cement, fossil fuel firing and electricity are today the major sources of energy supply.
For the provision of process heat to industries a number of factors need be considered, some major ones being:
- Is the product directly exposed to the combustion products, like in a flame furnace?
- Is the product sensitive to the composition and/or the quality of the fuel itself?
- Is the process very sensitive and requires very accurate temperature control?
Depending on the answer to these and other questions, a choice must be done if the best is to supply the process with electricity produced from solid biomass, if the best is to install a gasifier and provide a gaseous fuel to the process or if a solid fuel – the original biomass or an upgraded solid – would suffice for the needs.