The heat generated will be supplied to large greenhouses nearby, which need to maintain very high temperatures throughout the year. Interestingly, Spanner Re2’s multiple unit concept turned out to be competitive compared with a single large plant.
An attractive feature is the high continuous plant availability that the Spanner cascade system promises, over 90%. The Spanner biomass CHP cascade configuration ensures output even during maintenance work. In addition, 100% of the maintenance work can be carried out in-house, including that on the engines, which are mass produced machines, eliminating the expense of specialist engineers.
“The project in Japan shows that Re2 has reached the league of large-scale plant engineering”, believes Thomas Bleul, director of Spanner Re2 GmbH.
New generation launched
Spanner Re2 has recently launches a new generation of its wood chip fuelled CHP unit. Called the HKA 70 the new module, rated at around 68 kWe/123 kWt, offers higher efficiency and improved intelligent control software.
With a turbocharged 6.3 litre engine, improved heat utilisation and modified cooling system, the efficiency of the “tried and tested wood power technology” has been significantly improved, by around 20%. The new Re2 control system manages the entire plant operation and optimises runtime stability, with a menu structure that is reduced to the essentials, which makes operation easier and the control system very user friendly, Spanner Re2 says.
The new plant is able to operate with recycled waste wood.
Its applicability is not confined to end users with high all-year-round energy demand (eg, sawmills, heating plants, hotels), but, thanks to the efficiency enhancements, the wood fired power plant is a feasible option for users with low load factors, eg, in agriculture and forestry, with a utilisation rate down to 4000 h per year, says Spanner.
By cascading the modular systems, the power range can be extended up to 2 MWe, depending on end-user requirements.
