The Gothenburg Biomass Gasification Project (GoBiGas), which features a gasification system supplied and installed by Finnish paper pulp and biowaste treatment equipment manufacturer, Valmet has been officially inaugurated.
According to Valmet the plant is the first of its type in the world and was commissioned in late 2013 and will gasify forestry wastes and wood pellets.
The company said that the gas produced is similar to natural gas and will primarily be used as a biofuel for the transportsector.
The gasification process
Valmet explained that the biomass is gasified in a process called indirect gasification, developed by the Austrian company Repotec.
In this process, the gasification takes place in a separate reactor and heat is transferred from a combustion chamber by circulation of hot bed material.
Biomass is fed into the gasifier, where, on contact with the hot bed material, it undergoes thermochemical decomposition.
Because of the high quality of the biomethane, Valmet said that after the cleaning and methanation, the gas is imported to the natural gas grid where it is mixed with natural gas and used in Göteborg Energi’s power plant.
“The indirect gasification generates high energy gas with high heating value that can be mixed with natural gas. This makes it possible to replace a lot of today’s fossil transportation fuel by fossil-free fuel in gas powered vehicles,” explained Johanna Lindén, Valmet’s Director of Scandinavia, Energy.
Valmet handled the engineering work for the gasification plant under license from Repotec.
The company also claimed that combining a gasification plant using biomass as fuel and a methanation plant is unique in the world.
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